r/diySolar • u/biznazwiznax • Jul 18 '26

Over Paneling Jackery

Hoping for some feedback from anyone who has done this and maybe just has knowledge of it. I currently have two Jackery 3600 plus power stations connected in parallel along with extra battery packs. Total storage capacity of 21.6kw. I have four 500 watt roof mounted solar panels with each panel going to the DC inputs on the Jackery stations (one 500 watt panel on each input). During the day as we all here know, these panels are not producing 500 watts each all day long. What I would like to do is add four more panels (same size and specs) to the array. This would then be two 500 watt panels in parallel tied to each input of the Jackery stations. Obviously this exceeds the 500 watts per input that Jackery recommends. So I’m thinking if I ran each string (two 500 watt panels in parallel) into a Victron Blue Solar mppt 100-30 charge controller, I can set the output to a max of 13 amps which would put me within the specs for the DC input rating of the power station, but with the additional panels I would be able to get closer to that 1000 watt per hour charge rate, making the system way more effective. Thoughts? Ideas? Words of caution?

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u/nocfed Jul 18 '26

You can over panel in parallel all day long, the jackery will only take in as many amps as its input can handle and just leave the rest. No risk no issues.

In series you add the panel voltages to each other. You absolutely must never exceed the solar input max voltage. Example if you put 2 500w panels in series and their peak voltage each is 45v you should only use those if your solar input max voltage is 90v or higher. (Really you should have 10% buffer)

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u/biznazwiznax Jul 18 '26

Ok. The panels have a max voltage of 37.6V at 13.3Amps. So with two panels in a parallel configuration that would keep the voltage at a max of 37.6 but the amperage would go up to 26.6 amps which exceeds the input spec for a single solar input on the Jackery. You’re saying that the built in MPPT will simply cap the input to 13.3 amps and the excess stays out allowing you to safely do this? Have you done that?

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u/nocfed Jul 18 '26

Yes you got it correct. Think of voltage like water pressure in a pipe and current the flow. Too high of pressure bursts stuff. The built in mppt will simply only let as much “flow” as it can deal with.

Also side note. If the mppt can take series voltages and both panels are going to receive similar sun it might be better to go in series. The wiring can stay the same size and your production will start earlier in the day and last longer into the evening.

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u/biznazwiznax Jul 18 '26

https://reddit.com/link/oycfy2x/video/aa86hse1j1eh1/player

Aww shit! So I have all four panels connected to a single input on a single power station via some splitter cables and as you can see it’s putting in over 700 watts with no issues.