Tidy cabling & busbars

flo.flowers

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T6 Pro
I’ve got 6 -ve cables I’m looking to fit onto a 4 post 100A bus bar.
Do I need to use the same sort of calculation as I’d use for cable and fuse rating i.e. is the sum load under 100A.
Or should I just get another busbar?
Cheers,
flo
 
I'm making a bus bas from a strip of 25mm x 6mm flat copper bar which gives a cross section of 125 mm2 so good for 600 amps

and two of these beefy distribution posts, rated at 640 amps @ 12v

HTH

Deaks
 
Thanks for the replies chaps.
So would 16mm2 be LARGE enough @ 110A for the link cable?
Orion Tr 30A, MPPT 20A, CRX 50 type fridge...

Speaking of which, have I underspec’d the cable for the Orion Tr @ 10mm2 fused @ 50A?
Both the aux battery & the Orion are under the passenger seat.

regards,
flo
 
Don't victron have a reccomended size for this cable? My Renogy (which is a 50A charger) manual did have, 16mm from the van battery to the dc/dc. So 10mm sounds ok for 30A. It's all about what volt drop you can tolerate really, as even 4.0mm cable can carry 30A but volt drop would be terrible.
For 10mm cable volt drop is 1.9mv/A/M and for 16mm cable volt drop is 1.2mV/A/M. So for a 5m run/return at 30A volt drop is 180mV for 16mm and 285mV for 10mm.
You'll need to work it out for your install and decide for yourself........ or just fit 16mm!

For short runs, i.e. 0.5m from victron to battery under the seat, I wouldn't stress about 10mm vs 16mm volt drop, so long as the cable is rated higher than the fuses.

Another thing to note; cable ratings are ALWAYS dependant on installation type, if it's in free air the rating will be much higher than if it's bunched with other cables and buried under a carpet. Make sure you use the rating that applies for your install.

NOTE:
I've read on the internet (so it must be true) that the van body (given good earth bolts) is equivalent to an extremely large copper conductor due to it's effective CSA. So in actual fact volt drops will be less than those shown above.
 
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Cheers Jason.
A very useful equation, all very helpful.
The Victron datasheet states “Maximum cable cross-section” is 16mm2 (AWG6).
I guess the same terminals are used across a variety of their products.
I have seen info on installation type so will consider this on the charger input and cabling size running into the back of the van.
flo
 
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