radarcontact
Senior Member
After giving FWC my serial # on my Hawk, I was assured by FWC that my wiring was 10 AWG from the factory, but my inspection of most of the wiring behind the solar controller looks to be 12 AWG. There is some 10 AWG going to the battery, but it has some 12 AWG spliced on to the last foot, where the loop connector to the battery is....confusing. What's more, they put 30A fuses in-line on the connections coming into the controller, and to the battery. Still waiting to hear their response to my last email.
I've replaced the 30A fuses w/20A for my own personal safety reasons. If I hook up 2 or 3 12V solar panels in parallel, how many amps could I run through those 12 gauge wires? Up to 20 amps? I know if the runs are long there could be heat buildup in the wiring, but I don't think our campers have excessively long runs...maybe I'm wrong. Also, the panels I'm considering have a max output of 17.8A in total (i.e., summing up all parallel circuits) - that would be under ideal conditions. My connections would probably be two panels connected w/a Y connector into the same rooftop plug, and possibly a third portable panel on the secondary outer wall plug. The rooftop plug could potentially have up to about 13.3A under max conditions, the sidewall plug 4.5A under max. I could rework this so that the rooftop plug would have about 9A max and the sidewall plug about 9A max...maybe that would be better to evenly distribute the inbound current between the two connections. Normal output under partly cloudy skies would probably be in the order of 10-14A total.
Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.
I've replaced the 30A fuses w/20A for my own personal safety reasons. If I hook up 2 or 3 12V solar panels in parallel, how many amps could I run through those 12 gauge wires? Up to 20 amps? I know if the runs are long there could be heat buildup in the wiring, but I don't think our campers have excessively long runs...maybe I'm wrong. Also, the panels I'm considering have a max output of 17.8A in total (i.e., summing up all parallel circuits) - that would be under ideal conditions. My connections would probably be two panels connected w/a Y connector into the same rooftop plug, and possibly a third portable panel on the secondary outer wall plug. The rooftop plug could potentially have up to about 13.3A under max conditions, the sidewall plug 4.5A under max. I could rework this so that the rooftop plug would have about 9A max and the sidewall plug about 9A max...maybe that would be better to evenly distribute the inbound current between the two connections. Normal output under partly cloudy skies would probably be in the order of 10-14A total.
Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.