bought a shiny new mppt a victron75 15 but read in the instructions that it needs 5v above battery voltage to start charging, should I now rewire my two 100w panels in series to make this work correctly?
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It will work fine either way. There is a theoretical advantage to wiring the panels in series, because the panel output voltage is then doubled & so the controller will switch on slightly earlier in the morning & will keep producing a small amount of power on an overcast January day when parallel connected panels may never reach the 17 - 18v required to start the controller's charging process.bought a shiny new mppt a victron75 15 but read in the instructions that it needs 5v above battery voltage to start charging, should I now rewire my two 100w panels in series to make this work correctly?
Bypass diodes should prevent that although I agree there's not much if any advantage anyway in series connection.It will work fine either way. There is a theoretical advantage to wiring the panels in series, because the panel output voltage is then doubled & so the controller will switch on slightly earlier in the morning & will keep producing a small amount of power on an overcast January day when parallel connected panels may never reach the 17 - 18v required to start the controller's charging process.
This advantage is cancelled out if you get partial shading of a panel. On a parallel circuit, you will lose most of the output of the shaded panel, but the one in full sun will continue unaffected. In series, the partial shading of one panel drastically reduces the output from the pair.
Which is best for you will depend on when & where you use the van & whether you have access to EHU while it is not being used.