Bus electrics
12 volt control panels.
When I first installed my 12 volt control system it was very simple. Pretty much everything fitted into a small box with a main heavy duty switch and a switch for the fridge. That was it for switches. Oh every circuit had it's own fuse, but when I was doing stuff with one bit of the system, I had to power it down. It was not very elegant. It was boxy and inconvenient. I used to walk into the main switch on a regular basis as it stood out so much into the main corridor.
That's the former control panel on the left with the big red switch on it. Messy, wires all over the place.
So I decided there had to be a better way. And there was. I ordered a new power control panel and a 6 way gang switch from Ebay. Then I brought a new fuse block, wired up some power distribution blocks and got working.
The hardest part of the job was cutting away the wood to fit in the control panel, switch panel and solar controller. It was difficult to measure up the panels and mark out where to cut. You see you don't just cut out the size of the panel. Because you need wood to screw in the attachment screws. So the holes I cut were smaller than the panels. I slightly screwed up the one for the solar controller and had to spend ages filing it by hand to make it a bit bigger. Oh yeah, I had to find some place to plug in and do this too as my saw that cut the holes would not run from my inverter.
Once all the holes were cut, I fit everything in, and started wiring it all up. That bit was relatively easy. I did manage to break one of the switches in the 6 way gang switch, but after a few hours fiddling around over 2 days I managed to reassemble it.
Despite the wires all over the place, the system is rather simple. Power comes in via the solar panels, goes through a fuse on both the positive and negative wire and then goes into the PV controller. From there it goes out to the battery bank and the load. The load is power for use. This is where it looks complicated but it is not. The power comes out from the PV controller, through the big main switch and into the two switch boards. The power from the 6 way switch panel then goes through a fuse for each circuit and off to where ever it is used. The 3 way control panel has fuses in the switches so I have not routed those lines through fuses, although I have a spare fuse block to do that if I need to. When power returns from use it comes in via a small negative distribution block and back to the PV controller.
The new control panel on the cupboard. It sticks out a lot less than the old one.
The system in all it's glory, showing the big 70 LED light that I also installed.
Close up. On the left at top is the Solar PV controller. This regulates power to and from the battery bank and solar panels. Below it is the big main power switch. Below that is two banks of 3 cigarette type power outlets. Each of these runs on a different circuit and is separately fused. To the right of the PV controller is the 6 way gang switch. Then on the far right on the cupboard door is the other control panel which includes switches for the inverter, fridge and a battery meter.
An this is all the electrics. I
will tidy this up soon and perhaps shorten cables that have too much play.
On the left is the back of the 3 way control panel. In the middle is the 6
way gang switch, and two fuse blocks, only one of which is in use. On the
right at the top that gray box is the fuse box for power coming into and leaving
the battery bank and solar panels. Below that is the main power switch and
the negative distribution block.
Red wires are positive, and black ones are negative. The yellow wire on the left is also a negative one. When I have finished this I will install a perspex or clear plastic panel here to ensure the wiring can't touch anything in this cupboard.
