Help with setup of my 200

[Joesouth75]

Inverter is modified sine. I currently have 4 panels in operation series paired and paralleled together.
As far as the combiner box...I have the panels paralleled then hook positive and negative to their matching lead to controller.  That's it. Is a combiner box really necessary?  Other than checking each pair individually what does it do?

[mike90045]

is your inverter mod sine or Pure sine (waveform)
Mod sine is fine for lamps and cheap things, but terrible to try to run motors off of, noise, excess heat

Mod sine is 99% of the reason the fan won't work well, but hums a lot.

The combiner box.   Not sure from your description, if you have the panels connected properly ?  Can you sketch up how you have wired series and parallel into the box ?   Usually the series is done at the panels with MC4-MC4 and the the series panels paralleled in the box.

[Joesouth75]

Here's how my panels are wired. No combiner box.
As far as the inverter goes...does a pure sine wave run motors better than a modified sine? Will a pure sine run lights and motors? Which one is better for my lights and 1/2hp 600w well pump?

[Westbranch]

TSW/PSW will run everything...  the better the sine wave, actually the number of steps in emulating the sine wave, the less heat that will be a by product of running the motor or LED driver for example.

Is a combiner box really necessary?  Other than checking each pair individually what does it do?

as I said earlier, you will need a combiner box of some kind when you have 3 strings.  It SAFELY  houses both POS and NEG wiring and combines them into one line.

How do you have your current CB's mounted?  Are they just in-line or secured?

Are they safe?
Are they permanently mounted in a container of some type that eliminates a shock?

The main factor for me is that NO ONE can accidentally get a shock from any of the wires  that are combined. 
Ease and speed  of testing is  a secondary benefit normally, but when you are trying to hunt down an unknown it can climb to the top of the list when you have more than just 2 strings.

hth

Add:  DC can be dangerous, a short once initiated can bond the (2)  wires together permanently and destroy your battery and equipment. My neighbour was replacing some damaged siding and re-routing his 4ga. 12V  battery wires. a 3 inch screw deflected off something in the wall and     shorted the + and - cables and started burning the coating off the Pos wire right back to the main connection...  we were luck enough to be able to disconnect the Neg before more damage was done.. ie a house fire..

[Joesouth75]

I have the breakers housed in a metal box, they are mounted and safely enclosed. When I go to my third string I will definitely go with the combiner box. Sounds like it makes things way simpler. Then I will also need 4 more batteries and another charge controller. $$$

[mike90045]

Here's how my panels are wired. No combiner box.
As far as the inverter goes...does a pure sine wave run motors better than a modified sine? Will a pure sine run lights and motors? Which one is better for my lights and 1/2hp 600w well pump?

As far as i'm concerned - pure sine wave is the only way to go, if you have motors (pump, fridge, CPAP)
Mod Sine causes heating in wall warts, and motors.  In a fridge, it runs longer to get rid of the heat, and drains the batteries more.

Well pumps.   Ouch.  they would run just like your fan, lousy.   
And the other problem, Starting Surge of a motor.

Nearly any fridge needs about a 1,000 w inverter to reliably start the compressor.

Well pump motors: the bane of off grid living.   Do you buy the $2,000 Pure Sine Inverter or the $3,000 DC pump ?

[russ_drinkwater]

Spend your money on a good pure sine wave inverter.
Get that part sorted before worrying about extra batteries etc.
It will make life a lot better.
You can work around lower battery storage, but not an inadequate inverter.

[dgd]

Your hand drawn wiring diagram of solar panel connection looks very wrong
The connectors on same model PVs are likely in the same orientation - such as +ve on right and -ve on left.
Your diagram shows right two PVs are wired differently to leftmost two.
In fact the +ve from right two connects to -ve on left two

I'd suggest you get an experienced PV installer to check your wiring as there is serious likelihood of a fire

dgd

[Westbranch]

DGD, I am thinking he just drew them backwards, I hope, as the + and - are correct based on the placement of the + and -'s

[Joesouth75]

Correct Westbranch

[Joesouth75]

I have a gas refrigerator

[CDN-VT]

What is the surge power capacity  ?
Answer: From Aims
"This has a surge of 5000 watts for about 40 milliseconds."

2500W max continuous modified sine power ..
Not good inverter for a sync motor !! &  a MS300 would work better for lights  & a fan .

As for the charging ! More info as the gents posted .

VT

[dgd]

DGD, I am thinking he just drew them backwards, I hope, as the + and - are correct based on the placement of the + and -'s

I find it best never to make assumptions about what someone intended. The diagram took effort to draw that way so I would believe thats the way its wired and one set of PVs is wired incorrectly.
That would then explain why in full sunlight there is only a fraction of the expected power being produced, there must be some hard working blocking diodes in those PVs and the Classic 200 is only seeing a proportion of power from one pair of the 320w PVs.
Hopefully its fixed now..

dgd

[tecnodave]

I have posted several times about the Grape Solar GS-5 referigerator. Apparently they have exited the market. I can't find them anymore

Thanks Eric for pointing this out.

It's a great technology that will be coming to North America, they are very popular in Singapore and other places where the grid is not what we have here

Samsung is planning a release

David

[Joesouth75]

Hello all. I finally made back to the cabin. Installed the new 3000w pure sine wave inverter. Thank you to everyone that recommended that. Now I have a question about my battery bank. I have 4 6v series together for 24v. If I wanted to add to them could I series 2 12v batteries for 24v and parallel them or would that cause issues with the 6v bank?