Symbol Replacement Solar Panel

by Baggiecamper Thu Oct 31, 2024 4:52 am

Yesterday I completed the last part of my electrical upgrades.
Having fitted a 1500 Watt inverter, a Victron 30 amp B2B, a Victron 15 amp MPPT and a Battery Master I decided to increase my solar capacity.
Solar panels have become more efficient and less expensive recently. So rather than adding another 80 watt panel I decided to replace the existing one with a Renogy 175 Watt panel which was pretty much a perfect fit between the two roof bars and the two skylights. For space reasons I made my own aluminium angle mounting brackets.
A big benefit of replacement rather than addition is the existing cable was used reducing the installation work required.The Autosleepers installed 1.5mm² although not ideal is adequate. I have calculated the volts drop on the cable to the MPPT is less than one volt when producing maximum power. The voltage drop would have been more had I not eliminated the excess cable at the solar panel and behind the EC500 that Autosleepers installed.

This is the new panel installed:

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Old and new panels compared:
They both have similar electrical specifications other than output current. Both panel have an optimum Operating Voltage of 18.1V

Autosleepers installed Victron 80W panel
Size 1195x545x35mm (0.651m²)
Renogy 175W panel
Size 1262x699x35mm (0.882m²)

So for a 35% bigger footprint I have a 219% increase in maximum output power.