What fuses to use?

[force9BOAT]

Hello,

My RE system is finally getting close to becoming operational.  My 8' wind turbine is ready to go up.  Today I received a 110W 24V solar panel and purchased four deep cycle 115 amp hour 12V batteries I plan to wire for 24V.  I also purchased a 24V 400W inverter, more than enough for my planed load.  

What kind of fuses should I purchase to protect this system?  I have many cheap fuse busses that hold the small cylinder shaped glass fuses.  I'm wondering if someone can point me to higher quality fuse and bus.  I remember someone mentioned a fuse with an LED light that lets you know when it's blown but I can't find anything like that in the stores I've checked.  

Does anyone have recommendations for me?  Web site mail order?

Thank you,

Rob

[DanG]

There should be a catastrophic failure safety fuse to limit output from battery bank - size is dependent on the cabling you choose. I'd suggest thinking circuit breakers instead of fuses for everything else if you haven't purchased any fuse & fuse holders yet...

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I remember someone mentioned a fuse with an LED light that lets you know when it's blown but I can't find anything like that in the stores I've checked.

I've seen fuse HOLDERS with LEDs, but not fuses themselves.

I've also seen fuses that flip a lever or pop out a pin to connect power to an alarm bus when they blow.

They're used in telephony (and other large networking equipment instalations), to call attention to the problem when a fuse blows somewhere in a building full of equipment.  (48 V systems, too.  What a convenient coincidence.)

Look at commercial telephony and electronic equipment suppliers.

[ghurd]

The LED fuses ARE at the store. Probably the most expensive ones they have. The LED is visible. Blade automotive style is all I have seen with LEDs.

I have a problem with the LED fuses. They will pass maybe 20ma, maybe charge a cap enough to trigger something that blows something else. Not sure. Stranger things than that happen to me.

With 400W being 'more than enough', you may consider a smaller fuse protecting the inverter input line. Some inverter fuses are a bugger to change. With luck, the easy to replace line fuse will go first.

I usually use the glass tubes or car blade types for anything small. Cheap. Easy to find replacements at 1:00 AM. Never had any problems with them.

G-

[Experimental]

Hi Rob,

   Jerry, did a little post on fuses a while back -- you might look at his files !!

   NAPA auto parts stores, have a very nice fuse block for RV,s with a rubber cover, and you can order the fuses, in any amperage you want.. (no LED though)

   Wish I had kept the part numbers, but they are at my cabin -- 550 miles south !!

  Good day, Bill H........

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

You can always put your own LED/resistor combination across the fuse HOLDER and use ordinary fuses.  (Add a small FET and maybe another resistor and you can reduce the current supplied to the load through a blown fuse to almost nill.)

You can supply your indicators from one additional fuse just in case one of THEM shorts out to ground.  Blow that fuse and you get no indications but also no fires.  B-)  Can't do that with LEDs in the fuses.

[nothing to lose]

Autozone has those LED fuses so just about any other autoparts store should have them also I would think. If you don't see them ask some-one of course. I don't remember what the highest was I saw, maybe 30amp or 50amp? Been awhile and I decided I did not want them myself anyway. Might be ok in a hard to get to fuse box in a car when your not sure which fuse is for the circuit not working.

Dark, up under dash, small print, upside down, duh which one is the blowed fuse for the brake lights? I might like a LED fuse there.

I got to thinking though, if I had a problem on the battery cables feeding my inverter and blow the fuse, I think I would know that without needing the LED

Kinda same thing with my other thoughts for them.