Need Help Please: Solar setup

[muzzyman76]

My name is Brandon and i'm located in Kentucky.I apologize in advance for this will be a long post. I just purchased a new Renogy Premium Kit. 200W 12V system (100W sach Panel) with a Rover 20a MPPT charge controller. The kit came with 20ft 10AWG AK cables, 2ft 10AWG fuse cable, 8ft 10AWG tray cables, 10a in-line fuse and 20a ANL fuse. Also purchased is x2 Renogy Deep Cycle Hybrid Gel Battery 12V 100aH. Plus a Renogy 2000W Inverter. My question is how should i set this system up? My solar panel cables are going to have to be 35ft long for the location of where I need to put the panels. I will have to buy the 16ft tray cables that renogy offers to reach the long distance, and because of the location of the batteries (outside) I think i will beed to purchase 4/0 AWG inverter cables from the battery to the inverter for the distance will be about 20ft. Would you recommend a Series connection from the solar panels to the charge controller because of the long distance or Parallel and the battery bank configuration in series to make 24v and keeping the amps the same or a Parallel connection. I will only be powering 3 lights that are 60 watts each, a 20" LCD tv and my interest for no more than 6 hours a day.

 

[Hedges]

You may not need 4/0 cables if you're only powering those loads, not anything that draws 2000W.
Why not put the batteries right next to the inverter? Gel battery should be fine inside.
Long PV cables are no big deal, just loses a bit of power. Long AC cables is10 times better than long 12V cables. Also better than long PV cables if you have no heavy loads.

Look up NEC charges for wire gauge, and wire resistance charts. Do some math.
Look up data sheet for your batteries, see what depth of discharge and cycle life.

I think you're going to need more panels. We assume 5.5 hours effective sun, similar to your planned run time of loads.
3 lights x 60W = 180W, and 2 panels x 100W = <200W because they normally don't put out 100W peak each. Subtract a percentage for charge controller efficiency, inverter efficiency, battery efficiency. And then there's your TV too.
See if you can figure out how many panels you'll need.

 

[muzzyman76]

Thank you for the input. I'll look up the NEC you recommended. You are right i might need one or two more panels.

 

[Hedges]

And by the way ... orienting the extra panels differently will spread power production over the day and help stay within the 20A charge controller limit.

Is that a 12V inverter, not 24V? For an MPPT charge controller, probably the two panels go in series not parallel to deliver enough voltage. But do follow the instructions and check the math. So probably that would be two more panels to deliver the voltage, not just one more.

 

[MadElectrician]

You only have 200W at your disposal. At 12V that's 16.6A. The invertor rating is irrelevant. A 12awg wire is good for 20A. But you have some line drop. Without calculating it, you have 10awg wire already, which I'm sure will suffice. What sort of wire is it? You probably want to bury it. You can buy a 10/2 DB (direct burial) cable at Home Depot pretty cheap. It has to be 24" deep.

 

[MadElectrician]

You only have 200W at your disposal. At 12V that's 16.6A. The invertor rating is irrelevant. A 12awg wire is good for 20A. But you have some line drop. Without calculating it, you have 10awg wire already, which I'm sure will suffice. What sort of wire is it? You probably want to bury it. You can buy a 10/2 DB (direct burial) cable at Home Depot pretty cheap. It has to be 24" deep. PS if you go to 24V, that of course brings you down to 8A. You could use a 14awg rated for 15A no problem.

 

[UMWEE]

My name is Brandon and i'm located in Kentucky.I apologize in advance for this will be a long post. I just purchased a new Renogy Premium Kit. 200W 12V system (100W sach Panel) with a Rover 20a MPPT charge controller. The kit came with 20ft 10AWG AK cables, 2ft 10AWG fuse cable, 8ft 10AWG tray cables, 10a in-line fuse and 20a ANL fuse. Also purchased is x2 Renogy Deep Cycle Hybrid Gel Battery 12V 100aH. Plus a Renogy 2000W Inverter. My question is how should i set this system up? My solar panel cables are going to have to be 35ft long for the location of where I need to put the panels. I will have to buy the 16ft tray cables that renogy offers to reach the long distance, and because of the location of the batteries (outside) I think i will beed to purchase 4/0 AWG inverter cables from the battery to the inverter for the distance will be about 20ft. Would you recommend a Series connection from the solar panels to the charge controller because of the long distance or Parallel and the battery bank configuration in series to make 24v and keeping the amps the same or a Parallel connection. I will only be powering 3 lights that are 60 watts each, a 20" LCD tv and my interest for no more than 6 hours a day.

It is better to run the panels in series, the higher voltage will push the current better. Votage is what pushes the current and its the only job it has. With the length of the wire run at 35ft. I would go with 8 gauge wire so you can upgrade panels later. There also should be no mc4 connections or splices after the panel connections, unless the mc4 connectors are certified in the 35 ft run to the charge controller. You should also put a circuitbreaker next to the charge controller to protect from any short and to disconnect the panel array.