PV panel combiner boxes

Stephen Hagerman
9 Posts
Jun 15, 2008 09:44 am
PV panel combiner boxes

I have a question regarding the practice of daisy chaining PV panels together. 

I recently read an article online indicating that doing so may quickly exceed the rating of the terminal strip inside the junction box of the PV panel.  The article stated that the terminal strips inside the junction boxes of most panels are rated at 15Amps.

For example...  if you had 4 panels daisy chained together, each producing 7Amps, you would end up with a total of 28Amps at the terminal strip in the last panel exceeding the rating of 15Amps.  Does this sound correct? 

Both the schematics that came with the solar module and my charge controller show panels daisy chained together. 

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks!
Steve

 
 
John B
163 Posts
Jun 15, 2008 11:14 am
Re: PV panel combiner boxes

When you connect panels in series, the current remains constant and the voltage goes up by the measured voltage of each panel. Thus if you had four panels rated at 7A and 12V each and joined them in series you would get 7A at 48V coming into your combiner box. If they were connected in parallel you would have 28A at 12V, so that is why each "string" of your base voltage has it own dedicated run back to the combiner box.
 
 

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