Series parallel calculator
See how various series and parallel wiring affects voltage and current in a solar panel array or battery bank.
Solar panel series and parallel calculator the wattage of a solar array in series, parallel, and series-parallel configs. This way, you can readily tell the optimal configuration for your solar power system. Some solar panels in series will generate more power than when they have parallel wiring.
These two strings wired in parallel could produce 35.8 volts and 11.44 amps – a total of 409 watts. When the solar panels in the array are all the same, the power output is the same regardless of how they are wired (at least mathematically), but the current and voltage differ.
When wired in parallel, the resulting parallel string will have a voltage of 12 volts (the lowest voltage rating of the 3 panels) and a current of 21 amps (8A + 7A + 6A). In this example, our parallel string will have some power losses because the voltages of the 14V/7A panel and 16V/6A panel will get pulled down to 12 volts.
Finally, you wire the 2 series strings in parallel to create a 4-panel solar array with a voltage of 28 volts (the lowest voltage rating of the 2 strings) and a current of 11 amps (6A + 5A).
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