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Why can't my Morningstar TriStar PWM charge controller generate the same wattage as my Morningstar MPPT charge controller?

Posted by Frank Molina, Stellavolta on Sep 8th 2020

Why can't my Morningstar TriStar PWM charge controller generate the same wattage as my Morningstar MPPT charge controller?
The TriStar MPPT controller is able to harvest all of the voltage from your solar panels, whereas the TriStar PWM controller does not do that. Instead, the TriStar PWM operates your solar panels at battery voltage, regardless of the solar panel's wattage rating. Also, if you have your solar panels in series when connected to your PWM controller, the high voltage places your controller's electronics under too much stress. It is not recommended that you do this both for 1) the health of the PWM controller and 2) because you're not harvesting any additional power above voltage with the PWM controller. It is a better idea to use a MPPT controller in this scenario as this is what they were designed for.