Help, System Reviews Please!

liming23 wrote: »

Hi guys, I am new here, and hope you could give me some advices on my system.

At the moment, I have got a Trina Solar panel 170W, Vmax=35.8V,Imax=4.76A,Voc=43.6,Isc=5.25. After I read some of the threads, I believe it's a 24V panel?

correct as it is considered to be for 24v battery systems.

I am thinking of buying a MorningStar PS-15 charge controller to go with the Trina Solar Panel. It allows me to have some flexability to add maybe 1 or 2 more 170W panels later.

For the battery, I am thinking about to buy two 12V 100ah battery which would give me a 24V 100ah system.


My questions are:

1. Am I on the right track?

that depends on what you want to do with it.

2. Is a MorningStar Charge Controller PS-15 a good choice if I want to add one or two more 170W solar panels?

that will work with 1 or 2 of those pvs, but may be pushing the nec 80% ruling. it will technically work fine with 3 of them in any case.

3. Is 24V battery system the correct choice?

i don't know. do you have 24v loads like lights or a 24v inverter? if you don't then it may be a mistake to go 24v on the battery bank. to go 12v on the battery bank with those 24v pvs you would need a down converting mppt controller as a straight pwm controller will have great losses going 24v to 12v with nearly 2/3rds of the power lost.

Thanks a lot.