There are three ways to wire a solar panel array; series, parallel, and series-parallel. If the needs of your solar electrical system call for parallel wiring of your solar panels, this blog post will teach you how to wire your solar panel array in parallel.
Wiring solar panels in parallel simply means combining all of the positive wires together into one wire that will go to the charge controller and combining all of the negative wires together into one wire that will go to the charge controller.
To combine the wires from the solar panels, you will need to use MC4 branch connectors.
- 2 to 1 MC4 Branch Connector
- 3 to 1 MC4 Branch Connector
- 4 to 1 MC4 Branch Connector
- 5 to 1 MC4 Branch Connector
Depending on your choice of panels, you may also need to incorporate fuses into your parallel wired solar panel array.
- 15 Amp MC4 Fuse
- 20 Amp MC4 Fuse
All of the diagrams below show a parallel wired solar panel array with fuses in their proper place. If your setup does not need fuses, simply ignore the fuses and connect the positive wires directly to the branch connector.
How to Wire Two Solar Panels in Parallel
How to Wire Three Solar Panels in Parallel
How to Wire Four Solar Panels in Parallel
How to Wire Five Solar Panels in Parallel
Ceriel
Tuesday 29th of November 2022
Hi, I plan on using 3, 200W, 12,7A panels in parallel because the Renogy MPPT only accepts max 25V. Putting them all in parallel will get me to max 38A which is to much for the MC4 connectors. But is it also possible to not use branch connectors and wire them all separate and straight to the MPPT?
Luke
Sunday 25th of September 2022
Hey Nate,
I'm in Australia and have followed your installation videos for a while now but am confused with 1 part, each MC4 connector has a max Amp of 30A. If i was to wire 4 x 200w panels in parallel I would have 40.40A using a 4 into 1 branch connector going to the MPPT.
specs of the 4 solar panels I have are
200w Max voltage - 19.8 Max Amps - 10.10
How do i get around the 30A max input from the MC4? or am i looking at it wrong? I was thinking of wiring it as 2s2p or just wiring it as series. Either way I have the 150/60Tr MPPT.
Thanks for the videos mate and keep it up!
Regards
Luke
ROY
Thursday 28th of July 2022
how do i wire 8 solar panels in parallel and do i need fuse and what amp fuse do i need how many. and what type of branch connector do i need Iam a first timer at this...Thank You
Austin
Sunday 10th of July 2022
Nate - thanks for all your help and education - very helpful! Hey, I noticed on the wire guide that the 10g solar black wire on Amazon is currently unavailable, is there another similar quality wire you recommend? Thank you!
Jay
Tuesday 24th of May 2022
Thank you for your videos! They are really good. I've never built a solar system before, but ready to give it a go! Going with 4 each 230 watt solar panels (used panels from SANTAN SOLAR) the Max Pwr Current is 7.78A and Max power is 30 volts (open circuit is 37 volts). After watching your videos today, I am going; 'series parallel' for sure. My question is that I believe I need a MC4, 15 amp inline fuse on both of the positive cables coming from the solar panels? Does that sound correct?
The 15 amp basically comes from the fact the generator (Bluetti 200 max) has a 15 amp pigtail for 'solar in'.....not much more science than that! The only thing I am absolutely sure about is the 10 AWG wire size....got that nugget today!
Thanks, Jay