How many Renogy 100 watt panels can you hook in series to charge a bluette ac200max?
The panels open circuit voltage is 24.3 and if I use 5 panels that’s 24.3 x 6 = 145.8
The Bluette input DC port is 10-145VDC,15A
So the Bluette input port is 10-145VDC if I put 6 panels in series that totals 145.8
Is that .8 over the 145 going to cause a problem?
Hi @Jondan
a warm welcome to the bluetti community!
I wouldnt risk the 6th Panel. 0.8V dont seemed much, but it could get a lot higher when the weather is ideal (cold and sunny). Solarpanels are tested at 25 degress celcius in a lab. The values on the panel come from this. When its much colder outside and the sun is shinning heavy, there could be a increasy about 10% which leaves us to 26,73 VoC per panel and 160V in total.
Its a extreme case, but every additional procent that the open voltage rises risk to burn the MPPT.
Stay with 5 Panels and you should be fine.
greetings
Erik
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I’ll add to this - The AC200Max has a solar limit of 900W @ 15A @ 145V.
A 100W panel is nominally around 5 amps. If you connect 3 in parallel the result will be 15A or so at 24.3V. Then connecting 4 strings of these in series will give you around 97Voc at the 15A limit. That adds up to around 800W max. Adding a 5th string will get you near 1,000W which exceeds the 200Max 900W input. Therefore a 2P x 4S string = 8 x 100W panels for up to 800W.
The only thing you must not exceed is Voc. Exceeding WATTAGE is actually a good thing, as a 100 watt panel will only give you around 80 watts on a good day. So over-paneling will make sure you’re getting the max wattage to the Bluetti. This also helps on cloudy days and in winter when the sun is at a lower angle, as more panels are gathering light.
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I originally built a 1500 watt array with 15 100-watt panels. Output was only around 1100 watts. It took 18 100-watt panels to see 1500 watts on the APP readout. That’s 3 series strings of 6 panels, wired in parallel. It consistently gives me close to 1500 watts even on hazy days. (This is for my AC500 which takes 150 Voc.)
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Ideally you want to get as close to Voc without exceeding. High voltage means less amps which can also mean using thinner wiring for the same amount of power. Available excess wattage and amps are okay. Think of it as when you plug a gadget into a wall outlet. It will use as much wattage and amps as it needs, even though much more is available from the outlet.
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