Tear Les wrote:Put a fuse or circuit breaker as close the to battery as practical to protect the wiring run to the main panel.
jdarkoregon wrote:Tear Les wrote:Put a fuse or circuit breaker as close the to battery as practical to protect the wiring run to the main panel.
Les, that is a great suggestion. I will change the placement on my fuse, thanks
John
Tear Les wrote:I'd suggest 8-gauge wire; at 60-amps you're at the maximum amperage (at any length) for 10-gauge wire and that's in free air and not bundled.
The most important consideration in buying a deep cycle battery is the Reserve Capacity (RC) or Ampere Hour (AH) rating. RC is the number of minutes a fully charged battery at 80 degrees F is discharged at 25 amps before the voltage falls below 10.5 volts. Some deep cycle batteries are rated in Ampere Hours. To convert Reserve Capacity to Ampere Hours, multiple RC by .6. For example, a battery with 120 minute RC will have approximately 72 Ampere Hours. This means that the battery should produce one amp for 72 hours of continuos use. More RC is better in every case. To increase RC, connect two six volt batteries in series or more 12 volt batteries of the same type in parallel. To increase the voltage connect two or more in series.
bdosborn wrote:Tear Les wrote:I'd suggest 8-gauge wire; at 60-amps you're at the maximum amperage (at any length) for 10-gauge wire and that's in free air and not bundled.
A #8 is pretty small for 60 amps and a #10 is way too small. The size of wire is dependent on the type of insulation as well as how it is installed. Wires in conduit run hotter than wires in free air. Here's a chart that gives ampacity based on THHN insulation and wire installed in conduit. THHN insulated wires can be found at the home center.
Bruce
Mike C. wrote:fornesto,
I have sold AC electrical for over 30 years and I would not go less than a #6 gauge, and then I would use welding cable, which is what we sell to manufacturing plants to hook up their battery chargers. If you can't find at Home Depot or Lowe's, go by your local wholesale electrical distributor and most will sell to you for cash.
But the most important question I have is how do you get 60 Amps continuous out of a single battery. What are your loads? And how long do you expect it to run? Are you basing this on your battery, or on the size of your fuse panel?
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