I don't normally build with Victron components ( try to use ones made in North America vs far east when possible ).
This past weekend a customer brought over a Transit 130 WB for 2 days of my "rent the shop for the day" services offering. ( basically we work on the van together doing whatever is desired. ).
He has a 12 volt system mostly Victron parts.
- 5 kW-hr battery pack
- 3000 / 12 - the new thinner model for the main inverter
- xxx / 50 solar charge controller + 400 watts of solar
- Phoenix 1000 or 1200 / 12 volt inverter for connection to the Transit CCP #2 point to pull power out and feed to the other inverter / charger for the "Orton method" of BTB charging
- Usual shunt and the big red handled switch that @RV8R likes to use and I don't see a point in.
- Blue sea breaker panel for pretty much every possible reason to turn things on / off and not use a fuse block.
- Powered pop-top that puts a 100 -200 ma draw on the starter battery in standby.
Thanks to
@RV8R for all of the details related to the wire requirements for this application.
The bulk of the time was spent trying to work wires through the Transit frame members - which is most definitely more difficult than the promaster but we succeeded.
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A couple of observations that relate to the terminals on these victron boxes:
A) The 3000 / 12 new version
- It's more or less the same for the DC side as the older model - dual terminal posts that are very solid. This is really helpful because routing a pair of slightly smaller wires vs the single full size wire to support 300 amps of 12 volt is challenging. In theory, it also provides some redundancy.
- The 120 vac side - we crimped on a 10 awg pin terminal or it would have been very difficult to insert the wire. It is spring loaded.
- The separation between terminals for the various uses such as + / - is good and what you would expect from a decent quality inverter.
- Input and output power is protected with a cover and includes wire guides to keep things organized and straight.
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B) The Phoenix is an entirely different:
- The + / - terminals are so close together that just a minor error ( like a stray wire strand ) could easily cause issues.
- There is no wire guidance at all, so it is easy to accidentally over bend the DC wires and start pulling the insulation away from the terminals and end up with a bare spot. ( at least on the wire that the customer brought with him )
- The DC terminal does do a good job or really clamping in the wire though, so it is probably not a risk of pulling out - need to check some more though..
We are still discussing if to keep that inverter vs using one with a real DC terminal like the V 3000.
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C) The V .... / 50 solar charge controller
- Similarly to what
@RV8R posted above - more or less the same terminal block
- It is interesting that on midnight solar charge controllers, the screw down terminals require a coarse wire instead of thin strand wire required by Victron. I can see how this would be an easy thing to miss. Midnight also requires an initial torque, and then coming back later and torquing down again. I tried but was unable to get them to change to a better approach.
- Normally in a mobile application, you put over size terminals on a device to make it easy to accept a wide range of wire inputs and really hold it down. ( example Bogart engineering solar charge controller. ) This Victron unit seems to really be skating the very edge of the terminal rating concept.
- Requiring a very thin strand wire, and then using a screw down terminal into the bundle seems like a bad idea. The screw down action can break the fine strands.
- The terminals are so close together that it is super easy to end up with fine, stray strand sticking out and it can easily end up in the terminal of an adjacent polarity. You have to really look closely.
This one will not overheat because 400 watts of solar into a 12 volt system is not at all taxing on a 50 amp rated controller, but I definitely would make sure to have a LOT of margin on these Victron terminals and wiring vs running them anywhere close to the rating.
- People talk about solar charger efficiency, but the Bogart has a much smaller heat spreader than these V solar charge controllers and the 30 amp rated Bogart does not get nearly as hot as these V units in use.
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Anyway - it was a good weekend, and the customer, my son and I had a fun working on the van. It is functional enough to have refrigeration and 20 amps of 120 vac, and the parasitic draw of the pop top is dealt with.
