# Testing out my solar..



## Trihonda (Aug 24, 2020)

i recently purchased a bluetti AC200p, but had really not yet put it through its paces. two days ago me and a MaG buddy set it up in the yard, like is shown here. I realized that I have everything possible to run it, but not in an ideal configuration. 

I have 800w worth of panels, but only 4 of the 100w “folding” panels. All 8 panels are 100w/18v/5a. 

the folding panels have Anderson connectors, and these don’t easily bend and contort in order to run in series. The bluetti has a reported minimum required V of 35, which means running in parallel doesn’t get me there. I did have all the necessary Y adapters to run theses in parallel and while two panels didn’t trigger the SoGen to wakey wakey, running 4 of the panels in parallel did.. weird. It shouldn’t have. It also didn’t power it ideally. Out of 400w of panels, I was only getting 195w.. I don’t expect 400w, but was hoping for more that 50%. 










that all said, I know that at some point, I’ll want to run all 8 panels together in series to get to 144v (max of 150 for the SoGen). My current cabling wasn’t gonna work. I also wanted an extention run to get me from any array of panels to the generator. I want to keep the generator inside and run one set of cables to an array…. so I order $100 worth of 10awg cables and MC4 adapters from amazon, and I’m all set!

moral of the story is test out (use) your gear. Don’t just buy fancy stuff and put in a drawer for doomsday. It might not work Right…


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## KellyDude (11 mo ago)

Excellent idea, Trihonda - Test your preps!

I like the benefit of higher voltage over smaller wire so opted to go 24 volts with my system but they all have their pros and cons.
The 200-watt panels are a bit larger but I like having fewer.
I need to do a test setup again because one panel is suspect and better to find that out Now......
I added 2 more Lithium batteries since this video a d also have an Ecogen 





Test your preps!


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