DIY Manual

22 | P a g e 10-543-1 REV A

DIY Manual

Paralleling (Combining)

Solar panels are wired together in one of three ways: 1) Series; 2) Parallel; 3) Series-parallel

combination.

1) Series Circuit: Wire the panels using their attached wires in this fashion … positive-to-

negative, positive-to-negative. It’s like a daisy-chain down the string. At the end of the

string (left side in the diagram above) is the string’s positive wire; on the right side is the

string’s negative wire. Effectively this string is one big solar panel. In a series circuit, the

voltage adds and the current remains the same. If each panel has the specifications of

39.5Voc and 9.8A Isc, then the series string above is effectively one solar panel with the

specs of 158V at 9.8A.

2) Parallel Circuit: A parallel circuit is wired positive-positive, and negative-to-negative.

Look at the diagram below. See how the two PV panels are wired at the ends, positive-

to-positive, negative-to-negative? That is parallel. With the same PV specs, the top

panel, we can call that String 1, is still at 39.5Voc, 9.8A. So is String 2 – the bottom PV

panel. But the new PV array, now wired in parallel, has the specs of 39.5V, 19.6A.

Parallel Circuit

39.5V, 9.8A

39.5V, 18.6A

Series Circuit

158V, 9.8A

Series Circuit – Voltage adds, Current stays the same.

Parallel Circuit – Voltage stays the same, Current adds.