First of all sorry about my bad English please do not let it l interrupt you.

I bought a new power inverter, it’s input is 12 V and output is 220 V.
I connected it to a solar panel that is output is 12 V DC, I checked the output and it told me 160 V for some reason , I thought to myself that may be the inverter he’s 24 V input into sellers were wrong about choosing the right one ( I bought it from eBay) i’m scared to make it damaged if I connect it to a 24 V , what should I do ?

BTW - when I connect something (220v ,40w) to it made puls of power (turned on and turned off in a sec.

 

An inverter is not designed to be directly run from a solar panel

You do not give power of panel , but generally as you start to put a load on the 220V output , it will want to draw a large current from the solar panel which the panel cannot supply and the voltage will drop well below 12V and the inverter will turn off ...

You must use the panel to charge a battery and the battery drives the inverter.

 

It would be nice if you could use a small solar panel to provide large amounts of power. Sadly, it doesn't work that way.

There are three things to consider: Voltage; Current and Power. All three are inter-related. For instance:
12 volts (times) 100 amps = 1200 watts (power)
120 volts (times) 10 amps = 1200 watts (power)
1200 volts (times) 1 amp = 1200 watts (power)

The key thing is the power (wattage). If you have a panel that produces X amount of power then you're going to get no more power out of a system than that input power. In other words, if your solar panel produces 12 volts at (oh, lets say) 100 watts then 100 ÷ 12 = 8.333 amps. If you convert the voltage to 240 volts (assuming 100% efficiency - which is not possible) if 100w ÷ 12v = 8.3a then 100w ÷ 240v = 0.4166a. The one constant is the wattage (power). Keep in mind that these numbers are theoretical. Actual numbers will be less due to inefficiencies in the design of the panel, the wires conducting the power, the inverter that changes the DC into AC and so on. There are several factors that cause losses. The bigger the losses the more wasted heat.

So whatever the power rating of your panel (wattage) when you convert it to a different voltage the power will be less due to inefficiencies. You ask why your system shuts down immediately is because you're drawing more amperage than the panel can supply PLUS all the inefficiencies. @oz93666 mentioned batteries. Batteries have a much larger reservoir of power to draw from. Solar panels can charge batteries over the course of the daylight hours, then can give that power back in much greater quantities over a much shorter period of time, depending on several factors we won't discuss here. But the battery is likely going to be able to power your inverter for a time period depending on the charge and capacity of the battery. The solar panel just can't handle it.

 

Did you check the voltage of the panel when the inverter is connected?

Bob

 

40 watts at 220 volts requires 182 milliamps of current. With a 12 volt panel you'd need 66 amps coming from your panel. That's nearly 800 watts. With expected losses I'd expect a solar panel of close to 1000 watts in order to run your project. And that would be at peak sunlight. Mornings and evenings it's likely your panel would not produce enough power.

Something feels wrong about my numbers. Did I get it correct? Or did I screw up again?

 

Boy oh boy your 12V current number of 66A or more is completely wrong.
If the load is 40W and the inverter is fairly efficient heating with 10W, then 50W at 12V is a current of 4.2A.

 

Thanks Gu. I knew something felt wrong, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

 

An inverter is not designed to be directly run from a solar panel

You do not give power of panel , but generally as you start to put a load on the 220V output , it will want to draw a large current from the solar panel which the panel cannot supply and the voltage will drop well below 12V and the inverter will turn off ...

You must use the panel to charge a battery and the battery drives the inverter.

First of all thank you for responding.
I tried the same thing with a transformer that it’s output is 12v10a, the load need 220v 40w, i measure the current in the input of the inverter, and it shows me 4a, I really don’t know where the problem is..

 

Did you check the voltage of the panel when the inverter is connected?

Bob

Yes, running around 12-14v

 

Hello,

When you measure 4A at the 12 volts side, it would be an input power of 48 Watt.
This might be fine if the output power should be 40 Watts.
There are always losses in the power conversion.

Bertus

 

It would be nice if you could use a small solar panel to provide large amounts of power. Sadly, it doesn't work that way.

There are three things to consider: Voltage; Current and Power. All three are inter-related. For instance:
12 volts (times) 100 amps = 1200 watts (power)
120 volts (times) 10 amps = 1200 watts (power)
1200 volts (times) 1 amp = 1200 watts (power)

The key thing is the power (wattage). If you have a panel that produces X amount of power then you're going to get no more power out of a system than that input power. In other words, if your solar panel produces 12 volts at (oh, lets say) 100 watts then 100 ÷ 12 = 8.333 amps. If you convert the voltage to 240 volts (assuming 100% efficiency - which is not possible) if 100w ÷ 12v = 8.3a then 100w ÷ 240v = 0.4166a. The one constant is the wattage (power). Keep in mind that these numbers are theoretical. Actual numbers will be less due to inefficiencies in the design of the panel, the wires conducting the power, the inverter that changes the DC into AC and so on. There are several factors that cause losses. The bigger the losses the more wasted heat.

So whatever the power rating of your panel (wattage) when you convert it to a different voltage the power will be less due to inefficiencies. You ask why your system shuts down immediately is because you're drawing more amperage than the panel can supply PLUS all the inefficiencies. @oz93666 mentioned batteries. Batteries have a much larger reservoir of power to draw from. Solar panels can charge batteries over the course of the daylight hours, then can give that power back in much greater quantities over a much shorter period of time, depending on several factors we won't discuss here. But the battery is likely going to be able to power your inverter for a time period depending on the charge and capacity of the battery. The solar panel just can't handle it.

Ok wow thank you! Ill try it, thank you very much you did a lot!

 

The inverter is intended to use DC for the input, such as you would get from a battery or a solar cell. I would expect that trying to power it with a transformer, which supplies AC power, would damage the inverter. And in every situation with conversion devices the power out will always be a bit less than the power in. and at all times, neglecting power factor, power = volts x amps. That can provide a check as to about what to expect. I ignored the consideration of efficiency, so the result will be close but not exact. But close works for reality checks.

 

Also - the PV will only produce peak output during peak daytime sun, and the PV is pointed directly at the sun. Anything less and you're going to be losing power.

 

If the inverter was getting 12 volts at the input terminals of the inverter and the inverter was not delivering the rated output, then the inverter is suspect. But it may also be that there is a large voltage drop in the connection wiring. That was the problem for another person who had a solar power setup and the clip leads were dropping the voltage.
But the first step is to power the inverter from a 12 volt car battery and see if it delivers 220 volts and if it will light the 40 watt light. If it does, then the problem is someplace else. But first you need to know that the individual parts are functioning correctly. And since the inverter is new that is the first thing that I would check to verify that it works. If you are connecting an ammeter in series to measure the current then that is also dropping the voltage. Try connecting the inverter directly to the solar cell, and measure the voltage at the inverter power terminals. Then measure the voltage at the solar cell terminals.. Then let us know what you find.

 

Exectly the same result I wrote in the topic, the solar panel gives 12-14 volts (BTW, each solar cell give 5.1w, in tge panel I connected in series 24 cells) that is should bring122.4w (Without calculating the losses on the way).
Ans in the output of the inverter it shows me 160-200 volts (Unlike what I wrote above, I tried to check the inverter again for a solution and the inverter showed drastic changes in the output) the inverter was connected directly to the solar panel, the drops were only in the output, nothing about the solar panel were wrong.

 

Jezzz .. this is hard work .... a solar cell produces 0.5 V OPEN CIRCUIT .... with no load !

You have put 24 of these in series so with no load you have 12V ...

If you put a load on the panel... an inverter or whatever , the voltage will come down drastically ,when delivering the maximum power of 100W the voltage will be about 9V ... the inverter will not run at 9V ...most 12V inverters stop working at 10.5V

What is usually described as a "12V" panel has an open circuit voltage of around 20V and delivers max power at around 15V , which is what you need to charge a 12V battery , and the BATTERY FEEDS THE INVERTER

If you are really determined to feed an inverter directly from solar cells you need to see what voltage range the inverter will work at ... usually from 15V to 10.5V , So you need 30 cells in series to give 15 V open circuit

 

Jezzz .. this is hard work .... a solar cell produces 0.5 V OPEN CIRCUIT .... with no load !

You have put 24 of these in series so with no load you have 12V ...

If you put a load on the panel... an inverter or whatever , the voltage will come down drastically ,when delivering the maximum power of 100W the voltage will be about 9V ... the inverter will not run at 9V ...most 12V inverters stop working at 10.5V

What is usually described as a "12V" panel has an open circuit voltage of around 20V and delivers max power at around 15V , which is what you need to charge a 12V battery , and the BATTERY FEEDS THE INVERTER

If you are really determined to feed an inverter directly from solar cells you need to see what voltage range the inverter will work at ... usually from 15V to 10.5V , So you need 30 cells in series to give 15 V open circuit

I bought a Mono cells (higher efficiency then the regular that called “poly”) mine are around 0.60-0.65v (I know it is weird but i saw it with my eye it’s pretty sunny in my country), i Measured them it was around 15v, had to work but it didn’t .

 

I bought a Mono cells (higher efficiency then the regular that called “poly”) mine are around 0.60-0.65v (I know it is weird but i saw it with my eye it’s pretty sunny in my country), i Measured them it was around 15v, had to work but it didn’t .

mon or poly they are all 0.5V ... please give more details of the cells / panel pictures or a link.

You seem to be implying you bought the raw cells and made them into a panel yourself (not easy) ...is this true???

 

mon or poly they are all 0.5V ... please give more details of the cells / panel pictures or a link.

You seem to be implying you bought the raw cells and made them into a panel yourself (not easy) ...is this true???

Yes it is, this is the link:

US $100.80 52％ Off | 100Pcs 5W 0.5V 20.6％ Effciency Grade A 156 * 156MM Photovoltaic Mono Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cell 6x6 For Solar Panel
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/nR2DZjS

 

WOW ... and you bought some bus wire and soldered them all together ???? Have you encapsulated them??? what method did you use ???

You do realize these cells have to be sealed to prevent humidity destroying them???