| > Can you connect them in series instead of parallel, giving you a high voltage and low current? You can probably do this for a little while, but your total current through the circuit is limited to the photocurrent generated by the lowest performing cell. Otherwise you'd get a charge buildup. (sorry, I don't have a quora account) Not sure how you'd handle high voltage DC with most things though, it's only slightly better than using high voltage AC with a commercial inverter. Generally the current ratings on those wires is given in terms of temperature rise over ambient. The current rating for a wire that is allowed to rise 60C is much more than one only allowed to rise 30C. As it gets hotter the resistance goes up and the system becomes less efficient, but it's not usually a sharp break. It will get hot, so you'll need to keep an eye on it. That's not so bad to do manually, just be conservative. If we're talking days, I think you should just use trial and error. Use the inverter to up the voltage, add loads slowly and keep an eye on the voltage on the load side (if it drops a lot you're drawing too much current) and keep an eye on the wire for hot spots (honestly wish I could suggest a way to do this without hazard of touching it, I don't know if you have a thermal camera). |