Fitting solar panels

Hadenough

Hadenough

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Ok daft question probably - but. I am fitting three 60w panels on Saturday. It's going to be sunny (allegedly). I have everything else wired and understand that I have to make the connections to the controller and batteries in a particular order. I can't find any advice as to whether I need to keep the panels covered while I am fitting them. Any ideas?
 
Hadenough said:
I have everything else wired and understand that I have to make the connections to the controller and batteries in a particular order. I can't find any advice as to whether I need to keep the panels covered while I am fitting them. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Never heard of that. I just made the battery/controller connections and plugged 'em in. No covering, or anything like that. No problems
 
oldvarnish said:
Never heard of that. I just made the battery/controller connections and plugged 'em in. No covering, or anything like that. No problems
Click to expand...

You can cover the panels for belt and braises, or insulate the positive wire ends as you go.

The final action should be to insert the correct size of fuse in the positive line to the batteries.

I hope this helps.
 
Wire the battery to the controller first and then the panels. Are you wiring them in parallel?
My 250W panel generates a short circuit current of around 7 amps in fairly overcast conditions. That's enough to make a pretty impressive arc when I remove the ammeter probe.
 
tokoloshe said:
You can cover the panels for belt and braises, or insulate the positive wire ends as you go.

The final action should be to insert the correct size of fuse in the positive line to the batteries.
Click to expand...

+1
Panels are quite content to make power with nowhere to send it, but insulating the cable ends is prudent.
Alternatively, my information is that for significant parts of Saturday it will not be sunny. But you would need a torch ;)
 
AndyJ76 said:
Wire the battery to the controller first and then the panels. Are you wiring them in parallel?
My 250W panel generates a short circuit current of around 7 amps in fairly overcast conditions. That's enough to make a pretty impressive arc when I remove the ammeter probe.
Click to expand...

+1other
Just fitted an 80W panel to my boat, so the same thing crossed my mind! I simply kept the 2 wires in the lead from the panel apart and insulated, to avoid a short circuit which I guessed might not do it any good...
As AndyJ says, you should connect the controller to the battery, then the panel to the controller. Controller has it own integral fuse, but since it is wired directly to the battery and "always on" I fitted an additional fuse in the +ve lead as close as I could to the battery.
Have yet to enjoy the benefits of the panel, but even in overcast conditions it illuminated a 12V bulb connected directly to it as a test. With any luck it might charge at up to 4amps.
 
I have my panels connected to a deck plug socket arrangement which meant wiring up the controller etc was all done in advance and disconnecting the panels for fault finding / replacement / voltage checking is a doddle.
 
tokoloshe said:
You can cover the panels for belt and braises, or insulate the positive wire ends as you go.

The final action should be to insert the correct size of fuse in the positive line to the batteries.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am using MC 4 connectors which do not expose any bare connections so should be ok and I am now fitting a fuse on each positive close to the batteries. (it's a duo controller).
 
AndyJ76 said:
Wire the battery to the controller first and then the panels. Are you wiring them in parallel?
My 250W panel generates a short circuit current of around 7 amps in fairly overcast conditions. That's enough to make a pretty impressive arc when I remove the ammeter probe.
Click to expand...
Yep, in parallel so totalling 180W, I think I'll keep em covered, thanks.
 
macd said:
+1
Panels are quite content to make power with nowhere to send it, but insulating the cable ends is prudent.
Alternatively, my information is that for significant parts of Saturday it will not be sunny. But you would need a torch ;)
Click to expand...

:D love it, believe me I am working in the dark most of the time!
 
A1Sailor said:
+1other
Just fitted an 80W panel to my boat, so the same thing crossed my mind! I simply kept the 2 wires in the lead from the panel apart and insulated, to avoid a short circuit which I guessed might not do it any good...
As AndyJ says, you should connect the controller to the battery, then the panel to the controller. Controller has it own integral fuse, but since it is wired directly to the battery and "always on" I fitted an additional fuse in the +ve lead as close as I could to the battery.
Have yet to enjoy the benefits of the panel, but even in overcast conditions it illuminated a 12V bulb connected directly to it as a test. With any luck it might charge at up to 4amps.
Click to expand...
Thanks, will now be fitting a suitable fuse.
 
uxb said:
I'm interested in where you mounted your panels and on what kind of brackets?
Click to expand...

On Jissel, I got some Ally angle, 18X18mm, about 4mm thick a corrosion resistant flavour, and fabricated a bracket from that with big pop rivets, in the hope that the local opportunist intelligensia wouldn't be able to put it apart and, while they'd probably have a screwdriver, wouldn't have a drill with them.
 
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