3 panels connected series

edanthony

Good day folks
I'm seeking advise coz this my first time to power up solar panel. I have 3 panels, one has a different rating from the two with same rating. one 100 watts/vmp 17v/Imp 6.5a and two has the same rating of 125 watts/18.5v/ Imp 8.5a.
I'm thinking of buying and connecting it to 36v grid tie inverter to minimize the size of wire and voltage drop. Since one panel is a little bit lower than the two I'm wonderin' how much the approximate power output I would attain? Thank you so much for the feedback.

Cariboocoot

Re: 3 panels connected series

Two things:

1). with the three panels in series the maximum current will be limited to the lowest, i.e. 6.5 Amps. So the two 125 Watt panels become (18.5 * 6.5) 120 Watts.

2). there's no such thing as a (legal) 36 Volt GT inverter. You can not just buy one of those non-certified El Cheapo things off fleabay and hook some mismatched panels to it, plug it in an outlet, and drop your electric bill. If nothing else, not having a bi-directional meter means any surplus power you produce you get charged for (not that it's likely to happen with a mere 340 Watts of PV).

In an off-grid application the panels could be used in parallel with very little power loss, by the way.