66 amps Wire Guage
- Thread starter heirloom hamlet
- Start date
In series only 8.85 amps would be coming down at 240ish volts so depends on the length of run 10 gauge or 8 gauge would be fine. What matters is wire size from controller to batteries in your case and that's based on again the run and system voltage.
heirloom hamlet
life my way
Figure 72amps. Look up a DC wiring chart for amps/length. For example this thing says for a 15' run at 30' with a 3% loss use #4.
heirloom hamlet
life my way
ghostwriter66
"Here - Hold my Beer"
I would go with #6 ... would try to use something like TEMCO Welding wire or something that has high amount of pure copper stranded wire ... make sure its not aluminum clad - if so you need to drop to a #4 ...
heirloom hamlet
life my way
And what about the Y splitters on 6 of the panels...can #6 be obtained for that as well? Parallel is the right way to do my setup, right?
nosys70
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2020
- Messages
- 839
no , serial is usually preferred to parallel for this reason, less Amps, higher volts , easier to manage, cheaper.
but parallel can be used to prevent shading on panels or because serial gets too high in volt for the controller.
usually you finish by having a mix of both serial and parallel to benefit both advantages
but parallel can be used to prevent shading on panels or because serial gets too high in volt for the controller.
usually you finish by having a mix of both serial and parallel to benefit both advantages
heirloom hamlet
life my way
But would not these already 24v panels become 48v if I did 2 in series then 4 sets in parallel. Is that bad in my case? I thought they were already 24v and the solar charge controller was 80a so all in parallel would leave 2000w with 24v panels at 67a, which I thought was appropriate. This for a 24v MTTP, 80a charge controller and a 24v battery bank.
ghostwriter66
"Here - Hold my Beer"
Depends on the maximum input voltage that your SCC accepts ... but @nosys70 is right ... most of us max out the voltage first then parallel to get it at max ... so for me - with 8 panels ... I run 4 sets in series and then terminate all four at a terminal block .. this helps in case of shading -- it also reduces my cable size significantly -- and also since I am using a MPPT my panels start charging earlier and stays charging later compared to using straight parallel ... I hope that makes sense ...
heirloom hamlet
life my way
Hmm...Does this screenshot not show that?
Attachments
heirloom hamlet
life my way
Well, it does, it does. But I still don't feel confident choosing a particular path for some reason. I almost wish someone would say, "Dude, that's what you got? Do it like this..."
heirloom hamlet
life my way
nosys70
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2020
- Messages
- 839
the LV-2424 accept up to 145V in input for PV, so if you have 8 panels, at 37V max, you can make make a group of 4 in parallel and put these two groups in serial for about 70V. I would not serial 4 panels, because you are too close of the 145V limit.
The problem with 4 parallel panels , is the current go high (over 30A).
ideally you would have added 1 panel to get 9 , and make 3 group of 3 , so you got up to 110V , keeping current at 25-30A that is still in the MC4 specs.
The problem with 4 parallel panels , is the current go high (over 30A).
ideally you would have added 1 panel to get 9 , and make 3 group of 3 , so you got up to 110V , keeping current at 25-30A that is still in the MC4 specs.
Last edited:
heirloom hamlet
life my way
That's what I'm talking about, thanks! I wish I'd known that at the time. But at the time the whole conversation was if there were too many watts, as if even the 2000w of 8 was pushing the envelope a little bit.
I actually have 3 of these systems I'm putting together for 3 independent tiny homes. One of these will be my family's, full time living. The other two would be short term rental homes. Maybe I should steal a panel from one for my system. Or even steal 2 from one for the other two systems...and have one lesser occupied home only have 6 panels.
heirloom hamlet
life my way
How do you think it would impact things... it'll be on the equator, so lots of year round daily sun hours.
I'd need another MPPT and BYD
heirloom hamlet
life my way
How do you think it would impact things... it'll be on the equator, so lots of year round daily sun hours.
I'd need another MPPT and BYD
