how to reduce wire size form pv to house

1 Posts
Aug 6, 2004 09:29 pm
how to reduce wire size form pv to house

i just bought 5 ec-110 panels 12v 3.42a/ 24v 6.84a
and wish to hook them up to a 12v system i have some 6v interstate work horse or somthing like that. what would be the best way to do that w/o cutting out the trees/air conditioning/shade south of the house i can have full sun more or less about 50 foot away, and hope to increase pv watts another 1500 when the billfold gets a little thicker. i've looked at some mppt controllers maybe them? what companies make theses things i,ve had a bad dealing with trace/xantex/outback and did not like the high turnon requirements of solarboost 3060? i live in nw iowa and don't want to wait untill the 4.0v above battery or do i not multiple that firuge by 5 and the mppt only kicks in at 2.5 a for now i have a max of 3.42 so is it worth it or do i just go with a moringstar thanks for the help
 
20 Posts
Aug 7, 2004 11:36 am
Re: how to reduce wire size form pv to house

What you will want to do is set the panels for 12v and hook them all in series so you will have 60v system, or about 100v open.  Then get an Outback MX-60 and use that to convert the 100v to 12v.  This way you should be running 6 amps at 100v.  Check out
http://lamplight.no-ip.org/webcam.html
He is running 48v to a 12v system, but I have been told you could run up to a 72v system, but it is near the top end of the MX-60's range.

I used to have a solar boost 50, but as you said it didn't start mppt�ing until I hit over 2 amps on the input side.  The MX 60 will start mppt'ing when it hits .6a on the output side, so likely when you got even .1 on the input side you would start mppt'ing.  On the exact same setup the SB-50 made 10.2 amps and the mx-60 made 12.8, well worth it.

It sounds like you know the advantage of getting the voltage up to reduce power loss.  My panels are about 140' wire run from my mx-60, about 60 feet above them to the roof.  But about every time you double your voltage you cut your loss in half.  So by going with a series 60v system you would be 1/6 the loss of a 12v system and you can get away with smaller wire.

 
Aug 8, 2004 05:55 am
Re: how to reduce wire size form pv to house

LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 06:00 AM (EST)

By any chance are you planing on using an inverter?
If so, one could place the battery bank and inverter(s) in a "power shed" as close as physicaly possible to the array and send ac volts to the load.
If not, there is another alternative. Depending on the size of the load, one could place the battery bank and charge controller by the array and then run an oversized set of wires to the load. If more than one load then of course a branch circuit panel.
But of course this all does incur cost wether one use's a power shed and sends ac volts to the load or a battery encloser with over size wires to load or an mppt charge controller. The battery bank must be protected form tempreture extremes such as freezing.
Outback has a website www.outbackpower.com where one can read the entire MX60's installation and owners manual which has all of the pertinent information one may need to know.


 

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