from my very limited understanding i thought you could (i appreciate the voltages/currents need to be calculated) hook up strings of the same panels into one controller? i was blabbing with someone who made me wonder if the locations of the strings are also important. i'll try to explain with what i was thinking of doing with the next project....
-----------
i have six sharp 80 watt panels on the roof hooked into a midnite classic 250 (overkill on the controller, i know, but i had to have it - with thoughts of expanding).
so could i for example: replace the sharp 80 watt panels on the roof with 4 - 240 watt sharp panels and add 4 -240 watt sharp panels on the shed roof (obviously a different location) and run two series strings of four / paralleled into the midnite classic?
i guess my question is, does the location/wire length etc. impact on running 4 identical panels, in two different locations / paralleled into a controller? hope that makes sense.....
:o
the idea is when paralleling that the voltages should match up. now they don't have to match up perfectly so a small mismatch would be ok. i generally recommend within 5%, but others like it a bit more lax and up to 10%. in general the closer in, the better. this means you will have to collectively subtract all of the losses from the other array compared to the primary array. odds are they will match up just fine. do remember to aim them in the same direction and elevation as that too will present a difference between the arrays.
copy, thanks. yes, they will be pointed in the same direction and at the same angle. the roof array will be about 40 feet from the midnite classic 250 controller and the array on the shed will be about 100 feet from the midnite classic 250 controller. both arrays will receive roughly the same amount of light.... if this is a possible, i will start putting pen to paper and get some more accurate info...
;D