The size of bus bar depends on the ambient temperature and length. The plated copper bus bar I use for connecting a contactor, shunt and fuse together not more than 10 feet in length, 0.25 inch thick and 1 inch wide is rated for 400 amps at 90 C.
You will have to calculated the total length of all the buss bars you use in your installation. It is best to use a 1.25 service factor of a conductor in a electrical circuit. Meaning 125 amp rated conductor for a 100 amp continuous load fuse at 125 amps. A 400 ampere conductor, can maintain a 300 amp continuous load fuse for 400 amps. A 1/8 inch by 1 inch or a 3/16 inch by 3/4 inch copper bar is rated for 270 ampere. At 1.25 service factor, this bar can handle 0.75 x 270 amp or 202 continuous ampere load fuse at 250 ampere which is the next closest fuse for 270 ampere conductor. After I cut and drill the copper bars plated or non-plated, it is best to coat the copper bars with lead if using on a lead acid battery. I use leading supplies from www.eastwood.com<http://www.eastwood.com/> which has tinning paste for lead. Then cover the bar with heat shrink. Roland ----- Original Message ----- From: John Lussmyer<mailto:cou...@casadelgato.com> To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List<mailto:ev@lists.evdl.org> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2014 3:14 PM Subject: [EVDL] Bus Bar size So, I'm updating my F250 to use Nissan Leaf modules. 3 modules in parallel, 40 sets in series. Trying to figure out bus bar size I'll need. Truck cruises at 60mph, at about 125A. The 2 mile steep hill from the ferry will probably be more like 400A (possibly more.) Would 3/16"x3/4" be big enough? -- Tigers prowl and Dragons soar in my dreams... _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub<http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub> http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA>) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20140504/bd756ee7/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
