Cables and busbar help

[Bengaz]

Evening all.. reading a few threads tonight it seems I'm not the only one with questions relating to batteries and power.
My question is this
I have a battery to battery charger (Sterling power 1260 (12v 60A ))
and a charger inverter ( Sterling power 121600 (12v 1600w ))
I have a 12 way blade fuse busbar fuse-box
I have bought a 8 gang busbar (4+ve 4-ve) thinking a common negative through the busbar being the way to go. The recommended cable size for the b2b charger is 16mm², the recommended cable size for the inverter/charger is 50mm². Can I connect all negatives and positives to the busbar ( even the 60mm² from the leisure batteries ) the only exception being the positive from the starter battery going straight to the B2B charger?

Why are you going to run a B2B charger and a charger/inverter?

 

[Wissel]

I used a positive and negative busbar in a previous build. In my current build I used a busbar for the negative and a distribution box on the positive. Does the same thing - but houses the fuses as well.

 

[Bengaz]

I used a positive and negative busbar in a previous build. In my current build I used a busbar for the negative and a distribution box on the positive. Does the same thing - but houses the fuses as well.
View attachment 301685

That's a tidy (and easy to wire) set up instead of separate units. I cant help feeling tho that fault finding and "if anything goes wrong" you have all your eggs in 1 basket. They are hellish expensive also...

 

[Wissel]

That's a tidy (and easy to wire) set up instead of separate units. I cant help feeling tho that fault finding and "if anything goes wrong" you have all your eggs in 1 basket. They are hellish expensive also...

Yep, not the cheapest charger, but some great features specific to using LiFePO4

We do have a fail-safe, just not shown in that image. We can bypass our battery/charger/inverter, all at the flick of a switch and power via 240v or a genny. This uses a separate EHU point in the boot (using this system at the moment as battery and charger taken out ready for new conversion about to start). It powers 240v and 12v via a transformer.

On the new build, we will also have an extra MPPT, so if the main charger goes down we will have some charging. If there was a fault with our battery or BMS, our charger automatically re-routes power directly to consumers from solar or driving. Clever little charger

 

[Mr Meenah]

Why are you going to run a B2B charger and a charger/inverter?

Charger/inverter for when I'm on EHU
B2B for when I'm driving.

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[Mr Meenah]

How you charging your starting battery?

My starter battery is charged through the alternator

 

[Bengaz]

My starter battery is charged through the alternator

So no mains or solar charging?

 

[Mr Meenah]

Not for the starter battery. Do I need to?
There's no reason why the starter battery would drain.

 

[Bengaz]

Not for the starter battery. Do I need to?
There's no reason why the starter battery would drain.

Depends on what's connected to it as how long you leave it for (alarm etc etc). Mine used to go flat as I didn't use it our much and had to change the battery so I would definitely use a dual solar controller for when it's parked up.

 

[DBK]

Not for the starter battery. Do I need to?
There's no reason why the starter battery would drain.

The commonest solution is a thing called a BatteryMaster though there are alternatives. It will give the starter battery a trickle charge whenever the leisure battery voltage is a bit above the starter battery voltage, which is what happens when the solar does its thing while the van is parked up. For about £60 I would strongly recommend you include one in the build. Especially if you plan to fit an alarm and/or tracker.

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[mitzimad]

View attachment 301519 View attachment 301520

i might be being over cautious but i would prefer a bit of seperation between those bus bars anything metallic falling on them is going to do some damage

 

[Abacist]

i might be being over cautious but i would prefer a bit of seperation between those bus bars anything metallic falling on them is going to do some damage

A very good point! I would certainly completely cover the positive bus bar with a plastic cover. A spanner across those 2 would cause an almighty bang, melt the spanner and severely burn whoever was holding it.

 

[Mr Meenah]

I hope the batteries dont run flat. I've 2 132ah LiFePo4 batteries going in and theres a plastic cover to go over the busbar.