Solar Panels - to fuse or not

[Stemar]

I'm planning a re-design of Jissel's switch & fuse panel, at least partly to give room for a solar panel controller that charges both engine & domestic batteries via separate outputs. The outputs to each battery will have 5amp fuses, but is there any benefit to fusing the line from the solar panels?

The maximum output of the panels (40w) is well below the capacity of the wire I'll be using, so even a short circuit shouldn't be a problem, which suggests there's no point. Am I missing something?

 

[alan]

Solar panels - to fuse or not

My opinion is that the fuses are only necessary at the battery end and should be fitted as close to the batteries as possible in order to protect against short circuiting a battery.

Alan.

 

[Cuan]

My solar panel is wired direct from the regulator to the engin start battery, and to the domestics. Each connection is fused near to the battery (this was advised to me by a marine electrician in Gosport). This by passes all of the battery switch and panels, as needs to be permanently connected.

 

[NB Willawaw]

No I don't think so. I normally only put fuses between the batteries and the controller and this is more to protect the batteries and cables if the controller presents a short circuit due to a fault.

I'm planning a re-design of Jissel's switch & fuse panel, at least partly to give room for a solar panel controller that charges both engine & domestic batteries via separate outputs. The outputs to each battery will have 5amp fuses, but is there any benefit to fusing the line from the solar panels?

The maximum output of the panels (40w) is well below the capacity of the wire I'll be using, so even a short circuit shouldn't be a problem, which suggests there's no point. Am I missing something?

 

[Sandyman]

My solar panel is wired direct from the regulator to the engin start battery, and to the domestics. Each connection is fused near to the battery (this was advised to me by a marine electrician in Gosport). This by passes all of the battery switch and panels, as needs to be permanently connected.

Marine electrician in Goport ??? Was he from reef marine ?

 

[Cuan]

From Marine Electronics, came and spent an hour with me going over all of my electrics, and tidied up some of things that were unnecessarily complicated. Very worthwhile.