Calling on Solar Techies
I have been thinking of going solar for some time and decided to pull the plug. My wants are a 400 to 500 watt system. I have four 12 volt batteries with 340ah. I am not planning on changing b...
Forum Discussion
This is going to sound confusing because I am LOL!
Been waiting for a few more things to arrive including the Battery Meter with Shunt.
The panels, charge controller and inverter have been mounted but nothing has been connected electrically to the Rig yet.
Interesting wiring issue popped up when I started to wire the battery meter shunt in the battery box today.
You see in the picture my battery bank battery A the closest, battery D being the further-est away.
You can see I have a battery disconnect switch. The switch is a simple two pole switch that interrupts the negative cable that runs from the frame to battery D negative terminal.
I have had this switch for 3 years.
I mounted the shunt and connected one side of the battery disconnect switch to the Load side of the Shunt (keeping in mind this is just the frame ground cable) I connected the battery side of the Shunt to the negative on Battery D.
The disconnect switch was in the off position. Suddenly I noticed the radio from inside the Rig was on ( I did not turn it on) It should not have been on with the disconnect switch in the off position.
I came to find that the disconnect switch when in off position would become energized to a test light and not energized when in the ON position???? This is a ground cable?? The disconnect switch worked as it should for cutting 12 volt power to the RV.
I disconnected the shunt and put everything back the way it was and sure enough the switch would energize when OFF and not when ON!
I disconnected the frame ground cable from the switch and connected to negative on battery D by-passing the disconnect switch. Everything works as it should no circuit from ground to ground being made..
I have no explanation of why a ground disconnect switch would become energized"
Question 2
It's my understanding on the Battery Meter Shunt the Bat side of the Shunt is Neg Battery (battery D in my case) ONLY? and every other negative load ie frame ground, Inverter, Charge Controller and any other negative accessory goes to the LOAD side of the Shunt, correct?
Thanks for any comments
Been waiting for a few more things to arrive including the Battery Meter with Shunt.
The panels, charge controller and inverter have been mounted but nothing has been connected electrically to the Rig yet.
Interesting wiring issue popped up when I started to wire the battery meter shunt in the battery box today.
You see in the picture my battery bank battery A the closest, battery D being the further-est away.
You can see I have a battery disconnect switch. The switch is a simple two pole switch that interrupts the negative cable that runs from the frame to battery D negative terminal.
I have had this switch for 3 years.
I mounted the shunt and connected one side of the battery disconnect switch to the Load side of the Shunt (keeping in mind this is just the frame ground cable) I connected the battery side of the Shunt to the negative on Battery D.
The disconnect switch was in the off position. Suddenly I noticed the radio from inside the Rig was on ( I did not turn it on) It should not have been on with the disconnect switch in the off position.
I came to find that the disconnect switch when in off position would become energized to a test light and not energized when in the ON position???? This is a ground cable?? The disconnect switch worked as it should for cutting 12 volt power to the RV.
I disconnected the shunt and put everything back the way it was and sure enough the switch would energize when OFF and not when ON!
I disconnected the frame ground cable from the switch and connected to negative on battery D by-passing the disconnect switch. Everything works as it should no circuit from ground to ground being made..
I have no explanation of why a ground disconnect switch would become energized"
Question 2
It's my understanding on the Battery Meter Shunt the Bat side of the Shunt is Neg Battery (battery D in my case) ONLY? and every other negative load ie frame ground, Inverter, Charge Controller and any other negative accessory goes to the LOAD side of the Shunt, correct?
Thanks for any comments
