TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Off-Grid / Solar, Wind or Generator?

I know I must be driving some of you crazy with this stuff but this is a new arena for me and being at that stage of my plan where I need to get these details worked out I am going to take full advantage of being the forum head cheese...

So my question is about using what is called a solar combiner box - a junction box to combine all the solar panel feeds into one to send to your controller. Those of you who are using solar, did you buy one or just fabricate one yourself? Seems like it would be easy enough to do? I vaguely remember seeing one mentioned somewhere awhile back that just wired a breaker box in reverse which gives you the extra benefit of a breaker on each panel so you can isolate them for testing purposes.

Any ideas and/or advice appreciated...

I used a combiner box. I never really thought about fabricating my own though. One nice thing about the ones designed for solar is some have multiple branches to feed additional charge controllers, the knock-outs are in the right place, and you know you're getting the correct circuit breakers. Having multiple branches in one enclosure will make it a lot easier to add additional panels and charge controllers when you expand.

If you make your own, and have enough panels to require more than one charge controller, I would guess you'll need one enclosure per controller.

You should also install breakers/fuses:

* Between the combiner + output and charge controller
* Between the charge controller + output and battery bank

I have a midnight (I think?) solar box that I bought from the solar biz. It made things very easy for combining and having proper circuit protection.

Well, if I max out this controller you will know that I am lighting up the entire neighborhood...

ColemanAir 440A Diversion Charge Load Controller

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

Well, if I max out this controller you will know that I am lighting up the entire neighborhood...

ColemanAir 440A Diversion Charge Load Controller

THATS A LOT OF AMPS!

My FM80's @ 24 volts have a max input of 2500 watts.

Here is a link for a DIY combiner box http://www.freesunpower.com/project1.php
Electricity from the sun " Gotta love it"
Cheers, Tortuga

Thanks for the link Tortuga. Easy project. Did you build one yourself and if you did are the circuit breakers from HD rated for DC service?
Larry