You might have seen the DIY solar series we’ve been doing where we’re showing different ways to wire solar panels that are mismatched. See different watts & different volts and amps. Depending on what is different, there’s different ways that you should wire them; in series or parallel.
Now, if you do have two different solar panels, two different sizes, the best solution, with charging a single battery bank, is for each of them to have their own charge controller.
Another option is to take multiple solar panels and wire them together to equal the same output as the other mismatched panel. For instance, in the demo below, we have a 100W 24V panel and some 50W 12V panels. What we can do is wire the two 12V panels in series, plus to minus, and then we can wire it in parallel with the 24V panel. We don’t have to worry about the lower voltage 12V panels pulling that voltage down, like it did when we just had a single one.
What results will our Solar Queen get when she wires mismatched solar panels in series and parallel? Watch our demo to find out!
Demo: how to wire mismatched solar panels in series & parallel
