Thanks

[roland elsdon]

Quite so but for my own piece of mind would like to know if my system is intrisicaly unsafe as my logic says it isnt. I am no engineer but married to one!

Peace of mind not piece of my mind!!!

[Drayke]

9 hours ago, Goliath said:

 

I’ve wired the controller directly to the first leisure battery of three because the terminals were easiest to connect to.  (I thought to the + of the first battery  and - of the last battery would be better but I was advised it won’t matter) But should I install a fuse?

My understanding from other threads on this forum is that you put charge in were you take off power from.

[WotEver]

2 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

I have fuses inside my battery box. They are 40 amp blow glass fuses. The 2 different coc  men have never said anything. I am happy to be corrected but cannot see how a fuse blowing insde a glass cylinder with inert gas inside can be a hazard.

i am very capable of being stupid and need education on this, before i blindly rewire again.

The contacts can spark. The glass can occasionally crack when the fuse blows (rare, but it does happen). The simple rule is to avoid any unnecessary connections within a battery box whether that be fuses, busbars or whatever. 

We used to have a member here, Kev, who fitted out his widebeam (and an ambulance camper conversion). When working near the battery box with an angle grinder he experienced a bang so severe that it not only ruined all of his batteries and a brand new expensive drill which had been sitting on the battery box lid, but he then had to clean up all that acid from his engine bay. Okay, not a fuse blowing, but it demonstrates how explosive gassing batteries can be. 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 hour ago, F DRAYKE said:

My understanding from other threads on this forum is that you put charge in were you take off power from.

Yes, so I hope to put charge from my panel into the batteries that I take power from. 

[WotEver]

7 minutes ago, WotEver said:

We used to have a member here, Kev...

Here’s where his batteries went bang:

http://boatbuildblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/shit-happens.html?m=1

[Tony Brooks]

11 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

I have fuses inside my battery box. They are 40 amp blow glass fuses. The 2 different coc  men have never said anything. I am happy to be corrected but cannot see how a fuse blowing insde a glass cylinder with inert gas inside can be a hazard.

i am very capable of being stupid and need education on this, before i blindly rewire again.

I have had a number of glass fuse end caps fall off when blown and removed from the holder. Some with the fuse wire intact allow the end caps to twist to a degree. There is no way I would assume such fuses are gas tight and do not think the run of the mill glass fuses are full of inert gas.

[Sea Dog]

8 hours ago, Goliath said:

Yes, so I hope to put charge from my panel into the batteries that I take power from. 

He means the same terminals, not just the same batteries,  for both charging and discharging connections... and he's right.  You were also right to think about using the positive and negative terminals at opposite ends of the bank rather than the easier way of straight on to the nearest battery of the bank.

[roland elsdon]

Thanks for the info. When i rebuild the wiring again ) i will move the box. Itsa bit of a pain because i try and keep the engine room as it was built so anything modern is hidden.hence 2 fuses fridge and electric water heater in bat box. At least they are top quality stirling ones.

[reg]

13 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

For a typical boat use the solar load terminal has limited uses. The only one I can think of could be an extractor fan in the toilet or kitchen.

Might be worth another thread on this to see how people use the load terminal as, in another thread, just came across this on the bimble site. 

http://www.bimblesolar.com/extras/dumpload/12v-200a-relay

So it seems that there may be a use for the load terminals. 

I will start a new thread so as not to clutter this thread with ot subject. 

[cuthound]

7 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

I have had a number of glass fuse end caps fall off when blown and removed from the holder. Some with the fuse wire intact allow the end caps to twist to a degree. There is no way I would assume such fuses are gas tight and do not think the run of the mill glass fuses are full of inert gas.

With proper intrinsically safe fuses, the glass envelope is filled with an incombustible material that looks like very fine sand.

Mind you I haven't seen any for years. They used to be used in battery rooms containing open cells and since the 1980's VRSLA's seem to be used almost exclusively in sensitive areas.

Edited April 19, 2018 by cuthound
To add the last sentance