Watts Happening
I call it like I see it.
- Joined
- May 3, 2022
- Messages
- 802
I'll be wiring up the new EG4 18kpv in the next week or two and I'm torn on battery cabling solutions. I almost exclusively use Polar Wire for my battery cabling, it's just a LOT nicer to work with and their ampacity ratings are significantly higher than most off the shelf wire. It's very finely stranded wire, but you're certainly paying for it.
I think my battery run will end up at about 13 feet long, but we'll call it 15 feet to be safe. Right in the middle of the chart for the 18kpv as far as battery wiring goes:
So I can either do one set of real big wire, or two sets of decent sized wire. I'm leaning towards (2) sets of 1/0 Polar Wire Arctic Ultraflex that has an ampacity rating of 285 amps at 30c and 264 amps at 40c. I believe I'm well within tolerance here, especially being that I'll only be connecting to (3) batteries with 100a BMS/breakers. I'm near double what the battery bank can handle.
That said, my question becomes this, with only 3 batteries, is it worth the effort/time/money to install bus bars? I hate the extra wiring, trying to keep it as neat and tidy as possible. I'm fully aware of battery wiring configurations and sharing the load equally across them via bus bars, but I have to wonder, am I gaining much vs simply wiring as I've quickly drawn out below? My typical load will be sub 5kw.
I'm genuinely wondering what people think the outcome would be, would there be any perceivable difference in this scenario? Seems as though the center battery would simply feed out a relatively low amp draw to the corresponding other two batteries.
If the general consensus is that I need to do bus bars, I'll just order them and be done. I'm mostly curious, I like simplicity, less connections, less to worry about etc. I have to imagine there are a LOT of people out there with cabinets full of EG4 batteries that are pulling all power from the top as they originally shipped and doing just fine.
Your opinion?
I think my battery run will end up at about 13 feet long, but we'll call it 15 feet to be safe. Right in the middle of the chart for the 18kpv as far as battery wiring goes:
So I can either do one set of real big wire, or two sets of decent sized wire. I'm leaning towards (2) sets of 1/0 Polar Wire Arctic Ultraflex that has an ampacity rating of 285 amps at 30c and 264 amps at 40c. I believe I'm well within tolerance here, especially being that I'll only be connecting to (3) batteries with 100a BMS/breakers. I'm near double what the battery bank can handle.
That said, my question becomes this, with only 3 batteries, is it worth the effort/time/money to install bus bars? I hate the extra wiring, trying to keep it as neat and tidy as possible. I'm fully aware of battery wiring configurations and sharing the load equally across them via bus bars, but I have to wonder, am I gaining much vs simply wiring as I've quickly drawn out below? My typical load will be sub 5kw.
I'm genuinely wondering what people think the outcome would be, would there be any perceivable difference in this scenario? Seems as though the center battery would simply feed out a relatively low amp draw to the corresponding other two batteries.
If the general consensus is that I need to do bus bars, I'll just order them and be done. I'm mostly curious, I like simplicity, less connections, less to worry about etc. I have to imagine there are a LOT of people out there with cabinets full of EG4 batteries that are pulling all power from the top as they originally shipped and doing just fine.
Your opinion?
