Inverter Fuses & Battery Shutoff Switches

[davidbrady]

Hi Mike,

4/0 is a larger diameter than 3/0. Wire gauges sizes from small to large go like: [small] 4, 3, 2, 1, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, and 4/0 [large]. Something that Vantare did on my bus which I like a great deal is they used large copper bus bars. They take all the positive battery posts and connect them to the positive bus bar using equal length cables, then they do the same with the negative posts going to a negative bus bar with equal length cables. This ensures that all batteries see the same voltage when in the charge mode and the same voltage drop when in inverter mode. This helps to prolong the battery bank life and the wiring is so much cleaner and better organized.

Cutoff switches can be put on the positive post side or the negative or both. There may be some slightly better arguments supporting one side over the other.