Battery Wiring

[glennjr1]

This is a very rough diagram of how my battery bank is wired. I remember a video that Will made and he stressed the cables on the connections to the batteries be of equal length and busses should also be considered. This system was a "package" system, and the cables were premade. They were not equal length. There are several fuses in the system, I am not questioning the positioning of them, just the cable arraignment and lengths. Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated. I don't have a problem redoing the layout of it.

 

[featherlite]

I do not see any diagram

 

[glennjr1]

Forgot to load the schematic. Also is there any problem using different brand of batteries as long as the specs are the same?

This is a very rough diagram of how my battery bank is wired. I remember a video that Will made and he stressed the cables on the connections to the batteries be of equal length and busses should also be considered. This system was a "package" system, and the cables were premade. They were not equal length. There are several fuses in the system, I am not questioning the positioning of them, just the cable arraignment and lengths. Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated. I don't have a problem redoing the layout of it.

 

[glennjr1]

I do not see any diagram.

Sorry, I forgot to attach it. Should be there now.

 

[justgary]

You want the total cable length from the buss bar to each battery to be the same. The reason is that each cable has a slight resistance per foot, and that resistance will cause a voltage drop when the cable carries current (V = I * R). If the cables are not the same length, one battery will lag the other during charge and discharge, which will unbalance them over time.

From the buss bar to the charge controller or inverter, length doesn't matter except that short lengths reduce power lost as heat during charge and discharge.

 

[glennjr1]

How about from battery to buss bar and, I also seem to remember Will recommended wiring from battery to buss bar be a diagonal configuration.

 

[featherlite]

Contrary to what is depicted in your diagram, the PV pos and neg wires need to feed into the Charge Controller. Then the Charge Controller pos and neg Batt wires need to feed into the bus bars, like shown below:

 

[TacomaJoe]

How about from battery to buss bar and, I also seem to remember Will recommended wiring from battery to buss bar be a diagonal configuration.

You have it right. Running separate wires from each battery to the buss bar (same length) is the way to do it. The diagonal hookup is when the batteries are wired together (negative to negative, and positive to positive).

 

[glennjr1]

Contrary to what is depicted in your diagram, the PV pos and neg wires need to feed into the Charge Controller. Then the Charge Controller pos and neg Batt wires need to feed into the bus bars, like shown below:

View attachment 185759

Sorry, I forgot to draw the PV wires in the schematic. My bad.

 

[glennjr1]

You have it right. Running separate wires from each battery to the buss bar (same length) is the way to do it. The diagonal hookup is when the batteries are wired together (negative to negative, and positive to positive).

I think I am going to build a rack for the batteries. Should be easier to accomplish proper wiring.