Connectors

[MoonShadow_1911]

Just to chime in here, most solar systems, whether commercial, residential, or RV use the MC4 connectors and are configured to make the run to a combiner box. This is where you combine the 10 AWG wire from the panels to something like 4/0 to the MPPT charge controllers. The limiting factor here is how many DC amps the panels will generate, based on the manufacture's specifications. Most panels will generate between 5.5 and 26.5 amps (this was derived from taking the panel wattage, say 380 watts, and dividing it by the Nominal Power Voltage of the, which on the Rec Alpha 380 Watt panel, is 39 volts; this gives a maximum total of 9.75 amps, change that to 12 volts, and the maximum total of amps increases to 26.5 amps.)

The Victron 100/50 MPPT charge controller should handle 3-4 380 watt panels. Now, going back to wire size, at 20', 10 AWG wire will safely handle 12 amps. This is fine for a single panel running to a bus bar in a combiner box. Inside the combiner box is where you would configure series and parallel panel configurations.

Hope this made sense and I didn't get too technical on it!

[Butcher]

I get that you can combine 10awg to a larger gauge cable but come on, 4/0awg? Really? What MPPT can accept that size cable?

There may be but this is an RV and I cannot see anything needed on the PV side of a solar installation that needs a 4/0 cable. Sure, inverters, batteries, etc, but not the PV side.

[brandtb1919]

I get that you can combine 10awg to a larger gauge cable but come on, 4/0awg? Really? What MPPT can accept that size cable?

There may be but this is an RV and I cannot see anything needed on the PV side of a solar installation that needs a 4/0 cable. Sure, inverters, batteries, etc, but not the PV side.

Certainly not the ones I installed. The circuit breakers were barely able to handle the 4 AWG, I had to use 6 AWG from there to the MPPTs as that was the maximum the MPPTs could handle.