Solar Panels in series

[PEdoubleNIZZLE]

My plan... I'm gonna have 2 solar panels on my roof, one points east, and one points west. Around noon time, I figured wire them in parallel, but let's say it's morning or night... one panel will have a higher voltage than the other. Can I wire them in series with this condition? will it damage one/both panels?

[pyrocasto]

Well, that's one way to waste potential power. Do yourself a favor and point them both south. If you want extra hours then buy/build a tracker to follow the sun. The way you say it is very unefficient.

[Sunour]

I have to agree with Pyrocasto.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/

Here is one way to help maximize PV module output power.

[ghurd]

I agree with them.

The 'dark' PV will hold back amps the 'light' PV is trying to make.

Wire them in parallel and point them South.

G-

[tecker]

  You can also make a Heleostat one reflecting to the west and one reflecting to the east with a few panels this will give the added power ..the percentage is lower than a

tracking system as you might figure but an easy afternoon chore. The helostat should be sightly convexed to cover the solar time frame .

[Norm]

   Since this tracking part came up...doesn't

a sunflower do this? Could you hook up a sunflower to the controls of a tracking mechanism?

   Well right off of course this would be a

seasonal thing...but it would work in the summer

...wouldn't it?

   I also remember a tracker that worked with

small cables and sand ...something like an hourglass....for solar cookers??

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

The voltage from the panel (if it's illuminated at all) depends on the bandgap of the silicon, NOT the amount of light.  The amount of light controls the AVAILABLE CURRENT.

Point them in different directions if you want.  But wire them in parallel.  The more strongly illuminated one will supply more of the output current but they'll both provide the same voltage.

[elvin1949]

K.I.S.S

Point it south

later

elvin

[Sunour]

That may be true, but at the end of the day, the PV modules that are perpendicular to the Sun for the longest amount of time will produce the greater number of watthours.

[Sunour]

To learn more about light/energy, includung the photoelectric effect, follow this link.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/lightandenergyintro.html

It includes some great Java tutorials. The Java tutorial for a "Charge Coupled Device" better illustrates what Ungrounded Lighting Rod refers to when he writes of bandwidth better than the Jave tutorial for the photovoltaic effect. You can find it by following this link.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/digitalimaging/ccd/quantum/index.html

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

... at the end of the day, the PV modules that are perpendicular to the Sun for the longest amount of time will produce the greater number of watthours.

Yep.

If you are really short on battery capacity and have extra panel capacity it might make sense to point them a little differently, so you can get a quick boost near dawn.  But it makes more sense to me to get more batteries and aim all the panels for maximum total charge per day.

If you really need a boost near dawn put up a mirror (where it will direct some morning light at the WHOLE of at least one panel without shadowing anything during the day).  Mirrors are cheaper than panels.