First off, I know nothing about solar panels. I bought ECO-WORTHY 200 Watt 12V Complete Solar Panel Starter Kit for RV Off Grid with Battery and Inverter: 200W Solar Panels+30A Charge Controller+50Ah Lithium Battery+600W Solar Power Inverter as a kit. It's 2 100w panels It can be hooked up for 12v or 24v. I'm wanting to put it in my shed to charge tool batteries and a couple 48" LED lights. The LED light are plug in. I have 2 outlets/receptacles wired to 1 switch. And maybe run a small air compressor and/or a skill saw if possible. This would not be every day usage. I live in middle Tennessee, so we have a lot of sunny days. Also i want to hook it up to a breaker box. So i need advice on the best way for wiring and grounding. The solar panel, Controller, inverter and battery came with what I assume is supposed to used with them. What size wire would i need for the breaker box and grounding? I'd appreciate any help I can get.
Need advice on wiring solar panels for my shed.
- Thread starter ozzman71
- Start date
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
600W solar power inverter is unlikely to run a air compressor unless it's wee tiny one and definitely not the saw.
Electric motors have high surge typically 5X their run power.
Electric motors have high surge typically 5X their run power.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
So for the initial kit, it's designed to connect the panels in parallel (there should have been a Y-splitter in the pack) to the controller, 14AWG wire would be fine. The inverter is going to be wanting to draw almost 50a of power from the battery which would be 6AWG wire, although the battery is going to be maxxed out on its BMS to do that.
From the inverter to a breaker panel (which is overkill for that small an inverter) you can use 14AWG wire because it's only about 5a on the 120v side. You can use a power strip plugged into the inverter (since I doubt it has terminals) or cut up an extension cord to go from the plug on the inverter to the breaker panel. When you connect to the lugs in the breaker panel run a jumper wire between the two lugs and you'll have 120v on both sides, but no 220v so don't try. Grounding will go from the ground lug in the breaker panel to a copper rod in the dirt outside and there'll be a screw to make the Neutral-Ground bond inside there. I used a basic Eaton 2-slot panel and a couple tandem breakers for my shed when I hooked everything up, it was just right for the small space.
As to the tools you want to use, a skill saw is going to want about 1000w to run, maybe more depending on the size of the saw. The air compressor is going to want pretty much the same. Either way the startup surge is going to be really high and your inverter is probably going to trip out even trying to start those.
The kit you've got can easily recharge batteries on cordless tools, and it'll run lights for a while, but directly powering tools is going to be difficult at best and impossible at worst.
Once you've got the bug and start thinking about upgrading the system, you'll want to start replacing parts in (IMHO) order:
MPPT Controller - 40a or more (Pro tip, if it has USB ports on it, it's really a PWM in disguise and ripping you off)
LFP battery - 100Ah or higher
1200-1500w Pure Sine inverter
Shunt
More panels
From the inverter to a breaker panel (which is overkill for that small an inverter) you can use 14AWG wire because it's only about 5a on the 120v side. You can use a power strip plugged into the inverter (since I doubt it has terminals) or cut up an extension cord to go from the plug on the inverter to the breaker panel. When you connect to the lugs in the breaker panel run a jumper wire between the two lugs and you'll have 120v on both sides, but no 220v so don't try. Grounding will go from the ground lug in the breaker panel to a copper rod in the dirt outside and there'll be a screw to make the Neutral-Ground bond inside there. I used a basic Eaton 2-slot panel and a couple tandem breakers for my shed when I hooked everything up, it was just right for the small space.
As to the tools you want to use, a skill saw is going to want about 1000w to run, maybe more depending on the size of the saw. The air compressor is going to want pretty much the same. Either way the startup surge is going to be really high and your inverter is probably going to trip out even trying to start those.
The kit you've got can easily recharge batteries on cordless tools, and it'll run lights for a while, but directly powering tools is going to be difficult at best and impossible at worst.
Once you've got the bug and start thinking about upgrading the system, you'll want to start replacing parts in (IMHO) order:
MPPT Controller - 40a or more (Pro tip, if it has USB ports on it, it's really a PWM in disguise and ripping you off)
LFP battery - 100Ah or higher
1200-1500w Pure Sine inverter
Shunt
More panels
Thank you for your reply.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
Tool batteries and lights should be fine, those aren't exactly high amp draw devices.
You can, it just means it takes longer to recharge the batteries but that's fine. Think of your solar system like a bucket of water:
Amp hours or Watt Hours is the size of a bucket and how much it holds. The larger the battery the more water you have to play with.
Panels & Controller is the size of the hose filling the bucket. A small hose (200w) will take 6 hours of sun to recharge a battery from empty to full, but a larger hose (400w) will fill that bucket in half the time.
Inverter is the water wheel under the bucket. The more water you can pour on it, the more taffy you can spin on the water wheel. (That's what water wheels do, right?
)The wire size is determined by the amps, not the volts. The battery feeding the inverter is going to be thicker because 600w inverter / 12v = 50a. On the other side you've got a lot higher voltage, which means a lot less amps, so 600w / 120v = 5a. 14AWG wires are usually rated for 15a unless you get into the fancy stuff that can actually run higher amps, but don't worry about that. A 14awg wire is a really common size because it's what's used in houses and many extension cords so it's cheap and easy to use.
For an idea of how wire size works, let me throw the BlueSea ampacity chart under here. To figure out the amps it's Watts / Volts so:
It sounds like this will be a fun little system to get you started.
?I appreciate you taking the time to explain everything. I''ll get started with this and see how it goes.Tool batteries and lights should be fine, those aren't exactly high amp draw devices.
You can, it just means it takes longer to recharge the batteries but that's fine. Think of your solar system like a bucket of water:
Amp hours or Watt Hours is the size of a bucket and how much it holds. The larger the battery the more water you have to play with.
Panels & Controller is the size of the hose filling the bucket. A small hose (200w) will take 6 hours of sun to recharge a battery from empty to full, but a larger hose (400w) will fill that bucket in half the time.
Inverter is the water wheel under the bucket. The more water you can pour on it, the more taffy you can spin on the water wheel. (That's what water wheels do, right?
The wire size is determined by the amps, not the volts. The battery feeding the inverter is going to be thicker because 600w inverter / 12v = 50a. On the other side you've got a lot higher voltage, which means a lot less amps, so 600w / 120v = 5a. 14AWG wires are usually rated for 15a unless you get into the fancy stuff that can actually run higher amps, but don't worry about that. A 14awg wire is a really common size because it's what's used in houses and many extension cords so it's cheap and easy to use.
For an idea of how wire size works, let me throw the BlueSea ampacity chart under here. To figure out the amps it's Watts / Volts so:
View attachment 184674
It sounds like this will be a fun little system to get you started.
