Hi there,
I'm looking into
buying the solarpanel system to put on my brand new, shiny stern-arch and like a good boy I've been doing my homework. Between the fact that it's not a conventional home-setup, the very small size of the setup and the furious arguments between the
solar companies and people that seem to know it much better (handybob just to name one), I'm afraid I've gotten more then a little confused. What seemed like the best idea to begin with is considered dangerous by some, inefficient by others and I just don't know what to think anymore...
So, I was wondering what your opinion is on the different components and their correlation. Maybe I won't have to buy all new
gear then, once it becomes clear I should've consulted with the CF before going with my original idea

.
Panel
I don't have room for two
panels on the arch, so I want to go with the biggest possible on top of the arch. This seems to be around the 250W marker. Should it truly be necessary, I can always add more to the side, but I'm pretty sure that won't be the case. On the second-hand market there are plenty "new"
panels for sale leftover from a job. These are mostly home-setup panels though, and I've read that regular charge-controllers can't deal with the higher voltage. Is this correct?
MPPT controllers can handle it I've also read, true or false?
Controller
An
MPPT controller seems the most logical choice as far as efficiency is concerned. However, Handybob seems to believe (among others, including the people at bogartengineering) that for small setups, mppt makes no sense. What's your take?
Also, I was planning on
buying a charge controller from ebay as there are plenty of affordable ones on there to keep cost down and it's such a small system anyway. What do I stand to lose here? Is the charge controller something prone to breakage? Is much of the efficiency tied up in it?
Cables
Some sources mention that with an mppt controller, you can run smaller gauge wire down from the panel. Others claim this is ********... What wire gauge would you run from the panel to the controller (250W, about 9ft) and from the controller to the
batteries (inches)?
Thanks!