Silicone wire on your solar system setup

[sirslayer]

I’ve started to using silicone wire on my solar charger to batteries with success. I know about the voltage drop when using silicone wire but it’s really small. Now I’m going to apply the use on my batteries banks and next maybe my solar panels arrays ( maybe it’s 8 awg all ready) I just purchased 6 awg silicone cables (rated 300a !!!) for.my batteries any advice or last words before I do the upgrade.. I run a 12 volt setup and using the silicone wired will give me a peace of mind when I’m running 2000 watts ( avg of 1000 watts) on my inverter most of the time all day !! Yes I run my solar system all the time and my electric bill is 8 dollars so going for the upgrade is overall to save money and to use the solar to the max .. I just added another 280ah lithium and I might as well upgrade the cabling .. thxs !!

 

[A.Justice]

I also use silicone wire pretty much exclusively on the internals of my batteries. The advantage of silicone is its ability to be able to take higher temperatures without melting the insulation. Keep in mind that it doesn't mean that the WIRE ITSELF can take any more current than it would usually be rated for with "regular" insulation.

A 200°c rating on 10 awg silicone may be able to take 40-60a (depending on which manufacturers chart you go with), but it will also heat up accordingly. I wouldn't want a wire to heat up close to ~400°f (~200c), regardless of whether it was rated for that or not. The wire may be able to take it, but the enclosure, plastic components, wood, and the devices that the wire is connected to, probably won't be able to handle that heat.

I like the silicone wire because I can use wire it's upper maximum (of the usual insulation) limit, and have the piece of mind that even under a full / over load, the wire will be fine. I would stick with the regular DC wire sizing chart, even with silicone wire.

Plus, I love working with that stuff, very soft, very flexible wire is a nice change from solid core. It FEELS good, lol.

 

[Daferris]

Only caution I have with silicone wire is to protect it from sharp edges because the insulation cuts very easily.

 

[Supervstech]

I’ve started to using silicone wire on my solar charger to batteries with success. I know about the voltage drop when using silicone wire but it’s really small. Now I’m going to apply the use on my batteries banks and next maybe my solar panels arrays ( maybe it’s 8 awg all ready) I just purchased 6 awg silicone cables (rated 300a !!!) for.my batteries any advice or last words before I do the upgrade.. I run a 12 volt setup and using the silicone wired will give me a peace of mind when I’m running 2000 watts ( avg of 1000 watts) on my inverter most of the time all day !! Yes I run my solar system all the time and my electric bill is 8 dollars so going for the upgrade is overall to save money and to use the solar to the max .. I just added another 280ah lithium and I might as well upgrade the cabling .. thxs !!

I assure you… 6Awg wire cannot reliably handle anywhere close to 300A
Ratings be damned!
As mentioned above, you do not want the wire getting anywhere close to 200C… the insulation margin is great, but you want the copper inside to have the least resistance when building he system to get the most out of the batteries…
Heat is lost watts…

Don’t lose watts.

 

[sirslayer]

If you can watch this YouTube video , a simple 10 AWG silicone wire can handle 100 amps!! I would loose 10 watts for every 100a at 1 ft of distance

 

[timselectric]

The only thing different about silicone wire, is the insulation. That only affects its resistance to heat.
Has nothing to do with how much current the conductor should carry.

 

[sirslayer]

Actually it’s packed with over 3000s fine strands of pure copper wires for high current with of course the silicone rubber insulation for high temperature.. the cable I’ve purchased are from progressiveRC and the 6 AWG silicone wire is rated 300a

 

[timselectric]

I don't care if it was made of gold. There's no way I would put 300 amps, on a #6.
That's just asking for trouble.

 

[timselectric]

Silicone wire was designed to be placed on a roof, in direct sunlight. That's the heat it's supposed to withstand. Not, the heat from an overloaded conductor.

 

[sirslayer]

Silicone wire been in use with electronic equipment in the medical field , robotics and recently small high powered drones.. I’ve been using silicone wire for over a year and now I’m taking a big step with my lithium batteries but I do thank you for your advice and I’ll start off with one bank and see

 

[timselectric]

Well good luck, and don't miss an insurance payment.

 

[sirslayer]

The last time I’ve heard that is when I upgrade to lithium batteries!! Thank you for your concerns

 

[timselectric]

With good reason. Lithium batteries have caused a lot of fire damage.

 

[sirslayer]

I do worry about that , that’s why I have a ring camera with a temp gauge to monitor while I’m gone and of course it will shut down when it reaches a threshold. You can never know when you’re the age of pioneering electricity

 

[time2roll]

Actually it’s packed with over 3000s fine strands of pure copper wires for high current with of course the silicone rubber insulation for high temperature.. the cable I’ve purchased are from progressiveRC and the 6 AWG silicone wire is rated 300a

No wonder the resistance is an issue. I like the idea of extra safety during an overload fault as mentioned by A.Justice. However I would not undersize the copper and add resistance to the circuit just because of the rated ampacity. Heat in the wire is energy lost from the system.

 

[rmaddy]

There's a huge difference between what a wire is rated for and how much load it should carry in practice. 6AWG wire should only be used for no more than a 70A load for maybe up to 10' (3.3m).

Sure, maybe your 6AWG wire is rated for 300A. But make sure nothing flammable gets anywhere near the 200ºC heat of the wire. Certainly don't get your hands anywhere near it. Don't get it near any other wires or put it in any kind of conduit. And hopefully whatever is connected to the wire can handle the massive voltage drop.

If you have an actual need for a 300A load then use 4/0AWG.

A 2000W inverter on a 12V system means up to a 200A load. Use at least 2/0AWG. This will keep the wire cool and the voltage drop below 3%. If you use your fancy 6AWG wire and a full 2000W load then the wire will burn you and make your inverter cry due to the huge voltage drop.

Good luck.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I do worry about that , that’s why I have a ring camera with a temp gauge to monitor while I’m gone and of course it will shut down when it reaches a threshold. You can never know when you’re the age of pioneering electricity

At your age you should know better than to trust a claim from a hobbyist website. As others have stated MANY times, this wire is NOT rated for 300A regardless of what the website or packaging says. It's also in the context of the application - high C discharge over the course of a few minutes at most.

The video is inconsequential unless you plan to only run high current for a few minutes.

200°C 6awg can be as high as 150A depending on reference.

Please do not use 6awg for 300A.

I have gobs of THAT type of wire in 8awg that I use for various applications. It's great. There's nothing magical about the high strand count. It just means it's crazy floppy. When I have TWO 8awg (roughly the same as 5awg) running 100A for HOURS, the wires get damn hot - uncomfortable to the touch.

Don't trust your power system to the claims of a toy website.

 

[timselectric]

At your age you should know better than to trust a claim from a hobbyist website. As others have stated MANY times, this wire is NOT rated for 300A regardless of what the website or packaging says. It's also in the context of the application - high C discharge over the course of a few minutes at most.

The video is inconsequential unless you plan to only run high current for a few minutes.

200°C 6awg can be as high as 150A depending on reference.

Please do not use 6awg for 300A.

I have gobs of THAT type of wire in 8awg that I use for various applications. It's great. There's nothing magical about the high strand count. It just means it's crazy floppy. When I have TWO 8awg (roughly the same as 5awg) running 100A for HOURS, the wires get damn hot - uncomfortable to the touch.

Don't trust your power system to the claims of a toy website.

Why are you ruining this.
I was planning on pointing at the news article and saying, "hey, I know that guy".

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Why are you ruining this.
I was planning on pointing at the news article and saying, "hey, I know that guy".

LOL... Maybe I'm having too many senior moments these days and I'm feeling an unusual level of empathy.

 

[brb58]

Actually it’s packed with over 3000s fine strands of pure copper wires for high current with of course the silicone rubber insulation for high temperature.. the cable I’ve purchased are from progressiveRC and the 6 AWG silicone wire is rated 300a

A wire's ability to carry DC current depends on the cross section of the wire. You could have 1 strand or 3000 strands, if the cross section is the same, the resistance is the same and the voltage drop is the same for a given current..