Solar Panel Wiring no one tells you about

Lots of good videos tell you how to build a solar panel, but if they do tell you to add a fuse and a diode...how, where...what what? Here is how I did it. After 2 years it is still working great and it is inexpensive..

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Entertainment

Tags:

• solar
• hookup
• green
• energy
• wiring
• electrical
• wind

[joe18370]

why does my solar system ,13.8 all day and at night it drops down to 12 .6 my ? is if my battery bank is fully charged then why does it drop down to 12.6 every night thanks

[bearhamo]

@joe18370 You are doing great 12.6 is fully charged. That is what you want. Batteries will settle after sitting without a charge going into them. Have no fear. My voltage goes up to 14.5 during the day and settles back to 12.66. That is perfect. As with a car alternator, they charge near 15 volts. When the car is shut off the battery settles at 12.66

[MrSheerazjawaid]

@bearhamo PLZ tell me the ratings of diode for 18v & 316amps solar panel

[bearhamo]

@MrSheerazjawaid I am sorry, I am confused by the question 316 amps?

[SovakaKindred]

The diodes are only needed if you are connecting the solar panels/cells DIRECTLY to a battery.

To prevent electrical feedback once the battery is charged.

If you have a good charge controller between your panels and batteries, you do not need to attach diodes to the panels. The charge controller will stop anything going back to the panels and of course, will also stop the panels from boiling your batteries.

[rhooie]

I thought charge controllers already contained a diode so you don't need one at each panel. To many diodes results in a voltage drop.

[netrixrules]

@bearhamo Probably he means 18V/3.16A not 18V/316A cause we can weld with about a 20A current ;-)

[joe18370]

@joe18370 thanks good to no it is doing what it should be thanks for reply

[xanataph]

Easiest way ov course is to get a diode that can handle the full current ov the panel or array. But if that's not possible (or convenient) you can put small value resistors, say 0.5ohm or so in series with each diode. That will cause them to share the current more evenly. Just make sure your resistors are big enough to handle the current.

Some panels nowadays already have the diodes installed for the purpose ov doing what I mentioned in (2) about in my original comment.

[bearhamo]

@billybangleballs Thank you so much for the tip. I sure learn a lot from you guys.

[bearhamo]

@xanataph Would there still be a risk of overloading if the need for only one to begin with is present? Thank you for your comments. I am learning so much from people who know alot more about this than I do. I only made this video because when I made my panels I had no idea what to do next. Also, I just purchased more cells and it came with these boxes and what appear to be three diodes in them already. I may be bugging you when the time comes. Thanks again.

[xanataph]

Couple ov things here. 1) It's not a good idea to parallel diodes to increase current capacity. They will not share it evenly, whichever one has a lower characteristic voltage will take the lions share are possibly be overloaded.

2) There *will* be diodes already in a charge controller, but one useful thing to do if you are hooking up multiple panels in series is to put a *reversed biased* diode across each one. i.e. cathode goes to +ve. This stops shaded panels from being back driven.