CedarRidge
New Member
Wow the things you learn as you go. One thing I wish I had known more about right from go is wire type and size. Like alot of people it would have saved me money not having to rework the systems wiring. My first big mistake was trying to save money to begin with lol. The wire I started out with worked okay to start with but now that I have already started expanding and know a bit more. It's gotta go.
My battery bank currently is a total of 860ah about to be 1140ah driving a 12v 4000w inverter. 4 soon to be 5 batteries connected in parallel on a bus that is then tied to another bus the charge controller and inverter are connected to. After reading all the horror stories about copper clad aluminum wires and finding that is what I am running, I am immediately replacing it after running a constant 2.5kw load for an extended period to find the wires from bank to inverter warm. Not hot just warm but warm enough it makes me nervous if I push the load to the inverter's limit. I am using the same 1/0awg CCA wire for the batteries in the bank as the leads from bank to inverter. Those wires never changed temp however. I assume this is because the batteries are sharing the amperage load between all the batteries unlike the wires from bank to inverter that are taking the full amperage.
Here in lies the question at hand. I already have quality 4/0awg pure copper stranded welding wire on the way for the leads from bank to inverter. No issue there. It's a no brainer. The part I am struggling with is will 1/0awg welding wire suffice for the leads for the batteries? I do not believe I will ever run over 3kw of constant power for any extended period for me to need to go with a more recommended 2/0awg wire the math is leaning towards. If the 1/0 CCA wire never got warm, is it safe to assume 1/0 copper welding wire would be sufficient? The price jump from the 1/0awg welding wire to the 2/0awg is significant enough for me to have to weigh this option. I'm already going to sleep better knowing I am ditching the CCA Wire.
My battery bank currently is a total of 860ah about to be 1140ah driving a 12v 4000w inverter. 4 soon to be 5 batteries connected in parallel on a bus that is then tied to another bus the charge controller and inverter are connected to. After reading all the horror stories about copper clad aluminum wires and finding that is what I am running, I am immediately replacing it after running a constant 2.5kw load for an extended period to find the wires from bank to inverter warm. Not hot just warm but warm enough it makes me nervous if I push the load to the inverter's limit. I am using the same 1/0awg CCA wire for the batteries in the bank as the leads from bank to inverter. Those wires never changed temp however. I assume this is because the batteries are sharing the amperage load between all the batteries unlike the wires from bank to inverter that are taking the full amperage.
Here in lies the question at hand. I already have quality 4/0awg pure copper stranded welding wire on the way for the leads from bank to inverter. No issue there. It's a no brainer. The part I am struggling with is will 1/0awg welding wire suffice for the leads for the batteries? I do not believe I will ever run over 3kw of constant power for any extended period for me to need to go with a more recommended 2/0awg wire the math is leaning towards. If the 1/0 CCA wire never got warm, is it safe to assume 1/0 copper welding wire would be sufficient? The price jump from the 1/0awg welding wire to the 2/0awg is significant enough for me to have to weigh this option. I'm already going to sleep better knowing I am ditching the CCA Wire.