new system wiring

[Brian McGowan]

Hello all,
I have been mulling over how to wire my system in a cleaner way and still provide good protection. Right now everything wires to the batteries in a giant rats nest which I won’t even take a picture of. I just finished wiring my windmill in last night so there are even more wires. Many people use buss bars which are pretty expensive. My system is not that large but it can move some amps when I need it to. After looking at Ebay for fuse holders I came upon an amazingly simple solution. I am going to make my positive “buss bar” out of fuse holders and use a piece of copper grounding rod for the negative buss bar and attach to it with those copper plated pipe hangers. These have a 3/8” mounting bolt that I can use to attach stuff to it. I only need to attach 3 shunts that give 75mv@200A.
I give a link for my new system wiring which I put on a word document so anyone can look at it.

http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/12vmanpics/newsystem.doc


This will be the ANL fuse holder.
http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-PLATINUM-LED-ANL-DISTRIBUTION-BLOCK-FREE-FUSE_W0QQitemZ300288513274QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCar_E lectronics_Installation?hash=item300288513274&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

This would be the AGU fuse holder.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Rockford-Fosgate-AGU-Fuse-Block-1-0-2-4-AWG-4-outs_W0QQitemZ190286194653QQihZ009QQcategoryZ50550 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Something like this for the ATC fuse block. Maybe more outputs. Some have ground attachments also. I could wire the ground right to the shunt for this circuit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ATC-ATO-6-Gang-Raised-Fuse-Block-65-AMP_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ50437QQihZ014QQitem Z330305671481QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Brian

[Brian McGowan]

The parts for my wiring scheme have arrived and I am starting to assemble them. Here is a picture of the 3 fuse blocks I will be using. They are sitting on an 8.5”x11” piece of paper.

http://home.comcast.net/~bigvid/100_6079s.JPG

Wiring will be as follows:
Bottom left block (ANL fuses) will have the battery on the right connection and the inverters on the left side both using #2AWG wire. The wire coming out the top is 4/0 AWG and is 4” long with at least 1” in each fuse block so only 2” between them so it should handle a huge amount of current. It should not have to handle that much current because the largest draw should be from the battery side of the fuse block to the inverter side of the fuse block. My lawnmower engine/alternator arrangement will be hooked directly to the inverter to help supply that when it is running and can charge the battery when the inverter is off or using less current than the generator can supply. This block can have fuses from 100 to 400 amps and I think I saw 500 amp fuses for it also.

Top left block (AGU fuses) will have inputs from my solar charge controller, windturbine and grid charger and one other thing sometime down the road. Aside from the 4/0AWG input at the bottom from the ANL block, the rest of the connections are #4AWG. This block can take fuses from 10-100Amps.

The top right fuse block (ATC fuses) are for 12VDC outputs and will include Inside circuit, Outside circuit, Small battery charging circuit, Dump load 1, Dump load 2 and one spare for whatever I need it for. This fuse block can have fuses from 5-30 amps and can handle 65 amps total.

I still haven’t settled on what to use for a ground buss but there will only be 4 connections anyway. The Battery and three 200A shunts. One shunt for the inverter (ANL block) circuit, one for the input (AGU Block) circuit and one for the 12VDC outputs (ATC block).

Brian