Just Starting Solar Research
Man, there's a lot to read and digest with possibly installing a small solar panel. I very recently replaced my original 1-stage converter/charger with the Progressive Dynamics PD4600 series conve...
Forum Discussion
mitch5252 wrote:Michael in MN wrote:mitch5252 wrote:
My single panel is 100W.
Controller is 30A.
I ordered a 12 gauge solar extension cable.
Yes, there is. Longer runs and higher currents need larger diameter wires. At 100 watts, 12Ga should be OK if the run is not too long.
There are lots of good posts on this topic.
Could you please define "not too long"?
Voltage drop is a dynamic calculation with wire sizing, i.e. you're always going to have some voltage drop because all wire has some resistance. The major factor to define is how much voltage drop is acceptable for your application. For myself, I wished to have the least drop that was economically and physically possible. I wanted to get the most charging as possible from my single module. I used a roof top combiner box. Wire between the module and the box is 10 AWG MC4 cable. Wire from the combiner box to the controller is 4 AWG. Wire from controller to batteries is also 4 AWG. These are larger wire sizes than what you will need but posted to illustrate the dynamic nature of different applications.
One of the better Voltage drop calculators for solar installation can be downloaded from this thread.
