My spouse bought some items yesterday to take advantage of some sale prices, but as I’m learning more about them I think we’ve gotten too much solar. I need help with the PV calculations.
_
We’ve purchased:
one BLUETTI AC180 Power Station AND
two BLUETTI PV350 Solar Panels
For your convenience:
_ AC180 input specs:
Voc: 12V-60V
Input Current: 10A
Max. Input Power: 500W Max
PV350 output specs:
Power: 350W
Current at Max Power(Imp): 9.2A
Open Circuit Voltage(OCV): 46.5V
Short Circuit Current(Isc): 10.8A
While the AC180 should be perfectly happy to charge using a single PV350, is there any way to use the additional solar panel or should we return it?
_
Running them in series is obviously not going to work as the voltage would be way too high, but is parallel wiring an option here? What happens if the current is too high?
@figgalicous AC180 will limit the curent, but be make sure that the total OCV of solar panels (same models) connect in parallel will not exceed 60V, then it will not damage AC180.
As you say, already one panel will be able to produce the max 10A input to the AC180, and voltage is so high that you can’t put 2 in series.
But you can safely put 2 in parallel. Under ideal conditions, they will be able to produce 10A each, but the thing about the Amps, is that it is the mppt charging circuit which chooses to pull them, and it has the max of 10A, so it can’t go wrong.
So will the second panel then be waste ? No, the advantage you will have, is that all those hours when you don’t have perfect light generating 100% output, then if e.g. you only get 50% from each panel, you will still be able to provide 350W to the AC180.
