Fuse vs Circuit-Braker

[highdesertranger]

it goes to controller heaven or maybe hell. seriously someone who knows more than I do told me it would fry the mosfets. all I know is it could let the magic smoke out. highdesertranger

 

[regis101]

If I only knew how they put the smoke in there.... things that make you say, Hmmmmm

 

[highdesertranger]

they won't tell you how they put the smoke in because then if you accidently let it out you could put it back in yourself saving you from buying a new one. LOL highdesertranger

 

[tx2sturgis]

And here I thought itripper was AWOL....

Good to see you're still around!

:thumbsup:

 

[DannyB1954]

For some applications fuses work better. I have a charging solenoid in between my vehicle and house batteries so that all my batteries charge while I drive. I used heavy gauge wire between the two batteries to minimize voltage loss. I originally put a 60 amp circuit breaker at each battery so that if the wire shorted out in between the two, both batteries would be protected.
I found that the circuit breaker at the house batteries was not happy with the current flowing in the opposite direction. It would trip as soon as there was any kind of amperage going through them. I replaced that breaker with a fuse which doesn't care which way the electricity flows.

 

[highdesertranger]

good point Danny. a lot of DC circuit breakers are sensitive to the direction of flow of the electricity. highdesertranger

 

[tripper]

Since the cardinal-rule is to hook the Battery(ies) to the Controller first then hook the Solar Panel(s) to the Controller, what might happen to the Controller if the Battery(ies) fuse/breaker pops ?

In my case nothing, it happened several times with my large Victron controller (75 amp/150 volt I think) and it survived, however it is supposedly very bad to have happen and can fry it.

 

[poot_traveller]

It would work equally well to use AWG #10 wire for all loads with 30 amp fuses everywhere.  That's what I have.  I use an 85 amp maxifuse at the battery and 30 amp regular size fuses. 

Hey buddy,

I have a 160 watt solar panel, MPPT controller, 300 Watt inverter and a LiFeP04 battery. Will 10 gauge wire and 30 AMP fuses work for all connections do you think?

 

[B and C]

I think you will need a bigger cable and fuse for your inverter. What inverter do you have and how far away from the battery is it?

 

[poot_traveller]

I think you will need a bigger cable and fuse for your inverter. What inverter do you have and how far away from the battery is it?

It's a ROHS pure sine wave inverter 300 Watts with built-in protection against everything. It's just the wiring I want to protect.

 

[B and C]

Yes, protect the wiring but you have to have a big enough wire to run the inverter. RoHS is not a brand. I cannot look it up to find out how many amps it pulls. Does it state how many amps it needs in either the manual or a sticker on it? Also, length of cable from the batteries to the inverter is needed. The longer the run, the larger the cable needed.

So 12v amps required is?
How long a cable run?

Two simple questions. Without this info, it is all speculation and could have bad results.

 

[B and C]

Delete

 

[B and C]

Here is a link to Blue Seas wire sizing chart: https://www.bluesea.com/support/art...oosing_the_Correct_Wire_Size_for_a_DC_Circuit

I strongly recommend you follow its' sizing.

 

[poot_traveller]

Yes, protect the wiring but you have to have a big enough wire to run the inverter. RoHS is not a brand. I cannot look it up to find out how many amps it pulls. Does it state how many amps it needs in either the manual or a sticker on it? Also, length of cable from the batteries to the inverter is needed. The longer the run, the larger the cable needed.

So 12v amps required is?
How long a cable run?

Two simple questions. Without this info, it is all speculation and could have bad results.

I'm not sure about amps but here is the voltage details for the inverter:

https://www.rvshop.co.nz/products/pure-sinewave-300-watt-inverter-12v?_pos=1&_sid=f538138f7&_ss=r

The length of cable from the battery to the inverter will be two feet.

 

[poot_traveller]

Here is a link to Blue Seas wire sizing chart: https://www.bluesea.com/support/art...oosing_the_Correct_Wire_Size_for_a_DC_Circuit

I strongly recommend you follow its' sizing.

I'm not able to understand those sort of charts but a guy on another forum suggested 10 gauge wire for all connections including for the solar feed.

 

[B and C]

I keep forgetting you are not in the US. 300 watts (600 peak) output at 230 volts. Someone better at the math will have to step in to see how many 12V amps this thing draws. My guess is double what we would need here. Very minimal info about that inverter. If this is double 600 watts peak, that is 1200 watts. That is 120 amps and 2 AWG.

Somebody please step in.