I have 750w of solar panel going through a 20ah blade fuse to a MPPT charge controller for years, no problem. I am running 48v though and the smaller 24v backup system with 500w solar panel, I have a 25ah blade fuse both work fine. Seriously 12v systems is just a magnetic for heat.
I wonder how those fuses go in cars then, never been a massive fan of them, but millions of cars use them, and I'd imagine some reasonable currents flowing thru some circuits. I wonder what's so different about this setup, unless the fuse holders are sub-par. Nice find Glen !!! 🤠😎
I find then good for up to 15 amps but past that then it gets a little warm. Most circuits in a car runs less than 15 amps or you will cook the wiring harness. For higher current line I think they use the block fuses ??
so the question is with all the panels connected( you mentioned you removed one) and what current was passing through that fuse holder ? I would say it's a cheap fuse holder. before we had all these new fuse types, this was all we had. granted they were used to low current demand , where these days people are just asking too much of them for a press fit connection.
When all the panels were connected I use to get just on 21 amps through, so it would not have liked that either 😬 The brand of fuse holder is Narva brand which is generally a pretty good brand, I buy them in a bulk pack of twenty. They are rated to 25 amps so they should handle 21 amps. But I have found regardless of the quality, once I exceed 15 amps with these type of fuse holder, they start getting hot. I have a friend that works full time in the industry and he finds the same thing once you exceed the 15 amp mark. So he uses midi fuses for anything above 15 amps.
The internal resistance is quite high as there are 2 crimp connections, 2 wiping contacts and a fuse. Check with a milliohm meter like for checking cells. The wire looks to be 14AWG in ads, which doesn't appear to be rated for 30A.
Makes me wonder is it the blade fuse or the fuse holder getting hot. Could it be the poor quality plating on either the contacts or the fuse pins. Never seen car fuses or fuse holders do this unless a lot of current is being drawn. For me most things have their own fuse and on examining my Jaycar 12V battery box while installing the Kings 60Ah I noted that there wasn’t a single fuse anywhere. I guess they are expecting (maybe) that the things you connect have their own fuse. Which is why teardowns are so good. Maybe the DC DC charger has internal fuses.
It could well be the fuse holder but I have had different brands of holder do the same. Once I exceed the 15 amp range, they get hot. I have even had the Maxi blade fuses get hot. If I remember I have a video on the maxi blade fuse. I no longer buy products from Jaycar, they have turned total rubbish, I have had too many Jaycar product fail on me lately. They use to be good but now they have gone cheap quality for a premium price.
I have seen quite a few automotive fuses inside the inverters without issues. If you cut the insulation off the melted automotive fuse, can one see where the damage started..? Was it the crimp or the fuse interface?
Noticed the same thing yesterday with my set up, swapped out the 20amp fuse for 30amp but do you think I'd be better off just pulling the fuse section out all together? The battery was off charge when I changed the fuse and haven't tried it since but I was reading 17amps going in too and by the looks of it the 30 won't be much better.
I have wondered why the need to fuse/circuit breaker protect the Solar in when its output current is limited . Circuit breaker is handy for isolation .
If you have a heap of panels in parallel then you need to fuse each panel individually so if one fails, all the others don't feed back into the failed panel and over current that panel. But in a series connection you don't need a fuse.
@@TheSimpleLivingAussie Hi Glen , so does a Solar panel fail outputting more current than it can normally produce.? If it normally can produce 10amp s out max what size of fuse do you use?….
I have found that when inserting the blade fuse one of the blades can miss the female part and then be along side of it making a dodgey connection. This happened to mine and melted the fuse.
I found the similar thing with the maxi fuses as well, I did a video on it which is also on my channel. I have been moving over to the midi fuses for anything above 15 amps and so far they have been good. I will have to do an update video on the fuses I'm moving over to.
The DC to DC charger will only take a maximum of 32 volts input. That's one of the problems with running the DC to DC, they don't have a high enough input voltage.
If you run a too smaller fuse, they have more resistance and the hotter they get, plus you run the risk of popping the fuse so one needs to go bigger than the current running through the line. When I was running the bigger battery I had around 24 amps going through the line so I used a 30 amp to avoid resistance, heat build up and blowing the fuse as the next fuse down from the 30 is a 25. But I think the fuse holders I am using are not good quality hence the heat build up. I am gonging to have to get hold of a quality fuse holder and give that a try and see. But in reality the fuse is not needed in this circuit as explained in the video so I ended up taking it out all together 👍
Another Excellent Video Thanks
Lovely Ep and find, I had a heap of them blade fuses like you, I slowly changed them all as one buy one they started Melting.
I find anything over 15 amps gets to hot.
@@TheSimpleLivingAussie Yep I agree, and fine in winter,
I have 750w of solar panel going through a 20ah blade fuse to a MPPT charge controller for years, no problem. I am running 48v though and the smaller 24v backup system with 500w solar panel, I have a 25ah blade fuse both work fine. Seriously 12v systems is just a magnetic for heat.
I wonder how those fuses go in cars then, never been a massive fan of them, but millions of cars use them, and I'd imagine some reasonable currents flowing thru some circuits. I wonder what's so different about this setup, unless the fuse holders are sub-par. Nice find Glen !!! 🤠😎
I find then good for up to 15 amps but past that then it gets a little warm. Most circuits in a car runs less than 15 amps or you will cook the wiring harness. For higher current line I think they use the block fuses ??
It's the fuse holders that are no good, not the fuses. I also stopped using them a few years ago because they were getting too hot.
so the question is with all the panels connected( you mentioned you removed one) and what current was passing through that fuse holder ? I would say it's a cheap fuse holder. before we had all these new fuse types, this was all we had. granted they were used to low current demand , where these days people are just asking too much of them for a press fit connection.
When all the panels were connected I use to get just on 21 amps through, so it would not have liked that either 😬
The brand of fuse holder is Narva brand which is generally a pretty good brand, I buy them in a bulk pack of twenty. They are rated to 25 amps so they should handle 21 amps.
But I have found regardless of the quality, once I exceed 15 amps with these type of fuse holder, they start getting hot. I have a friend that works full time in the industry and he finds the same thing once you exceed the 15 amp mark. So he uses midi fuses for anything above 15 amps.
@TheSimpleLivingAussie I'm not sure narva is the quality it used to be I'm afraid.
@@DENMONKEY They use to be good, but like a lot of good brands over time, they cheap out on the quality in the search for more profits.
The internal resistance is quite high as there are 2 crimp connections, 2 wiping contacts and a fuse. Check with a milliohm meter like for checking cells. The wire looks to be 14AWG in ads, which doesn't appear to be rated for 30A.
I find anything over 15 amps and these can't handle it. They don't have enough surface area to handle the current.
Makes me wonder is it the blade fuse or the fuse holder getting hot. Could it be the poor quality plating on either the contacts or the fuse pins. Never seen car fuses or fuse holders do this unless a lot of current is being drawn. For me most things have their own fuse and on examining my Jaycar 12V battery box while installing the Kings 60Ah I noted that there wasn’t a single fuse anywhere. I guess they are expecting (maybe) that the things you connect have their own fuse. Which is why teardowns are so good. Maybe the DC DC charger has internal fuses.
It could well be the fuse holder but I have had different brands of holder do the same. Once I exceed the 15 amp range, they get hot. I have even had the Maxi blade fuses get hot. If I remember I have a video on the maxi blade fuse.
I no longer buy products from Jaycar, they have turned total rubbish, I have had too many Jaycar product fail on me lately. They use to be good but now they have gone cheap quality for a premium price.
I have seen quite a few automotive fuses inside the inverters without issues. If you cut the insulation off the melted automotive fuse, can one see where the damage started..? Was it the crimp or the fuse interface?
I have found there ok up to 15 amps but after that they start getting hot.
Noticed the same thing yesterday with my set up, swapped out the 20amp fuse for 30amp but do you think I'd be better off just pulling the fuse section out all together? The battery was off charge when I changed the fuse and haven't tried it since but I was reading 17amps going in too and by the looks of it the 30 won't be much better.
I find once I go above 15 amps, the blade fuses get hot. I use the midi fuses for anything over 15 amps.
I have wondered why the need to fuse/circuit breaker protect the Solar in when its output current is limited . Circuit breaker is handy for isolation .
If you have a heap of panels in parallel then you need to fuse each panel individually so if one fails, all the others don't feed back into the failed panel and over current that panel. But in a series connection you don't need a fuse.
@@TheSimpleLivingAussie Hi Glen , so does a Solar panel fail outputting more current than it can normally produce.? If it normally can produce 10amp s out max what size of fuse do you use?….
@frankmcalinden3699 The fuses just protect the strings of panels, but most new panels have a bypass diode to keep them from overheating.
I have found that when inserting the blade fuse one of the blades can miss the female part and then be along side of it making a dodgey connection. This happened to mine and melted the fuse.
Yeah I did check this and it was all connecting into the correct slots and nice and snug.
You need to use a Maxi Fuse holder the blades are much metter quality
*Better
I found the similar thing with the maxi fuses as well, I did a video on it which is also on my channel.
I have been moving over to the midi fuses for anything above 15 amps and so far they have been good. I will have to do an update video on the fuses I'm moving over to.
I think keeping your panels in series will keep the amps down.
The DC to DC charger will only take a maximum of 32 volts input. That's one of the problems with running the DC to DC, they don't have a high enough input voltage.
Yup, the fuse is too big
If you run a too smaller fuse, they have more resistance and the hotter they get, plus you run the risk of popping the fuse so one needs to go bigger than the current running through the line.
When I was running the bigger battery I had around 24 amps going through the line so I used a 30 amp to avoid resistance, heat build up and blowing the fuse as the next fuse down from the 30 is a 25. But I think the fuse holders I am using are not good quality hence the heat build up.
I am gonging to have to get hold of a quality fuse holder and give that a try and see. But in reality the fuse is not needed in this circuit as explained in the video so I ended up taking it out all together 👍