Been a bit overly critical of you in the past but have to say --- this is an amazing video that will truly help others. Thank you for taking time to put this together and educating.

That wire gauge chart isn't correct for power transmission. It looks like a normal non-power-transmission ampacity safety chart (actually not even that since there aren't any temperature ratings on the chart). Amperages are a lot lower for continuous power transmission. Basically as a rule of thumb, for solar wiring, use 10A @ 12 AWG and 15A @ 10 AWG for power transmission to keep things simple. 15A @ 10 AWG drops about 1V at 30ft. So with e.g. a 56V operating voltage (roughly 3 panels in series) you have 1.7% in losses. Less if the actual amperage is lower, of couse. But don't think in terms of actual amperage. I recommend sticking with 10 AWG for any serious panel wiring because, generally. Once you've wired a number of panels in you'll be wanting to wire more in a month later. And maybe more after that. Even for short distances because you will be slowly collecting cable as you mess around and if you try to optimize it too much you'll wind up with a lot of cable that you can't use later on. And going 10 AWG will also help cover mistakes as a lot of people wind up not getting the correct type of wire. For example, super-flexible "poofy" 10 AWG wire with 200+ strands has so much tin-plating on the copper that tin actually makes up a majority of the cross sectional area. Beyond that, good video. Series is almost always better (as long as the charge controller can handle it), but parallel has some application too. Always go through a combiner box with proper fusing when paralleling. Do not use those MC4 paralleling connectors unless the system is super-small, they suck and are a fire hazard. -Matt

I picked up a few of those HF 100w panels last year and they put out well over their rating when brand new even in the low 80s outdoor temp. Of course in clear full sun. I was impressed but idk how well they last in constant use.

This video was great. I was thinking of doing exactly what you said. Permanently mount and Connect 3-100W panels to my super shed and use them to power/charge my eco and other things. AWESOME STUFF! Thank you.

The 6th factor is that the Chinese always overstate performance of batteries and solar panels.

Everything you mentioned, i'd call "obvious", but i guess there are a lot people out there not knowing this. ;) In addition the STC 1000W/m² are neither constant, nor a maximum of light radiation, the actual value also depends on your location. I don't know values for the US, but in germany this value already varies between 900-950W/m² in the north and up to almost 1200W/m². So in south germany i actually get ~100% of the power rating of panels even with the loss due to temperature. With the effect on cloudy days where the panels cool down in the shadows of clouds, my panels even overshoot their powerrating by 10-15%. Another thing you didn't mention is the loss by power conversion. Either the voltage regulation to charge the battery of your powerstation or conversion from low voltage DC to 230V AC causes losses. So even if your panels pump ship 300Wh, you won't get 300Wh of usable power.

I have portable panels, the type you can fold up. I have used that angle tool you linked to help get the best angle. Thanks for the tool!

Over paneling is always a good idea as long as you use a current sensing device and a relay to restrict or divert excess current. Solar panels rarely put out their rated power due to clouds. Some days (and weeks) I get less than 1A out of 2200A of panels.

This video is informative and right to the point. Under 400 likes and over 12k views !?!? Come on people, its just a click away !

Very good video to learn future electrical skills

Very informative video. Thank you. I been thinking about solar panels but with solar tracking. Have you been thinking about doing any testing/comparing with some of the tracking system available? I would be very interested in that. Thank you for sharing.

My 16 canadian solar 400w bifacials were producimg over 7k watts yesterday :) yes it was cold and the voltage was spiking higher than normal when the sun popped out of the clouds

Good info.

are you gonna do a video on your shed profect from start to finish?

Thanks

Thank you does anyone have any tips for wiring up a high voltage array I bought the Schneider Electric 100 amp 600 volt charge controller my understanding is the VOC is 53.58 * 8 would be allowable for one string in series then I can parallel another eight

Advice please. I need 15kwh a day to power for power outages that can last from a couple hours to a few days. I'm in Michigan so my solar hours is 4.48, 1,278 Kwh per 1Kw, says need 4.24 Kwh array I'm looking at a 400w, 36v panel, says output DC 39V, 10.25a max, transfer efficiency greater or equal to 21% A MPPT Charge controller of 100a, says 12/24/36/48v Auto, Max Input 100v. Max charging current 100a. Max Input volts of panels should be 30v-45v (for 24v battery). Max Input power of panels should be 2000w. Output voltage DC5v/1.5a Inverter of 4000w/8000w Peak, Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter, DC24v-AC110 And Battery is LiTime 24v 100Ah, LifeP04 Lithium Ion, Build-in 100a BMS, 2,560 Wh Energy. Up to 4P2S (don't know what that means) 48v battery 400Ah of 20.48 Kwh It's only 1000sq' apartment, 2bd/2ba. Old Kenmore Fridge, elec range, micro, dishwasher (which I'd forgo during an outage), a couple computers and tvs, wifi, lights, a mini-fridge, that's about it. No washer/dryer and if I did use my hair dryer, it's 5 mins or less, but I don't use it every day (and my housemate is bald). For obvs. reasons I wanna keep the heat on and the fridge. We'd unplug things we don't need for a few days, but I'll stick with what we've averaged over the last year anyway just to be safe at the 15Kwh a day. Obvs. in an apartment, I can't do anything permanent, but that's good as I'm hoping to build a mostly off-grid place in a year or two and can take whatever I get for here with me. This setup, if I'm not mistaken, has a good amount of room to grow as well as the 400w panel can be added onto with another 400w, etc. and the other components if I calculate correctly also have a good amount left to grow? Am I on the right track here? Too much, too little, just right? Any part of this not work with another or could be downgraded or done better/easier/cheaper? Any part of it I don't need? Anything I do that's not here? What I have here is about $1,450. Thanks for your time!

I have 12 260 Watt panels 260 watts for a total of 3120 watts 38.10 voc the configuration is 3s 4p for 114.3 to 80 amp charge controller.This system is 24 v. I have tried everything and i can get no more than 38 amps from the mppt. 1000 watts out of 3000 . Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

I get 100 watts all the time with one harbor freight panel on sunny days, but when I hook 2 together I only get about 165-175 watts for some reason. Still haven't figured that out. I already have 10 gauge wire. I bought a new charge controller, so maybe that will take care of it.

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With the crap in the sky you are lucky to get 50%