How far away can I mount solar panels to charge EB55 and EB70

Product Discussion
1

I’m planning on using my EB55 and EB70 as power in a cabin that is fully in the shade. It’s about 50 feet to where I can mount panels in the sun, and an ideal spot is more like 70 feet away.

If I’m using a 200 watt panel for each of the two Bluettis, how far can I safely run 10AWG cable? Or will I need a thicker cable for that length of run?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

2

The shorter and heavier cable the better. You will have higher resistance with a longer, thinner cable and therefore less power makes it to the device. 10AWG should be fine. There is no rule of thumb that I am aware of. Try hooking up a shorter cable and place the unit and panel right at the sun and see what you get, then hook up the long cable and repeat the experiment. I’m betting you won’t see much of a difference using the longer cable even though it’s not the optimum setup. I use a short cable and take my panel and EB55 right to the sunny spot. I try to put the EB55 in the shade or cover it with a towel to prevent it from getting too hot.

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Definitely not against trial and error, lol. Since my intention is to be keeping the Bluettis in the cabin and the panels permanently set up, I’m hoping to avoid taking the Bluettis outside to charge. While travelling that’s essentially what I do with the PV120 solar panel, but in the cabin I’m hoping to do less set up and tear down, especially since I still want to easily be able to work online from the cabin. I just don’t want to have so much resistance with a longer run that I have to worry about a fire.

4

Hi @eaf

What @doecliff is correct. The shorter and thicker, the better. To be sure, that you have the right cable crosssection for the lenght. Just use one of the many crosssection calulators out there. Select DC Voltage, the Solarpanel Output voltage and the cable length you are planning to use.

greetings
Erik

5

Thanks for the help, everyone. I think I have it all worked out.

6

Take the guesswork out of the equation by using a voltage drop calculator of which there are numerous online. Here is a Hyperlink to the one I use as it’s quicker than doing the math myself lol. Your V drop should be no greater than 2% of the voltage of the array, to maintain efficiency. :slight_smile:

https://photovoltaic-software.com/solar-tools/voltage-drop-calculator-dc-ac

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