Another Solar Question

ROAMIN · Veteran Member

Another Solar Question

Palebushman · Senior Member

Hello John,

From all the experienced fellow travelers that we have met on our recent first 360, the general consensus of opinion on 12 Volt & Solar appears to be :-
Bigger is better. Have a read of this link, by just clicking on it, better still, an investment in the latest Collyn Rivers book, 'Solar That Really Works' would be a very worthwhile expense.

http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/wire.html

justcruisin01 · Guru

John,any wireing to do with fridges &/or solar dont use anything less than 6mm wire,any smaller & you have voltage drop,this means you have lost before you start,also any fuses need to be extra heavy duty as well,as in the wire & connections.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

All DC applications need to minimise voltage drop and cables need to be sized to allow for their length and current.

Half a volt of drop should be the MAX that you should allow. Less is even better.
If it is more you are just wasting a lot of power.

Here is a formulae to calculate voltage drop (from Collyn Rivers)....
VOTLAGE DROP = [cable length (in metres) X current (in amps) X 0.017] divided by cable cross-section in mm.sq.

Note that cable length is the TOTAL of BOTH directions.

Cheers,
Peter

dave06 · Guru

all depends on the size of the solar panel/s, the more power that it can produce then the larger the wire it must have, your solar supplier should have a chart or advice for the ammount you intend to construct

6-8 mm would be fine for most arrays but keep it as short a run as possible, you will still get voltage drop but that will happen as soon as you expect the power to go anywhere for any length