Solar 1.1 – Part 2

While the feet cured, it was time to tackle the electrical stuff. As we had already been using the charge controller with the flexible panels, not much testing had to be done. With limited locker space we decided that it would be best to mount all of our solar stuff to a wood board and then attach the board to the wall of the locker. We found nice piece of craft plywood and mapped out the locations of the components e.g. charge controller, combiner box, on/off switch and circuit breaker. It was then a matter of mounting the components and then cutting 6 AWG wire to fit. Before going any further, the circuit breaker was tripped and the switch turned to the off position.

We weren’t that familiar with the Zamp bullet/SAE connectors so we used the factory wired solar port as a reference to determine the positive and negative connections. Before making any connection we always double-checked polarity with our multi-meter just in case anything was miswired at the factory or by us.

With five roof and an the flexible panels, we needed at least six SAE to MC4 adapters. As commercial ones cost around $25 each, we decided to make our own using some SAE extension cords, cut in half and then attaching MC4 connectors. We used tape to reverse the colors of the wires on half of these to the polarity. The final cost ended up around $6 per adapter and we have an couple of extras.

Running new wires from the battery box solar port inside was as easy as advertised. The new 8 AWG from the front cap had the positive an negative labeled. The solar pre-wire run was color coded and labeled as well.

I needed assistance with a smaller family member to mount the solar board to the inside of the locker. Then it got really interesting as I climbed inside. In hindsight, removing propane tanks would have made accessing the locker much easier. This was the most finicky part as I connected the three solar panel runs into the combiner box and circuit breaker to the bus bars.