Connecting 2 Solar Panels Together

I spoke to the people at wedgetail campers about how the two solar inputs were wired.

Connecting 2 solar panels together.

If we have two solar panels with same voltage and power the connection will be very simple. Parallel series and a combination of parallel and series. There are two ways to wire up solar panels. The same voltage is the system voltage which for off grid solar panels systems is usually as low as either 6v or 12v.

Then they are connected to the charge controller or to the inverter of the solar system. For this example i am showing you connecting panels that are for a 12 volt system. Firstly lets take a look at connecting solar panels in series. By connecting multiple solar panels in series we increase the system voltage.

Both have their own purpose and applications and both have different outcomes when hooking up solar panels of different wattage together. When solar panels are wired in parallel the positive terminal from one panel is connected to the positive terminal of another panel and the negative terminals of the two panels are connected together. Wiring solar panels in parallel implies connecting positive terminals of each panel together and wiring the negative terminals of each panel together as well. Connecting solar panels in parallel is just the opposite of series connection and is used to increase the total output current of the array and hence the total output power while keeping the same voltage.

After these clarifications let s see how the series connection takes place. As clearly visible in the picture it will be enough to wire the positive pole of one panel to the positive pole of the other one and then wire the negative pole of one panel to the negative pole of the other one. The first way i am going to talk about is parallel because this is probably the most common way that panels will be connected. The wedgetail camper has two solar inputs via red anderson plugs.

Connecting solar panels in parallel. In a solar power system the higher the voltage and the lower the energy losses along the cables to know the maximum system voltage we usually just need to turn the panel and read the label where the value is reported. The first is on the roof. The positive wires are connected to a positive connector within a combiner box and the negative wires are connected to the negative connector.

How to connect two solar panels to one battery it s all in the wiring.