best way to mix solar panels

I have 7, 100 Watt, 18 Volt, 5.5 Amp Panels, a 100 Amp MPPT Charge Controller and a 12 Volt Battery System.
I connected 2 of the panels in parallel so I had 1 at 200W 18V and 5 at 100W 18V. Then I connected everything in 2 serial pairs so I had 2 at 100W 36V and 1 at (I'm totally guessing 150W) 36V. I then ran those 3 sets in parallel to the charge controller.
Is there a better way to do this?
Comments
Best result with what you have is to configure 3 strings of 2 panels each. Any attempt at using the 7th panel will not produce more power when using this 6 panel array with a MPPT type of controller.
If if this installation is on an RV you might consider an additional controller of the PWM type to charge the house lighting battery or the engine starting battery.
If you put two panels in parallel, that creates effectively one virtual panel with the Amps added of both. So those two in parallel now makes an 18V 11A panel. If you put two panels in series, the resulting virtual panel will have a voltage rating of the sum of the two panels.
If you put two panels in series that are not the same Amps, the resultant virtual panel will be limited to the lower of the two Amps. If you put two panels in parallel that are not the same voltage, the resultant virtual panel will be limited to the lower of the two Voltages.
In your case, you can create combinations of three parallel strings of two panels, or two parallel strings of three panels. There isn't anyplace to put the seventh panel that doesn't drag down the total combined power.
an MPPT controller needs some headroom so a all parallel connection will not work for you, you need two in series to get enough voltage for the MPPT controller to do its job.
A 7 panel will produce nothing when connected in parallel with banks of 2 in series, do buy an another panel to keep system balanced.
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 460 Ah. 24 volt LiFePo4 battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
Flat mounted on an RV roof isn't the ideal arrangement although you could still have high output if, say you were camping up in the mountains on a cool summer day.
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 460 Ah. 24 volt LiFePo4 battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 460 Ah. 24 volt LiFePo4 battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
At $16 it's Chinese junk, there is no law against using the term MPPT in your product name it does not mean it's an MPPT controller. Even a decent PWM controller will cost more than that! Go look at something decent, maybe a Victron Smart solar for a less expensive full featured controller. Or maybe MidNite Brat in a less expensive PWM type controller...about $90 at solar-electric.com