Combiner and Cirtcuit Breakers for RV?

[chrisski]

Long time solar forum lurker and total newbie here. Goal here is to get 720 Watts of panels and effectlively use them to charge a solar battery bank and have a 2000 Watt inverter plugged to the system.

How would you wire six panels to your Combiner? Just Y Cables?

I looked at a couple of systems for sale that have six panels, and also a 600watt Youtube video, and all three of those used a combiner box to feed into the Charge Controller. Also thought you needed to have fuses or circuit breakers for each seperate panel. I could be off base here.

I'd like this to be a DIY project and have my plans finalized and equipment purchased for October, so when the weather cools, I can start the install.

[SunEagle]

as an RV owner with solar, I'm just wondering about what you are planning here - why do you need some type of 'combiner' box? Aren't you just wiring your panels to your Charge Controller and then to your battery bank, like any typical RV?

I would guess that the panels are wired in parallel which would require a combiner box with overcurrent protection for each string. My other guess is the CC is a PWM type which will be better with parallel wired panels.

[NCmountainsOffgrid]

as an RV owner with solar, I'm just wondering about what you are planning here - why do you need some type of 'combiner' box? Aren't you just wiring your panels to your Charge Controller and then to your battery bank, like any typical RV?

[chrisski]

I'm wondering what you use for a rooftop mounted combiner with circuit breakers/fuses on an RV?

I wanted to purchase a combiner, but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for, so I'm intent to build my own. I have a 3R rated combiner that is for normal vertical mount only, it would leak if I mounted it horizontally.

What I will probably build this out of is two plastic electronic waterproof boxes, 8.5 X 9 X 3. The first box will hold a set of six circuit breakers, 150V 10 amps each. Each circuit breaker would hook to a 120W solar 12v panel rated at Short Circuit (21.6 Volts, and 7.72 Amps) and Operational of (18V 6.67 Amps). Each of these panels will be fed into the circuit breaker with a DC loss of no more than 2% with 10 Gauge copper Wire. The longest run comes close to a 2% loss, the shorter ones a bit less. The Second Box will hold the Combiner. For the combiner, I'm using a 10 connection Gang Box Connector to DIN rail Combiner, that can be fed in up to 20 inputs at 20 gauge to 6 Gauge Wires. If I can keep my Cable length to 10' or less, I will hit the 2% VDC loss rule.

I would love to have the combiner and circuit breakers fit in a single Box, but I can't find one. I'm sure its out there, I just don't know where to look.

My Block Diagram of this is attached. Pictures is better than words.

Really looking for a better option than two Boxes. So the specifics of where to purchase a box would be good or where to get combiner that meets my needs would help.