Common Wire Mistakes in a Mobile, Marine, and Off-Grid Electrical System

[@Capt-John-T-Moore]

I’m designing a 48v system using EG4 and Victron components. Your videos have been very helpful in the making sure the wires included with the inverter will be accurate in the rating range of the different applications of this system

[@FarqueKnowsWhere]

Bloopers are good value. Good demo and Q&A. Once I understood fuses are to protect wiring and to know how many amps potentially will be travelling around the circuit, and distance, I’m confident to work out wire size now, with the aid of your wire sizing calculator and other wiring tables, and that’s given me project confidence. Thanks Nate

[@rickhudson6890]

Nate, thank you for this wiring basics set of videos!

[@Salsadepr40]

It sure does give it a Big understanding of knowing the right wire size for any electrical installation. Thank You!

[@JAYFEATHERBOONDOCKS]

So important to install proper wire size and fusing. I feel like I know it all and do everything properly especially with these auto passthrough inverters. With the auto passthrough on RV’s for instance a guy can easily draw 3500 watts like I found out last weekend. I decided to exercise the batteries as I had been plugged in to shore power for two months. So I unplugged the camper left the Air conditioner on, washed the dishes then microwaved lunch. While microwaving I noticed the inverter putting out excessive heat on the back of my legs got to looking and I had forgotten to shut off the water heater tanks electric element. So at one time I was pulling 1300 watts A/C 1500 watts water heater and 750 watts microwave. It was a humming. Although everything can handle it I have nowhere near enough battery and solar to maintain such a load throughout the day. Had I made that simple easy to do mistake with 2/0 cable and no fuse it would have been dangerous, stinky, scary as well as hot.

[@dougiefresh9618]

Thank you for passing your knowledge on to everyone. We used your supplies and had a good install. Need a few questions answered and your team was on it. Would highly recommend you to any van builder.

[@BorealisNights]

I can't, for the life of me, remember where I read or saw this info but, when it comes to using two wires/cables for inverter connections, each wire is supposed to be able to carry the full current. The idea being that the intention isn't really to save money on smaller wire, but rather, its purpose is to be a redundant setup, so that if a connection goes bad(loose, for example), or a cable gets damaged, you avoid a dangerous overheating situation, since the second wire will still be able to handle the current. I really wish I could recall my source on that info. I thought it might have been Victron's (excellent resource) book titled "Wiring Unlimited", but after finding the relevant section, it says the same thing you said, about simply making sure the combined cross sections total the correct cross section for a single cable.🤷🏼‍♂ Anyway, good vid/info, as usual.

[@natearrigoni]

Great info, great name too. I was very timid learning about wiring and then doing it. Cutting 2/0 is a little nerve wracking because of the cost, lol. But getting the right tools and learning about the right size and kind of wire and fuses makes it less frightening. This demo was perfect at seeing why you don't cheat the wiring gods. It really took some time to learn all the components and rules and to let it stew to get a good big picture but man I got the solar bug big time now. Always great to watch your content, even stuff I thought I know gets light shed on it all the time. Ok, time to get off KZbin and mount some panels.

[@jamestiberiuskirk5994]

Great video breaking it down. Very good on how you explained the good, the bad, and the freaking ugly that could happen.

[@FreedomVanGo]

Awesome work as always! Particularly in the standards and deviation from Manuals. So important to look at all factors!

[@jimhanty8149]

You do a great job… have learned a lot from ya in the last 5 years… thank you.

[@brucefay5126]

Excellent demonstration. Thank you.

[@jamesdean0885]

2:27 anyone else feel like they are having a stroke 😕 🙃 It's like watching that scene in the matrix, gonna have to watch it twice. 😂

[@plokijij7856]

I was running a capacity test on a 12 volt 200ah lithium battery a while ago using my usual equipment running 1\0 cable. I noticed a significant temperature increase on the negative cable. I don’t have a flur but using the temperature setting on my multimeter it was over 20 degrees C more than the positive! I have tested a lot of batteries but have not seen this with any of the others. There must be some sort of resistance on the negative side of the battery maybe through the BMS or the cells themselves? What do you think could cause this?

[@anthonymarino4260]

well done

[@mikedidier525]

Very good demo. Thanks for the visual.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Glad you liked it!

[@jeffschroeder4805]

I guess there probably are viewers that don't believe that current and wire size matter until they actually see it?

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Indeed

[@veganpotterthevegan]

There are people that have tried putting gas in their EVs...

[@jamesdean0885]

Unlimited power 🔋 888 And another comment for the algorithm. Haha, I can only imagine what your notifications are looking like now. 👍

[@louf7178]

Spike question: I want to supply a dehumidier (7.5A, 115V). Its power use is ~565W ( ~900VA (.62 power factor)). I am looking at using a 1000 Watt Continuous/2000 Watt Peak Pure Sine inverter. Assuming 4x spike allowance, the inverter looks viable, but I'm confused about whether I should be looking at VA (with power factor) or (real) watts. The inverter is advertised with "watts". I measured the dehumidifier running as nameplate says with a Kill-A-Watt.

[@louf7178]

Nice demonstration. It confuses me how the load wattage is applied to the battery voltage for amperage because, for example, a 125A MIG welder can use a 120V 20A circuit.

[@roversberg]

is it ok for a wire to reach 80'C (copper wire ) on the negative wire when discharging battery to the grid on a ess home system ?

[@stuff3508]

Excellent as always!

[@nicholaskeur]

In Australia, it is OK to fuse parallel wires on one fuse appropriately rated to the total mm2

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Idk… still not a good idea, even if allowed, for the reasons outlined in this video.

[@Nic7320]

So, by Nate's logic, stranded wire has to be fused at 150% ampacity of a single strand. It *maybe* could be the case if there is a real possibility of one wire getting cut or damaged and the remaining current being carried by the parallel wire. That seems remotely possible, but then stranded wire can also get damaged and have fewer strands carrying the current. So how far do you take this worst-worst case into practice?

[@ThreeDayRV]

Another great video.

[@timf6916]

Good information

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Thanks!

[@IanDinBC]

Given some of the negativity in the responses here, I'd say your advice - while being spot on, of course - has some competitors worried. Congratulations.

[@SOGSEAL]

have you worked with RedArc Electronic systems? wanted to get your opinion on that

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Will be stocking Redarc equipment in shop.explorist.life once we have the time to get some tutorials on the channel about it.

[@a64738]

I had trouble finding wire size calculators that worked online for making battery interconnect busbars that need to transfer 100A 12v in a 24v battery bank... One calculator said 4mm2 copper which was obviously wrong, another said 90mm2 and a third said 1000mm2. I made the copper bars for the busbar according to the one recommending 90 mm2. Only to find out later that it could not calculate lengths shorter then 50cm and I had put in 10cm which it had changed to 50cm resulting in a busbar that could take 3000A which is super overkill when I found a wire size calculator that could calculate with 10cm lengths (and smaller)... I have used online wire size calculator online for 20 years and never had trouble with them bein incorrect until now. I blame all the search engines that after covid went crazy with sensorship and now is full of missinformation as they have deletes all the information that was correct...

[@louf7178]

I would think the battery jumper wire sizes could be load/n (load divided by number of batteries "n").

[@EXPLORISTlife]

It's not 'quite' that simple Sizing the battery interconnect wires to match the wire size coming from the battery bank is the way to guarentee it works in 100% of use cases. This is why we have it like this in all of our wiring kits in shop.explorist.life

[@louf7178]

@@EXPLORISTlife I see the mistake.

[@TruongLe-yc8sq]

I have a question. I just buy a use Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 150/70-TR VE.Can Solar Charge Controller. I installed into my system, the bluetooth not link to my Iphone Victron app. screen not sure why. All other Victron products such as Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 (2) all show-up in my Iphone app. Just wonder, it the bluetooth still working as should be or I miss something. Or you know any Victron service center, so I send the Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 150/70-TR VE.Can Solar Charge Controller to check and fix, if possible. Thanks. Lee

[@jamesalles139]

"Cool" ummm Part of the inverter's difficulty was the voltage drop across the small gauge conductors, and we don't know what voltage the input of the inverter was seeing. Ironically, that will increase the current draw. I wonder what voltage the heater was seeing?

[@ChrisBairKeto]

oh no, the magic smoke got out! =)

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Fortunately, wire smoke is easier to replace than equipment smoke. 🤣

[@Jayda08]

Fro safety reasons, I would use smaller fuse, not larger fuse. In your case it would be under 400A, not over 400A. Since the wire rated for 245A, I would go at most with 350A fuse. Why do you ask?? Well Watson the answer is simple. Fuses are cheap to replace and replacing RV from electrical wire is not cheap.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

It’s best to size the fuse appropriately and not over nor under. We have 12, 24, and 48v systems available in our store. 🙂

[@Anjanya1948]

Can you come and set up a system for me? ❤❤❤❤

[@EXPLORISTlife]

We do indeed offer installation services: shop.explorist.life/about-our-services/

[@erroneouscode]

Some of the cables they supply with particularly 12v inverters are totally inadequate.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

I've definitely noticed that too.

[@Kilo.November]

i was surprised you were running this safety training indoors! quick draw on the shutdown, for sure

[@EXPLORISTlife]

That shouldn’t surprise you. If y’all only know of half of the sketchy shit we did off camera… 😂😂

[@inglesd90]

Wire is expensive, but fire is more expensive!

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Truth

[@jake-mv5oi]

25A sounds pretty high for 16Ga wire.

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Please review our ‘how much power can wire handle’ video.

[@TamilTechTrick]

I am the first on command

[@brotherkith]

So as soon as you state the Victron wire size in mm you immediately start converting into AMG. I give up!

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Please review the conversion tables from our ‘understanding wire sizes’ video.

[@kleinbiker1]

What are you qualifications when giving this advice?

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Why do you ask? That question is typically asked as a negative connotation discrediting my work.

[@onlylexus]

I have a 100 watt solar panel 18vmp, 6.18amp lsc. And a 100 watt solar panel, 18vmp. 7.72amps lsc, Should I wire them in series or parallel? This really confuses me. Help!

[@EXPLORISTlife]

Hey, @onlylexus! I appreciate you taking the time to ask your question, but unfortunately, I don't have enough info about your specific question to provide an accurate answer, but here is a playlist that, if you watch all of the videos start-to-finish (and take notes 😉), you'll have a REALLY good idea of how to design a solar array: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJzFpGtqqKd7qck&list=PLmvhcyi4n0TV9pi83rFTv3ZuMT_S1xIZt Alternatively, I have some of my most common solar array setups pre-built here: shop.explorist.life/product-category/all-products/camper-wiring-kits/solar-charging-wiring-kits/

[@MaritimeUnprepared]

I have 3 150w panels connected in series. Two are an Amazon brand and the 3rd is a Colman. I've played with the configuration and they seem to work fine with each other even though the parameters are slightly different for the 2 types of panels.