In-line fuse?

[Jeremyc]

Hi there,

I am about to get my solar set up on my bus this week. I have 4 100w panels connected to a 45 amp tri-star pwm controller. My question is:

Do i need an in-line fuse between batteries and my load centers (both 12 and 110v)?

Or would I just need one between the panels and the controller?

I feel like between the panels and controller makes more sense. But I am new to this stuff

[CaptSquid]

Put one between the batteries and the controller. Fuses are relatively cheap to replace.

[Iceni John]

I would instead use DC circuit breakers for the charge controller's input from the PV array and its output to the batteries. then you can easily turn it off if needed. Blue Sea makes small fuses for batteries, and the inverter should have its own DC fuse or CB. Obviously each circuit for house power, whether AC or DC, should have its own CB as well.

I use Carling C-Series circuit breakers for my charge controllers, and I'll also use them for my DC and AC load centers. I like them because they're compact, and they're made for both AC and DC. My inverter has its own 250 amp ANL fuse, and I also have 300 amp Class T catastrophe fuses for each battery bank on their negative feed cables. When I get my house batteries I will have a Blue Sea fuse on each one. And one more thing - if your solar panels are in parallel, they should also be individually fused at their combiner box.

John

[JDOnTheGo]

Ditto on CB's in both locations. Don't get the cheapest ones you can find. I did that once and a spent a couple weeks troubleshooting a sneaky little problem that was due to the cheap circuit breaker.

Remember that fuses/CB's are there to protect the wire/cable. Thus, they are located near the power source end of the wire/cable.