Solar Battery Setup advice

Phobious

Hey Guys,

I've got a simple 80w solar panel feeding 10x 12v 7a batteries setup in parallel. My cabling is 1mm squared! Is this sufficient cable thickness I was reading some guides online and got a little confused about it but it seems fine. Would I only need to increase the thickness if I upped the voltage?



Thanks,
Simon

Redriddick

What are you running from the batteries???

Phobious

I've got a 300w transformer at the moment, maybe to run some lights at night time, but my solar panel just isn't enough to refill the batteries during the day.

M.T.D

The thickness of the wire required is dependant on the power going through it, and the current in your set up is more critical.
In your set up the batteries are linked in a chain. If for instance you were drawing a total of 10 amps (10 chosen as 10 batteries) that would be 1 amp from each battery. So the end link wires have 1 amp, link to next battery has 2 amps .... link from battery 9 to 10 has 9 amps with 10 amps in the output wires.
If the batteries are linked to a central point then each battery wire only handles 1 amp and 10amp wire is only needed for the final output.

Pete67

You really need to add a fuse close to the batteries, they are more than capable of providing enough current to melt those cables if there was a short or fault, and they are located right beside flammable materials.

If you are running a 300W load then that's 25A, so those cables would not be sufficient. You would need a minimum of 4mm sq and preferably 6mm sq, larger again if the cable runs are long. Best to keep the inverter close to the batteries.