Tutorial for adding in-line fuses

[mothercoder]

Okay, I watched the tutorial and seems simple enough. Guess I'll need to get a crimping tool unless my BIL has one. But I'm actually beginning to think I can do this so thanks to everyone for your patience.

A couple of questions: I have two 100W panels, a 30A controller and a 500W inverter for now. Are the regular ATC fuses good enough for me? And do I want 30A fuses in that case?

 

[tx2sturgis]

If you only have a few crimps that need to be made, you can take the cables and terminals to a local truck shop or decent sized local auto repair shop, they will probably crimp them for you for free....of course, tipping would be appreciated.

For the 500w inverter, you probably need a fuse in the range of 50-80 amps or so, it should indicate in the manual exactly what size to use. For this, it would be wise to use an ANL fuse and holder. Or you can use an ATC-MAX but fuses in that range are bit harder to find. AutoZone might have either of these types. 

For the panels to controller, probably a 15a to 20a size ATC fuse will be sufficient, and is actually optional.

For controller to battery, with a 200 watt input, then a 15 or 20 amp ATC fuse should be sufficient.

 

[John61CT]

Blue Sea holders, up to 30A

https://www.bluesea.com/products/5064/In-Line_ATO___ATC_Fuse_Holder

Crimp butt splices and/or ring terminals as needed.

 

[sephson]

It's not a tutorial, but I have photo documentation of what I did with my solar setup.

Here are my inline fuse holders:

These are the splice blocks I used. They're good for up to 4 Gauge wire. The only tool needed is a flat bladed screw driver. I got them from Home Depot:

After I tightened the connections on the splice blocks, I wrapped them in electrical tape to blunt the corners.

Then I covered the electrical tape with heat shrink tubing. I used red for the splice on the fuse between my charge controller and my battery. I used yellow on the splice for the fuse between my solar panels and the charge controller. The color coding is not necessary. I did it because I had different colors of heat shrink tube handy and for easy identification of which splice was which.

Home Depot sells splice kits that come with both the splice block and heat shrink tube.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ideal-Thermo-Shrink-AL-CU-Underground-Splice-Kit-46-401/203761582

Here's my completed in line fuse holder installation. My splices are on the other side of the panel I mounted the fuse holders to. I mounted the fuse holders using double sided tape. The fuse holder on the left is the one between my solar panels and charge controller. The one on the right is between my charge controller and my battery:

Here's a link to my build thread on the off chance that it might be helpful to you. I have photo documentation of most of the build process. Bear in mind that just because I did something a certain way does not mean that it's the only, or even the best way of doing it. I imagine you have different needs for your setup than I have for mine. Adapt whatever you do to your needs.


https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=9848&page=9