ewarnerusa wrote:
Yes, the element says "12V 300W 22-12"
The insulation on the unit I have was white. I'll repost a pic from a page or 2 before this one. To show the writing and a better look at what the insulation looked like before it was cooked.
I have a theory, I may be wrong but its something to consider. I use 240 volt heating elements in my "water distiller" and the power is regulated and always at 240V so no issues. If I put a 120V element in there it makes so much more heat than it is rated for it destroys its self. (Had a 120V element that wasn't marked in my shelf)
so your hot rod is rated for 12V and I didn't see a +/- range on the website. how much voltage were your solar panels sending to the heater?
for resistive elements if you double the power you increase the wattage by 4x so if you have 12V rod that has a 300watt rating that will be 25amps flowing through it at max power, now let's say you feed 14.6V to that same element, which will take it to 30 amps and 456 watts, enough to cook your wires and wreck the heater eventually.
I am not sure what the output is on the diversion terminals if its panel voltage, it could be higher yet.
You could get a 24V heater but you will lose power putting it under 24V to it but you will not overheat it.
