solar sytems

Thoughts on inverter. – Things to consider.

This is a email sent in response to a gentlemens question regarding 2 120 watt solar panels and 1 trace dr 2000 watt inverter charger with trace ca-30 charge controller. I thought some of this information might be useful to other people looking into purchasing small entry level solar system or just to generally further their understanding of solar electrical energy product. The concepts are not difficult and don’t have to be complex though certain things should be considered and depending on the situation you could make it as complex as you want. The more you plan the more cost effective your PV system will be.

If you connect them toegether in parallell that is both positives and both negatives tied to the positive negative on the charge controller. Charge controller will say array (+)(-). This is where your solar panel will attach. It will probably be easiest to connect the 2 panels together on the roof and run a single wire down to the charge controller. This should be mounted as close to the batteries as possible within about abotu 6-4 FT. allowing distance from batteries to prevnt hydrogen gas corosion from ruining charge controller. Run one wire from the charge cotnroller to the batteries connect these to your batteries making sure to connect to 12 VDC. This means if you have 2 6 volt batteries they need to be in series positiv to negative tied together with one positive and one negative to each battery. If you have 12 VOLT batteries connect you batteries in parrallell that is all positives and negative chained together. If you have 4 6 volts simply do 20 in parallell and 2 in series. Be sure to use large gauge jumper wires between batteries to prevent fire from occuring. Jumpers should be at least or larger the size and rating the size of inverter wires. if inverter is to be installed it should also be close to battery pank within 4 ft. With large usually 2 gauge wires connecting to fuse then to batter bank fuse should be a proper amperage matched with inverter. This inverter needs at least a 200 amp fuse like the one I have in my store under inverters. If you bought the trace inverter, charge controller, solar panels, and 200 AMP fuse all you would need is some heavy duty connecting wires of desired length depending on application. You would have nice reliable solar system os dont forget you would also need battery bank size of your choice. They come in all shapes and sizes. The best are absorbed glass mat batteries. 2nd I would say is 6 VOLT wet cell batteries wich are common and cheap. Both will work depending on how long you need to run your system and how much maintainance your willign to do on these batteries. The absorbed glass mat are expensive but require no maintainance such as chekcing fluid, equilizinf and so on. If you have more questions feel free to ask me specifics please provide me with specific details. Hope this helps....Not as complex as it seams though there are specific details that shouldn't be overlooked when designing an efficient safe power source.