1、Wiring the solar panelsWritten by brad on December 26th, 2009 The first row of solar panels is installed. Its time to look at wiring them together.FinishedEach solar panel (data sheet, installation manual) has two cables on the back, one with a male connector and the other with a female connector. Y
2、ou can connect solar panels together (in series) with these cables. The more panels you connect together the greater the voltage. Because you need to have circuit breakers between the solar panels and the inverter/battery charger, you need to keep the voltages down to a level thats reasonable for yo
3、ur DC breaker.The power cablesOur breakers can handle up to 150 volts. We will wire in groups of three panels which generates about 100 volts.After you have connected your panels together, youre left with one male and one female connector. One of these is positive and one is negative. These need to
4、be connected to the combiner/breaker box. With our purchase, we got four 30 foot cables with the same connectors as the solar panels. What you do, is cut these in half (or so, depending on your arrangement) and use the two pieces to connect the solar panels to the breaker box. The end with the conne
5、ctor attaches to the solar panel, you strip the wire on the other end and hook it up in the combiner box. One very nice thing about this arrangement, is that you can wire the cables to the breaker box before you plug into the solar panel. This is very nice because solar panels cant be switched off i
6、f its sunny.Midnite Solar MNPV6 Solar Array CombinerThe combiner box we are using is from Midnight Solar. We will use four of the available six spots for circuit breakers. If we ever find that we need to get more solar panels, all we need to do is add some breakers and were ready to go.It turns out
7、that this combiner box needs some assembly. Thats because it was designed for a variety of uses. It was pretty simple to figure out what we needed, but it was hard for me to figure out how it fit together.There is a plate that the breakers fit into that looks like it mounts in the box; it doesnt. It
8、 kind of hangs in the air. The breakers have a screw in the back that clamps down on the plate. Once you get a few breakers installed, its quite secure. This plate supplies the combined (in parallel) power of all the solar panels to the battery charger.I have a DC lightning arrestor that will be ins
9、talled in the combiner box. It connects to ground, neutral, and the combined DC output. (We actually have a variety of lightning arrestors that will go throughout the system.) I dont really know how much protection things like this provide, but considering the lightning Ive seen here so far, it seem
10、s worth trying.As for grounding the panels and combiner box, I put a grounding rod into the ground (eight feet down) inside of the center back concrete column. Bare copper wire is running from the grounding rod out of the column. Ill use this to ground all the solar panels and the combiner box. (We
11、had to order special little connectors that attach the grounding wire to each of the solar panels.)There was a brief hiccup before we actually wired the solar panels to the combiner box. Someone asked a question regarding the rated amps (15 amps) for for the breakers and the amps coming from the sol
12、ar panels. The case is that when you connect panels in serial, the voltages add and the amps stay the same. (If you combine in parallel, the amps add and the voltage stays the same.) So, the circuit breakers we have are fine.The wiring in pictures The combiner before the breakers and busbar are inst
13、alledThe breakers and busbar in placeWired for the first group of three panelsThree panels into the combiner - close upAll six panels into the combinerInstructions for the lightning arrestorLightning arrestor - wiredDone for the dayDocumentationWiring the solar panels doneWritten by brad on December
14、 28th, 2009 At least until I get the energy or desire to install the next six panels. We should have plenty of power for construction with six panels.Today, we grounded the solar panels.Ground wires attachedClose up of grounding lugs attached to the solar panelsWe also finished running the conduit f
15、rom the combiner box to the battery house. Into the conduit went the hot, neutral, and ground wires from the combiner box which will hook up to the charging unit of the inverter. I also made a small change based on a recommendation from P.D.; I wrapped white tape around the two negative leads coming
16、 from the solar panels. I meant to do that just because it made clear which wires were hot and which were negative, but once they were in place, I forgot.Wiring completeThe inside cover is back onButtoned upNext were going to work on getting the inverter up and running. The first step is mounting it. Its a hundred and thirty pounds so it needs a solid mount. I put six 3 inch lag bolts into studs to hold it, plus quit a few sturdy screws into the OSB. Its not going any where.Mounting for the inverter
