Solar wiring question

BFL13 wrote:
The pigtails on my 230w panel are:

(UL)E310273 RHH OR RWH-2 / E305787 PV wire 12AWG 90C wet or dry 600v
Sun Res -40C >> H+S 12583780-766507 RADOX SMART << TUV.COM ID:
0811307400 PV1-F 4MM2 120C 0.6/1 KV

The strands are a shiny silver colour.

Nothing there denotes copper or aluminum but Southwire's aluminum RHH/RWH-2 90C wet or dry wire is rated to 2000V. Their copper RHH/RWH-2 is 600V. Probably just a difference in manufacturers ratings.

Yes, I am not using the pigtails that came with the panel. The junction box seems to be sealed or I haven't figured out how to get it open, unlike the usual ones with screws for the cover, but if I can't bust in, I'll snip them off short as possible and wire on from there.

My 140W panels from Solar Blvd had 16 awg pigtails. That 3 foot pigtail has twice the resistance than the total 8 awg cable length from panels to converter. The panels were cheap, but you get what you paid for. It's simple to open the cover of the panel junction box to remove that pigtail and replace it with better cable.

Sal

The pigtails on my 230w panel are:

(UL)E310273 RHH OR RWH-2 / E305787 PV wire 12AWG 90C wet or dry 600v
Sun Res -40C >> H+S 12583780-766507 RADOX SMART << TUV.COM ID:
0811307400 PV1-F 4MM2 120C 0.6/1 KV

The strands are a shiny silver colour.

BFL13 wrote:
On that, when you buy the fancy 25 ft or whatever long MC4 cables to plug your fancy MC4 panel pigtails to, are they also aluminum? So what is their real AWG value? Phooey. I will stick to doing my own wiring; at least that way I know what is going on.

The one's I found on Ebay are copper.

30 ft #8 MC4

BFL13 wrote:

Is there a way to tell if they are cu or al with those MC4 cables without cutting them?

If there are wiring standards printed on the insulation, you might be able to tell from that. Take a pic of your wiring and post it here.

Yes that warning came from the manual for an ASC controller I had which was a shunt type.

I did have some problems with some wiring schemes I was trying out with my series type PWM where I had some converter going through the controller because I got things mixed up. It just didn't work. Speculation was because that particular controller was meant to be positive grounded if the installation required it to be grounded.

Once I got things all the right way around with controller and converter in parallel it was fine.
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Is there a way to tell if they are cu or al with those MC4 cables without cutting them?

I have been looking at Home Depot's well pump wire which is amazingly low cost. You get four wires twisted together with each wire being stranded copper #12. I am thinking you could parallel two each for pos and neg and get a set of #9s in effect, which would be good with the long 24v run from array to controller. Haven't decided yet

BFL13 wrote:
My new 230w panel with the fancy MC4 3ft long wires as pigtails, turned out to be those wires are 12 AWG aluminum, not copper, when I snipped them off shorter.

So not too impressed with that. I like the other panels I have/had with a junction box and terminals in it that you attached your own wires. Then you knew what you were getting.

On that, when you buy the fancy 25 ft or whatever long MC4 cables to plug your fancy MC4 panel pigtails to, are they also aluminum? So what is their real AWG value? Phooey. I will stick to doing my own wiring; at least that way I know what is going on.

I use a set of those fancy MC4 cables and it llooks like I'll be getting another set too. Mine are solid copper strands.

BFL13 wrote:
No, I meant ...Don't short your converter.

Ah! I see what you were recommending. You were referring to the difference between a shunt regulator and a series regulator. The former short circuits the current source and the latter open circuits it.

You are right, of course, but I assumed he wasn't asking about that issue. I thought he was asking about using the cables from the output of the converter to make connection to the batteries (to avoid running a new set in parallel).

As the OP knows, for short lengths you don't need to worry so much about al vs cu for AWG value, so not worth hacking off wires to see what they are unless it is critical.

In my case it was necessary to use fatter wire without the MC4s, panel to controller, so I snipped the pigtails in order to join them to the fatter wire and saw that the pigtails were aluminum. Was not impressed.

Then I see they sell long lengths of wires with MC4s on them so you can just plug everything in easy-peasy. Hmmmmm, I say. :(

BFL13 wrote:
My new 230w panel with the fancy MC4 3ft long wires as pigtails, turned out to be those wires are 12 AWG aluminum, not copper, when I snipped them off shorter.

So not too impressed with that. I like the other panels I have/had with a junction box and terminals in it that you attached your own wires. Then you knew what you were getting.

On that, when you buy the fancy 25 ft or whatever long MC4 cables to plug your fancy MC4 panel pigtails to, are they also aluminum? So what is their real AWG value? Phooey. I will stick to doing my own wiring; at least that way I know what is going on.

Hrm these are good things to know. I just picked up my MC4 cable and it is 10gauge. But i didnt look to see if it was aluminum I assumed copper. I haven't received my panel yet, should be here monday. Now im interested to see what the pig tails on it are.

Yes this whole battery location vs solar location and how to connect the two is giving me a headache. One thing is that I haven't actually mounted my new GC2 batteries yet. So i have had the option to consider wiring them to the back bumper. As another poster mentioned AGM woulda been brilliant because I could have put them under the kitchen seats. But with these flooded cells they have to go either on the back or on the front. It seems that the front is the most likely choice. I am a bit concerned with tongue weight as my trailer is right on the edge for my vehicle. But I am only towing it 10miles or so from its storage location to where ill be using it. Im not planning to haul this across the country so it should be ok.