Which switches and fuses to use in solar panel / battery / load setup

louisbanens · April 2014

I am wondering which switches (to disconnect) and fuses to use in my solar panel / battery setup.

I have got a 170w Solar Frontier panel (87V nominal, 2A nominal current) and a 75ah optima battery. My usage is no more than 25A current (300watt): 15watt ledlights and 60watt laptop and sometimes a 300watt pure sinus inverter

I would say:
- A switch and fuse between solar panel and charge controller: which one?
- A switch and fuse between battery and charge controller: which one?
- A switch and fuse between battery and load: which one? (something like this?: http://accuweb.nl/accu-toebehoren/massa-schakelaars/massa-schakelaar-12-24-volt-100-a/).

Vic · April 2014

Re: Which switches and fuses to use in solar panel / battery / load setup

Hi Louis,

Generally a DC-rated Circuit Breaker does the job well. The following are DIN-Rail mount breakers:
http://www.solar-electric.com/mnepv.html

These Panel Mounts are also nice:
http://www.solar-electric.com/pamodccibr.html

Boxes for the above breakers;
Din rail with enough room for 4 or so breakers:
http://www.solar-electric.com/misobigbabox.html

A very small Din rail box for two or perhaps three breakers, but it can be very tight, especially with larger cables:
http://www.solar-electric.com/baby-box.html

Panel mount box:
http://www.solar-electric.com/mnedc-quad.html

The above products are what are in use here, they work great, and the breakers and boxes are usually Code compliant and are inexpensive.
Have Fun, Vic

Which switches and fuses to use in solar panel / battery / load setup

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