Wiring from transfer switch to breaker box and wiring from charge controller to battery Bank questions.

[629658]

Hey I looked at that tool. Man what a great price and it comes with the cutter as well that seems to be a smoking good deal. How well did it work for you? And is this the one that you are using?

Yes it is I’ll have to look at the die size I used I think it was a 70. It barely fit 4/0 lugs but I got it to work. I crimper 25 or so lugs. I borrowed it from my son. He used it to crimp aircraft cable or wire rope for a deck railing project. I ended up buying one of these

SogYupk Ratchet Cable Wire Cutter,Ratcheting Cable Cutter Hand Tool,Heavy Duty Aluminum Copper Ratchet Wire Cutting For Cutting Electrical Wire Up to 240mm²/10.23Inch Cutter Pliers https://a.co/d/iN9Avjc

It didn’t deform the wire at the cuts so it made the lugs slide right on.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

Some really smart folks on here. Your room looks like a NASA control center. A real thing of beauty.

As for my Sol Ark it’s been rock solid since I installed it in September. I haven’t had a single big issue. Only thing I can complain about it is its SOC calculations are awful. I am open loop and it’s getting better with new firmware.

Installation was a breeze and the way it manages energy is amazing to me. I have it loaded up with an 18kw genny, 13.4kW DC coupled PV, 1850Ah of storage. We are rural so we have a well, a 4 ton Geothermal, Electric dryer and oven and a pool. So we use it pretty good. I utilize its Time of Use functions heavily. We have had solar for 9 years and updated to the Sol Ark and storage last year.

We are on hourly utility pricing by choice and leverage buying cheap nighttime kWh and selling off our PV production at double or triple the price during the day. Lately buying at 1.5 cents and selling at 3-5 cents. The Sol Ark makes the process easy. Plus you needed something that even my wife could run while I’m away.

I approached solar from an all or nothing standpoint. Either it runs the whole house or it doesn’t. I didn’t want to mess with critical loads panel.

That sounds fantastic so this thing is starting your 4 ton ac? Is that a 15 KW solark ? Yeah the best I can hope for here Oklahoma is a zero Electric bill and even with the zero bill you still have to pay the $15 a month hook up fee so the cheapest my bill will ever be will be $15. I wished I had solar for the last decade but I have had three different UPS systems over the years All Battery based with big Transformer inverters. I'm totally with you on the All or Nothing. The fronius grid tie system I'm going to install at 12.5 KW will be able to power the whole house without issue I'm pretty sure one sw5548 will power my house. When I built it 10 years ago I made it superficient it's 2x6 everything in the house is energy star. I'm rural as well also have a well pump I have a 3.2 ton AC that only uses 30 amp breaker with 10 gauge wire. I bought a soft start for it I'm pretty sure one sw5548 would start it without the soft start but I'm going to make it easy for the inverter and everyone seems to say that they also save power over time. I will do a amp test before I install the soft start just to see how much difference it really makes. I have an interlock for my breaker panel if the grid goes down and the grid tie with it I can switch the entire breaker box to the backup system or while the grid is on I can switch those eight circuits back and forth. That's the plan anyway. I will be attacking the wiring from the generator room to the breaker box then the transfer panel will be added to allow me to switch back and forth between the two inverter systems.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

Yes it is I’ll have to look at the die size I used I think it was a 70. It barely fit 4/0 lugs but I got it to work. I crimper 25 or so lugs. I borrowed it from my son. He used it to crimp aircraft cable or wire rope for a deck railing project. I ended up buying one of these

SogYupk Ratchet Cable Wire Cutter,Ratcheting Cable Cutter Hand Tool,Heavy Duty Aluminum Copper Ratchet Wire Cutting For Cutting Electrical Wire Up to 240mm²/10.23Inch Cutter Pliers https://a.co/d/iN9Avjc

It didn’t deform the wire at the cuts so it made the lugs slide right on.

That looks very nice reminds me of the old tree limb Lopper that had ratchet action so the cutter that came with the tool it deformed the wiring? Made it hard to get into the lugs?

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

Some really smart folks on here. Your room looks like a NASA control center. A real thing of beauty.

As for my Sol Ark it’s been rock solid since I installed it in September. I haven’t had a single big issue. Only thing I can complain about it is its SOC calculations are awful. I am open loop and it’s getting better with new firmware.

Installation was a breeze and the way it manages energy is amazing to me. I have it loaded up with an 18kw genny, 13.4kW DC coupled PV, 1850Ah of storage. We are rural so we have a well, a 4 ton Geothermal, Electric dryer and oven and a pool. So we use it pretty good. I utilize its Time of Use functions heavily. We have had solar for 9 years and updated to the Sol Ark and storage last year.

We are on hourly utility pricing by choice and leverage buying cheap nighttime kWh and selling off our PV production at double or triple the price during the day. Lately buying at 1.5 cents and selling at 3-5 cents. The Sol Ark makes the process easy. Plus you needed something that even my wife could run while I’m away.

I approached solar from an all or nothing standpoint. Either it runs the whole house or it doesn’t. I didn’t want to mess with critical loads panel.

It sounds like you made a good purchase then after reading through your post again and the way you sell electric there I don't think you can beat that inverter for the controllability of it . When I put the Fronius in service, I'll be adding what they call the Fronius smart meter and basically it won't sell much more than I use I'll program it to sell just a little extra to make sure I zero my bill but in Oklahoma if you sell too much back to the grid they want to call you a commercial power producer and change the rate at which you buy power which indirectly makes your electric bill cost more. Oklahoma is a terrible state to do solar in there is no incentive other than the Federal. Being a gas and oil state they do not want people to have solar I'm convinced. My whole purpose for doing this is to have no bills when I retire in 8 years I'm knocking away at the house like crazy I think I'll have it paid off in four and a half years.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

Well factory made cables are probably superior although if you take your time and do it right maybe not. You just need to make sure all your cables are equal length. I made a lot of crimps on my project.

I'm curious about your battery Bank they're very interesting looking as if each battery had its own monitor built in. That lynx 1000 unit that you have all your batteries going to what is the purpose of that?

 

[629658]

That sounds fantastic so this thing is starting your 4 ton ac? Is that a 15 KW solark ? Yeah the best I can hope for here Oklahoma is a zero Electric bill and even with the zero bill you still have to pay the $15 a month hook up fee so the cheapest my bill will ever be will be $15. I wished I had solar for the last decade but I have had three different UPS systems over the years All Battery based with big Transformer inverters. I'm totally with you on the All or Nothing. The fronius grid tie system I'm going to install at 12.5 KW will be able to power the whole house without issue I'm pretty sure one sw5548 will power my house. When I built it 10 years ago I made it superficient it's 2x6 everything in the house is energy star. I'm rural as well also have a well pump I have a 3.2 ton AC that only uses 30 amp breaker with 10 gauge wire. I bought a soft start for it I'm pretty sure one sw5548 would start it without the soft start but I'm going to make it easy for the inverter and everyone seems to say that they also save power over time. I will do a amp test before I install the soft start just to see how much difference it really makes. I have an interlock for my breaker panel if the grid goes down and the grid tie with it I can switch the entire breaker box to the backup system or while the grid is on I can switch those eight circuits back and forth. That's the plan anyway. I will be attacking the wiring from the generator room to the breaker box then the transfer panel will be added to allow me to switch back and forth between the two inverter systems.

I think it will work just fine and I might have done it a different but I work long hours sometimes so I wanted something completely automated for my wife. I already have too much stuff that goes down on occasion like the internet.

 

[629658]

I'm curious about your battery Bank they're very interesting looking as if each battery had its own monitor built in. That lynx 1000 unit that you have all your batteries going to what is the purpose of that?

That is my buss. I feed both ends of the buss from my inverter. I chose it for see real reasons instead of making my own. First it’s rated at 1000A. Secondly with the addition of some bolts, each battery is fused. And third at about $150 each I couldn’t fabricate one much cheaper. I know it’s engineered to handle 3/4 more amps than I will push through it. Here is one with the cover off. My other thing I couldn’t find an elegant way to cover a homemade one and they need to be covered. It has both the positive and negative buss inside. Each will handle 4 batteries. They interlock so you can add a bunch together. I have two for my 8 batteries.

 

[629658]

That is my buss. I feed both ends of the buss from my inverter. I chose it for see real reasons instead of making my own. First it’s rated at 1000A. Secondly with the addition of some bolts, each battery is fused. And third at about $150 each I couldn’t fabricate one much cheaper. I know it’s engineered to handle 3/4 more amps than I will push through it. Here is one with the cover off. My other thing I couldn’t find an elegant way to cover a homemade one and they need to be covered. It has both the positive and negative buss inside. Each will handle 4 batteries. They interlock so you can add a bunch together. I have two for my 8 batteries.

I chose Trophy brand batteries they are 230Ah each. Will did a review of them and he like the quality construction. They have been very good so far. I hate the wire management but since all leads need to be equal length it was difficult to make them look better.

 

[629658]

I did this modification on the Lynx Power In’s. Saved a little money and it made a nice safe buss system

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

That is my buss. I feed both ends of the buss from my inverter. I chose it for see real reasons instead of making my own. First it’s rated at 1000A. Secondly with the addition of some bolts, each battery is fused. And third at about $150 each I couldn’t fabricate one much cheaper. I know it’s engineered to handle 3/4 more amps than I will push through it. Here is one with the cover off. My other thing I couldn’t find an elegant way to cover a homemade one and they need to be covered. It has both the positive and negative buss inside. Each will handle 4 batteries. They interlock so you can add a bunch together. I have two for my 8 batteries.

I see now that's just totally a really fancy bus bar, with that victron blue it looked like some kind of battery controller looks really good.I like tthen. I had to add a few similar items to my bus bars I kept having to keep adding positives and negatives and I'm like tired of drilling holes and trying to add bolts through the bus bars so I added these at the top of the battery Bank, 3/8 studs they'll handle like a thousand amps I've only got a few things hooked to to them but it gives me room to expand they're more for power taps to feed the victron equipment.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

I think it will work just fine and I might have done it a different but I work long hours sometimes so I wanted something completely automated for my wife. I already have too much stuff that goes down on occasion like the internet.

That's good for her that you got it automated. I came so close to going that route I talked myself out of it because of the cost. As long as it works that's the important thing . Although not automated I've got mine labeled so well I've shown the few family members how to operate it . Flip the interlock switch on the breaker box and push a button on the inverter control panel and it works. When I install the generator I'll have a push button start in the power room should be pretty neat. I bought a 10 KW Westinghouse dual fuel with remote start but I'm only going to run it on propane. It will actually be tied to my thousand gallon propane tank when I built the house 12 years ago I actually had a pipe ran to the end of the house and capped.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

I did this modification on the Lynx Power In’s. Saved a little money and it made a nice safe buss system

That was a really good video nice little bus bars there. I've actually watched that guy a few different times. During my research and development phases trying to figure different things out. He's actually got a lot of good videos seems to favor the victron equipment. I'm really happy to have some victron equipment and to me it's amazing what it will do for the price. I just wish they would make a full-blown grid tie inverter that would sell back to the grid. I read an article somewhere that they used to make grid tie inverters years ago but the market got so competitive they just dropped the line.

 

[notarichman]

Yes it is I’ll have to look at the die size I used I think it was a 70. It barely fit 4/0 lugs but I got it to work. I crimper 25 or so lugs. I borrowed it from my son. He used it to crimp aircraft cable or wire rope for a deck railing project. I ended up buying one of these

SogYupk Ratchet Cable Wire Cutter,Ratcheting Cable Cutter Hand Tool,Heavy Duty Aluminum Copper Ratchet Wire Cutting For Cutting Electrical Wire Up to 240mm²/10.23Inch Cutter Pliers https://a.co/d/iN9Avjc

It didn’t deform the wire at the cuts so it made the lugs slide right on.

i have the hyclat hydraulic crimper; used #70 on 4/0 stranded wire and it didn't clamp tight enough, even tried crimping twice, no go. i think
they need a size 65 or 60 which they don't sell. so i just bought the old pound style crimper.

 

[629658]

The crimper I used worked beautifully. I made 3 crimps per lug. Lug was probably 1/2 the diameter when I was done. I started far end of the lug worked my way to the “hole” end. Probably 10-15 pumps on the crimper until I couldn’t squeeze it at all. I put my wire lightly in a vice so I could really squeeze that crimper.

 

[G.W. Mad Scientist]

i have the hyclat hydraulic crimper; used #70 on 4/0 stranded wire and it didn't clamp tight enough, even tried crimping twice, no go. i think
they need a size 65 or 60 which they don't sell. so i just bought the old pound style crimper.

I bought one of those pound style crimpers years ago and used it several times and my shop is so full of stuff. I could not find it to save my life. I was able to borrow a hydraulic pump crimper but it only goes up to 1/0 so I'm going to make two of those cables. I literally ended up buying three 4/0 cables the fine-strand good stuff for the rs 450/200 charge controller to the battery Bank and want to replace one cable on the inverter that I made years ago a 2/0 rest of the cables were all factory xantrex 4/0 cables.


Decided rather than buying the crimper I would rather invest the money in the cables that I needed. I was down to just needing five cables and I'm able to make two with the borrowed crimper and just bought the other three. I'm so ready to get the power room done and move on to starting to hang the grid tie equipment on the front of the house.