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I have a customer who has a SmartSolar 100-50.
He has used 2 x 415W panels in series, with a VoC of 52V.
He is getting an infrequent, maybe 1 or 2 every 3 months, over volt warning.
I know he could wire in parallel and solve the issue.
But I'm interested to know if breaching the 100V limit by 2 or 3 volts, will damage the controller over time?
Yes you will eventually destroy the mppt by going over it's designed pv input voltage limit.
The panel Voc of 52v is at 25c. At temperatures below 25c the Voc will be higher than 52v.
I have been informed by a Victron rep in the past that going above the controller's rated voltage can cause damage. I had a customer in a similar situation early in my career with panel OCV of about 145 on a 150/100 controller, he got a sunny day in the winter and the controller stopped charging. We swapped to a 250/100 on Victron's recommendation, not a single issue since. Nowadays I shoot for about 80% of the controller rating for this exact reason. If a different charge controller isn't an option I would definitely switch to a parallel array here.
