Attaching a fuse to a new set of batteries?
Due to various craziness in life, I let the batteries on my rig expire, so the only purpose they have is a core charge refund. This time around, I'm getting two 12 volt jars, using 36" 0 gauge cables...
Forum Discussion
A short would presumably be a single shorted cell, not a dead short across a single 12V battery. I don't suspect that a large capacity fuse would do much of anything--good, bad, or indifferent--in the case of a shorted cell; the current flowing between the two batteries would be well under the big fuse's rating. I haven't done any math to verify this suspicion, though, so may be wrong.
For a large battery bank, distributed fuses make sense from the point of view of protecting the interconnections etc. from short circuits. For a single pair of batteries, I think it's rather overkill unless the batteries are physically separated from each other by some not-insignificant distance and hence the interconnecting wires are more subject to various possible adventures.
The main purpose of the fuse is to protect the wiring (in the sense of preventing it from starting a fire due to getting overly hot). Using a fuse larger than the current carrying capacity of the wire is not a particularly wise idea.
For a large battery bank, distributed fuses make sense from the point of view of protecting the interconnections etc. from short circuits. For a single pair of batteries, I think it's rather overkill unless the batteries are physically separated from each other by some not-insignificant distance and hence the interconnecting wires are more subject to various possible adventures.
The main purpose of the fuse is to protect the wiring (in the sense of preventing it from starting a fire due to getting overly hot). Using a fuse larger than the current carrying capacity of the wire is not a particularly wise idea.
