Blown fuse
Submitted: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 04:43
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SMICK
Recently Sue advised me we had no water pumping, checked circuit breakers, ckecked everything. Looked at the solar regulator, there was not a light in sight, PANIC. We are at Lake Gairdner, for the land speed records. I checked all battery terminals, all possible wiring connections, turned everything off, could find nothing. PANIC setting in big time, 190l fridge and freezer chock-a-block full. Decided to pull the solar regulater off the wall, lo and behold there is a giant 40amp glass fuse behind that has blown. Just happened to have one after a bloke who fitted our 300w inverter tossed it at me and told me to keep it 'just in case'.
Question- why would this fuse blow?, it was late in the day,so no huge amount of solar, nothing but the fridge was on.
I knew nothing about this fuse, does anyone else and do you carry a spare. Im going to buy 2 to make doubly sure i will never need it.
Reply By: Turist - Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 05:16
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 05:16
Mick
What type of solar regulator.
Bob
AnswerID:
580059
Follow Up By: SMICK - Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 04:02
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 04:02
Gday Bob
Its a
Bushtracker 40amp solar regulator.
FollowupID:
852352
Reply By: Deleted User - Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 05:25
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 05:25
Mick fuses can 'blow" or fuses can fail. A fuse will blow(rupture) under fault current when a 'short' happens. This can be obvious by the residue of molten fuse element, usually copper.
A failed fuse is one who just wears out due to old age. The element will not be vaporised.
The fuse may not have been up to specification in when manufactured.
Congratulations on your fault finding, well done.
AnswerID:
580060
Reply By: SMICK - Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 04:06
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 04:06
Also the thing I dont understand is If the solar fuse [current coming in] blew why did the whole 12volt [power coming from batteries] system shut down?
AnswerID:
580061
Reply By: JohnS - Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 17:14
Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 at 17:14
Install a 40 amp DC circuit breaker instead, then much easier to reset rather than replace blown fuses.
The 40 amp fuse is in series with the load, that's why it's there so it will protect the system from a high current fault.
John
AnswerID:
580062
Reply By: 11-UPS - Friday, Mar 19, 2010 at 19:21
Friday, Mar 19, 2010 at 19:21
I had same problem in SA couldn't buy that fuse anywhere in SA ended up replacing whole setup with 50A blade fuse which is available anywhere.If you have 4 panels and run inverter for things like breadmakers and the like (39>40+ in &output) you will eventually blow fuse. You get a sudden spike and the fuse will not handle it because it is already at it max. Information was supplied to me by a Solar place who did the replacement, because I'm not a qualified electrician and if anything does go wrong my insurance is not nul and void.
Darrell
AnswerID:
580063
Follow Up By: The Murray Marauders - Monday, Mar 22, 2010 at 06:16
Monday, Mar 22, 2010 at 06:16
G'day Mick and Sue,
Is that an Omegalec solar regulator, the grey one that looks like a 4 inch square box?
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852353
Reply By: SMICK - Wednesday, Mar 24, 2010 at 20:01
Wednesday, Mar 24, 2010 at 20:01
Yes thats the one. Suggest you carefully take it off the wall and see if there is a bloody big fuse there if so get a couple of spares. The ID number on the fuse is 5AG40.[40 being the AMPS] We have been sitting in Pimba for a week waiting for friends to arrive, hope its soon.
See Ya on the road sometime.
Michael & Sue
AnswerID:
580064
