Hello out there!
I've been waiting patiently for almost two years now to start
work on getting
solar on our
boat, but due to a pending move x-country all I could do was dream. Now I'm close enough where I can start working on the planning phase in a lot greater detail!
I'm considering 3x135W
panels (or thereabouts). One thing I'm not clear on is connections. It seems most
solar panels out there except one variant of the
Kyocera 135 use MC4 connectors. But, it also seems that most installs I read about on sailboats use the junction boxes. I can see the cost benefit for using junction boxes since you get to use standard
wiring, but I do like the ease of the MC4 connectors. I'm also a little confused on the amp/volt/wire size relationship with the MC4 connectors, since I haven't seen a lot of different size AWG for the connectors. Surely there is a safe way to connect all the
panels, since it seems like grid applications with lots more panels use the MC4 connector. Perhaps they increase the voltage to keep wire size down and use an
MPPT controller to adjust?
Can someone educate me on the benefits/drawbacks of MC4 vs. junction box connections?? And on a related question, am I correct in understanding that a
MPPT controller adjusts both voltage and
current to provide optimum to the
batteries?
Many thanks!
Frank