Hey everyone! I'm trying to figure out my RV solar setup, which is a bit of a mix-and-match situation. I've installed two solar panels on the roof - one 50W and one 100W connected in series to a single XT60 connector. I also just got a 200W solar panel that I'll use outside while parked to charge my battery. I bought an XT60 Y-splitter to connect the 50W and 100W panels into one XT60 connector to the Anker Solix battery. It states that it can take input of 11-32V at 10A, or 32V-60V at 12.5A. However, I'm having issues where sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't when I connect the Y-splitter to the battery. Am I going about this the wrong way? Should I connect the panels separately, or is there a way to make this work correctly? I'm not very knowledgeable about solar setups, so I'd really appreciate any help! Thanks in advance!
1 Answer
It sounds like you're dealing with a bit of a mismatch in your setup. When you connect solar panels in series, they really need to have similar amperage to function efficiently. In your case, the 50W and 100W panels will bring down the amperage to the lower output of the 50W panel, which isn't ideal. You also have a significant voltage difference between your two setups. Instead of using all three panels together, I suggest disconnecting the 50W panel. You can connect the 100W and 200W panels in parallel; that should work much better! I would recommend using an MC4 combiner to manage the connections, so you can still get good performance even in less-than-ideal weather.
Thanks for breaking it down! I was confused about which panels to keep. I think I'll follow your advice and just keep the 100W and 200W connected in parallel.