[mulle_nat]

Can anyone comment on the "You can exceed the amperage specs" ? I made myself a little case study using 4x1W panels and using them in series and parallel. I got the distinct impression that running panels in parallel is better in not so bright conditions compared to a single panel. Whereas a serial configuration made it worse. Since the sun doesn't shine here that much. Running in parallel seems to be preferable, but it would slightly exceed the amperage spec of a few converter i sampled.

[Chilko]

It be worth looking up the I-V curves of solar modules on a datasheet - a key factor is that the maximum power point of a solar module (for a given set of environmental conditions) is really dependent on the voltage that it is running at (whereas the current is more constant based on the light level, up to a certain voltage), so to get the maximum power out the resistance of the load needs to be matched to achieve that maximum power voltage (V_MP).

This is what MPPT controllers do, as this maximum power setpoint will change as environmental conditions change.

[jacquesm]

The problem is usually shading, not so much the capacity of the wiring, though, if you try hard enough you can exceed the rating of the final stretch of wiring to the inverter (or the little pigtail in the inverter if you connect all of the strings at max voltage/amperage). Shading can really upset the current flow in a set of parallel/series connected panels and can cause local hotspots due to overcurrent. Usually inverters are pretty smart about this and they'll detect that you are pushing it further than is responsible and they will just switch off. I've purposefully triggered such conditions to ensure my installation is safe and I was pretty impressed with how utterly painless fault detection, isolation and recovery are in modern inverters. I also had an older one and there it definitely wasn't all that friendly, to the point that the whole thing had to be hard disconnected from the grid before it would work again.