Trimetric shunt/wire size question
I’m planning the install of a Trimetric battery monitor and I have a question about mounting/wiring the shunt.
After studying my layout, I feel the simplest way to mount the shunt is to make a bracket to both mount i t and attach one of its terminals to the negative terminal of the battery bank. I would then connect the negative battery lead to the other terminal on the shunt.
The main battery cables appear to be either 3/0 or 4/0 AWG. If I make a bracket/conductor, it will only be about 4 or 5 inches long. Plugging this length and 200 amps at 14 volts into a wire size calculator, I get some absurdly small wire gauge.
For material, I plan to use some 50-year-old copper pipe that was removed from our house during remodeling 10 years ago. Carefully measuring the flattened pipe, I come up with a cross sectional area slightly greater than 1/0 solid copper wire. If I were to sandwich 2 pieces together, it would be a hair more in cross sectional area than 4/0 solid copper.
If I were to make the bracket with one thickness of flattened copper pipe, with a cross sectional area equal to 1/0 wire, would that be adequate for 4 or 5 inches in this application? Or should I go 2 thicknesses, equal to 4/0?
For reference: I have 4 Group 27 12-volt batteries in parallel and a 2000 watt inverter that will charge at a maximum of 100 amps. When batteries need replacement, I expect to go with 4 6-volt golf cart batteries.
Wayne
After studying my layout, I feel the simplest way to mount the shunt is to make a bracket to both mount i t and attach one of its terminals to the negative terminal of the battery bank. I would then connect the negative battery lead to the other terminal on the shunt.
The main battery cables appear to be either 3/0 or 4/0 AWG. If I make a bracket/conductor, it will only be about 4 or 5 inches long. Plugging this length and 200 amps at 14 volts into a wire size calculator, I get some absurdly small wire gauge.
For material, I plan to use some 50-year-old copper pipe that was removed from our house during remodeling 10 years ago. Carefully measuring the flattened pipe, I come up with a cross sectional area slightly greater than 1/0 solid copper wire. If I were to sandwich 2 pieces together, it would be a hair more in cross sectional area than 4/0 solid copper.
If I were to make the bracket with one thickness of flattened copper pipe, with a cross sectional area equal to 1/0 wire, would that be adequate for 4 or 5 inches in this application? Or should I go 2 thicknesses, equal to 4/0?
For reference: I have 4 Group 27 12-volt batteries in parallel and a 2000 watt inverter that will charge at a maximum of 100 amps. When batteries need replacement, I expect to go with 4 6-volt golf cart batteries.
Wayne
