Wiring from Solar Charge Controllers

[chemist308]

So I'm coming up to the phase of my project where wiring will be going into 2 solar charge controllers. This is going to be a nice opporturity for me to also clean up my battery wiring. Currently I have multiple wires going into the end battery of my parallel 600AH battery bank. I'll be cleaning this up by adding a nice thick bus bar.

I'm thinking this is a really dumb question, and it's probably because I'm tired. I was planning to put my solar charge controllers, batteries, shunt, power out to inverter, power out to 12 Volt supply for 5th wheel 12 volt system, with battery charger on the same bus bar. My question is can I put the charging wires from the solar charge controllers on the same bus bar as the house 12 volt system (which also has my shore powered 12 volt charger)?

[SolarPoweredRV]

So I'm coming up to the phase of my project where wiring will be going into 2 solar charge controllers. This is going to be a nice opporturity for me to also clean up my battery wiring. Currently I have multiple wires going into the end battery of my parallel 600AH battery bank. I'll be cleaning this up by adding a nice thick bus bar.

I'm thinking this is a really dumb question, and it's probably because I'm tired. I was planning to put my solar charge controllers, batteries, shunt, power out to inverter, power out to 12 Volt supply for 5th wheel 12 volt system, with battery charger on the same bus bar. My question is can I put the charging wires from the solar charge controllers on the same bus bar as the house 12 volt system (which also has my shore powered 12 volt charger)?

It is an excellent idea to clean up your wiring whenever you are making changes.

I am not sure what type of buss bar you are planning on using, but it sounds like you are going to have several "power intense" items connected to a single Buss Bar.

Based on your post, these items will all be attached to the same Buss Bar:

1 -- 200ah battery #1

(I am assuming you are using 200ah batteries)
(if you are using 100ah batteries double the number
of batteries connected to the Buss Bar).

2 -- 200ah battery #2

3 -- 200ah battery #3

4 -- Solar Charge Controller #1

5 -- Solar Charge Controller #2

6 -- 12v DC power for the coach

7 -- Power for the Inverter

8 -- 12v DC Charger (powered by shore power)

9 -- Shunt ( I presume this is for the Negative side )

When you say "Nice thick Buss Bar" do you mean a flat copper bar about 10 inches long where you have drilled holes for bolts that hold all your terminals? Or do you mean the 4 stud buss bars that you can buy, like in the picture below?




On the negative side, I would recommend using two of the pictured buss bars to attach everything to: I would run all three battery cables to the first Buss Bar. Then I would connect the second buss bar to the batteries through the shunt (this ensures all loads pass through the shunt). I would then attach all my remaining cables to the second buss bar.

On the positive side, I would recommend a similar setup using two Buss Bars. I would attach my three batteries to the first Buss Bar. Then I would connect the second Buss Bar through an appropriately sized fuse. I would then attach all the remaining cables to the second Buss Bar.

This configuration balances the power draw from each battery because all the batteries will be feeding the draw evenly and will also being charged evenly.

For more discussion on using Buss Bars you can read the post:

"Why You Should Use Buss Bars..." :

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...184#post442184

[Soundsailor]

I'm thinking this is a really dumb question

There are no dumb questions. Without this question, we wouldn't have the excellent answer provided by @SolarPoweredRV.

[Butcher]

There are dumb questions, you just get called out when you say that was a dumb question.

I'm all for buss bars to clean up a wiring maze. Power and ground. Nothing wrong with spending a few dollars more for cables larger than the specs.