Solar Panels to Mastershunt

[zboss]

Hi,

I would reference my electrical books but they are currently all in storage while the house is for sale...

I have a Mastervolt charger and a mastershunt. I want to install solar and wind generators. Currently, the charger output goes to the mastershunt input vs. going to a bus and then to the mastershunt input.

Question is this: is it appropriate to first run all the ouput wires from the charger, solar, and wind to a common bus and then onto the mastershunt, or should I just put all the outputs wires directly to the mastershunt input?

Thanks,

- z

[Boulter]

Hi:

I am not familiar with the product. Presumably a "mastershunt" is a current measuring shunt.

I would think either method is OK. Just watch for good connections. For example if you find yourself with 3 or 4 rings on one stud/screw at the mastershunt, then probably a bus bar would be the way to go instead.

Boulter

[djmarchand]

Normally, passive DC shunts (essentially a big low ohmage resistor) are installed on the negative battery lead so they will pick up all loads going in and out of the battery and because they are on the negative side the small gauge sense wires don't have to be fused.

The Mastershunt is different. It is a smart, microprocessor driven current sensor that sends its current data over Mastervolt's communications buss. It also has an integrated main fuse to protect the wiring downstream of it.

It is designed to be the only thing hooked to the positive terminal on your house battery. So wire your solar panel to the load side of the shunt so that the Mastervolt system will totalize all current in and out of the battery.

Be sure to put a fuse near the shunt to protect the solar panel wiring from fault current from the battery (unless that wire size is appropriate for the Mastershunt's internal fuse).

Or if you have a spare breaker position on your main DC panel you could wire the solar panel output to that breaker (and back feed to the battery through that breaker) and size it according to the wire size.

David