solar panel install, series or parallel?

[Steve079]

Helping the son on law hook up his 2 panel solar set up. Do we hook it up in parallel, or in series? Without any knowledge to support it, Lol, I'm thinking series, because at some point, they want a inverter, to run the 110v.

[chuckster57]

Panels get hooked up positive to positive so that means parallel right? It's all about output and when more than one panel is in the array, all positives go together and all negatives go together.

[Steve079]

That's how they'll be installed. YouTube can be a great resource for DIY'ers, but you have to keep in mind, any well intentioned yahoo with a camera can make and post a video. The son in law had a plan, then watched a dozen too many video's, and got so conflicted he couldn't get started, lol. Lead to learning more then I think I needed to know about bypass diodes and such. I'm very happy with the Renology Eclipse solar suitcase I bought, just clip it to the battery and I'm good to go.

[dcg9381]

Chuck is right for a typical 12V application. You want the panels, which are typically 12-14V as close to "battery voltage" as possible when going through the charge controller.
Red stays with red, black stays with black.

It's not this way with residential or AC-power solar - Meaning it takes several panels connected in series to get to "line voltage" - typically 120V or 240V.

When the panel voltage is close to the voltage of the battery or grid, the charge controller is most efficient.