Sol-ark 15k Parallel Battery Banks

[glatisaint]

Hey I have a question about connecting two banks of Pytes v5 batteries to a Sol-Ark 15k. I'm planning on having 2 batteries each in 2 v-box-ic enclosures (4 total) to make it easy to add another 2 batteries someday.

The sol-ark 15k has 2 sets of battery connections. The Pytes tech support suggested just connecting each enclosure with its own set of cables to the inverter. I'm partial to this because it means saving buying a bus-bar and using 2 sets of 2/0 cable instead of one set of 4/0. However, Sol-Ark support suggested using a common bus-bar for the batteries. I don't understand why they suggest that if they include the connectors for two battery banks.

Any advice here?

 

[Oldphile]

2 sets of equal length 2/0 cables is the way to go.

 

[glatisaint]

Awesome, thanks for confirming.

 

[TechRider]

I don't believe the breakers on the 15k are tied together. I accidentally ran with one off for a few days one time. It's better to have the batteries connected together. Hooking them up the way you want could island the batteries from each other. I used the Victron Lynx distributor and I think it worked well. It's fairly inexpensive and easy to connect. The plus side, if you decide to add more batteries, it's easy to expand live.

 

[Oldphile]

I don't believe the breakers on the 15k are tied together. I accidentally ran with one off for a few days one time. It's better to have the batteries connected together. Hooking them up the way you want could island the batteries from each other. I used the Victron Lynx distributor and I think it worked well. It's fairly inexpensive and easy to connect. The plus side, if you decide to add more batteries, it's easy to expand live.

They are ganged together; 2 + ganged and 2 - ganged.

 

[glatisaint]

Going with the 2 sets of 2/0 was mainly about simplicity/cost for us. I was able to get 4x 12ft 2/0 cables with the correct ends from BatteryCablesUSA for 320$. 2x 2/0 cables are only about 30% more than 1 4/0 cable. This saves the 200$ distributor plus 2->1 busbar on the Sol-ark plus the extra cables from the distributor to the batteries.

The two v-box-ic's have room for 3 batteries each and we're only using 2 each at the start. So we can expand from 20kwh to 30kwh later if needed. We have a backup generator as well so I don't think there would be need for more than that.

 

[TechRider]

They are ganged together; 2 + ganged and 2 - ganged.

I didn't think that was right then I saw this from the manual:
2. Multi-Terminal Installation
The two battery input terminals of the 15K-2P-N will parallel batteries internally to ensure a common connection between battery banks and
simplify battery installations. If a charge / discharge rate of 275A is needed, the batteries must be connected to both input terminals. If using
3 or more batteries, use external busbars for (+) and (-) connections.

In my specific case, I wanted to hit the full 275A charge capacity.

 

[glatisaint]

Both our setups will support 275A. As long as you use both sets of terminals the Sol-Ark supports that amperage:
The 15K-2P-N reaches a max battery charge/discharge of 275A if using both sets of battery terminals. If only one set of terminals
is used, the max battery charge/discharge will be limited to 160A

 

[solarken]

They are ganged together; 2 + ganged and 2 - ganged.

Are each of the breakers rated for 200A, that are ganged together, i.e. Pos1 =200A and Pos2 = 200A? Or is each breaker rated for 100A so the two ganged are rated for 200A? Also, do you know the terminal stud size? Is it 1/4-28 thread, or 5/16-24? or 3/8-24? or some metric size? I need these details to size the battery cables and the crimp terminals.

 

[DIYrich]

Are each of the breakers rated for 200A, that are ganged together, i.e. Pos1 =200A and Pos2 = 200A? Or is each breaker rated for 100A so the two ganged are rated for 200A? Also, do you know the terminal stud size? Is it 1/4-28 thread, or 5/16-24? or 3/8-24? or some metric size? I need these details to size the battery cables and the crimp terminals.

two sets of 200a breakers