Xantrex Technology 3000 - Manual (Page 23)

Designing Your Installation
975-0128-01-01 3–5
Calculating Cable Sizes
To operate safely and effectively, the XPower Inverter 3000 Plus needs
proper cables and fuses. Because the XPower Inverter 3000 Plus has low-
voltage and high-current input, it is essential that you use low-resistance
wiring between the battery and the inverter to deliver the maximum
amount of usable energy to your load.
For safe and efficient operation, you will need to calculate cable sizes for
your:
•
DC input cables from the battery to inverter (one way)
• Chassis ground cable from the grounding point to the chassis ground
lug on the inverter’s DC panel.
See Figure 3-4, “DC Panel Connections” on page 3–11.
Calculating Size of DC Input Cables
Refer to Table 3-1 to plan the DC cabling:
• Keep all cables as short as possible, and ensure that each cable
between the inverter and the battery is no longer than 10 feet (3 m).
• Do not use aluminum cable. It has about 1/3 more resistance than
copper cable of the same size, and it is difficult to make good, low-
resistance connections to aluminum wire.
• We recommend that you use oil-resistant cable.
WARNING
Use only copper wire rated 90 °C minimum. Never use a DC input cable longer
than specified in Table 3-1. A longer cable can potentially generate enough heat
to start a fire or result in poor inverter performance.
XPower3000.book Page 5 Wednesday, December 10, 2003 6:52 AM