Series, Parallel and Series-Parallel Connections
When connecting solar panels in a system, the way they are connected plays an important role in the amount of voltage or amps being sent from the panels for charging and energy purposes. The three main ways you can connect solar panels with each other are connecting them in series, parallel, and series-parallel.
When connecting panels in series, you connect the positive wire from one panel to the negative wire of the next panel, and so on. The voltage values of each panel are added up together, and the amperage values are not added up and stay the same no matter how many solar panels you connect in series.
When connecting panels in parallel, you connect the positive or negative wire from one panel to the positive or negative wire of the next panel, and so on. In parallel connections, you connect the wires with the same sign between panels. You would also likely need branch connectors to finish the parallel connections of the solar panel wires. When connecting panels in parallel, the voltage values are not added up and stay the same no matter how many panels you connect in parallel, and the amperage values of each panel are added up together.
When connecting panels in series-parallel, the panels are wired together in series to form strings of panels. After that, the strings of series-connected panels are connected to each other in parallel. This results in adding up the voltage of each panel and leaving the amperage value of the panels the same within the connected string of panels, but then also adding up the amperage values of each panel string after connecting each string in parallel. The number of times the amperage values from the strings would be added would depend on how many panel strings are connected in parallel.
