Cable Entry With Gland Connectors - amzn.to/43GyYmD Cable Entry With MC4 Connectors - amzn.to/3TYkKtd iCrimp MC4 Crimping Kit - amzn.to/3J0a33Y MC4 Connectors (12-Pack) - amzn.to/4czSCVA Calculate Solar Panel Cost For Your Home - www.solarreviews.com/solar-estimator?aff=66965&cam=713 DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.
I recommend whenever you run a cable down and into a wall, let them go lower and bring them up to form a drip loop. Ideally coming up into the bottom of your housing. Yes, your gland connectors should stop water, but the best protection is done in layers. Edit: And you covered it. Nice! :)
I actually agree, I was limited in the slack but mentioned that exact point of the drip loop as that is a much better practice. Thanks for the feedback.
Don’t silicone the bottom edge of the cover. This will leave an egress point for any water that happens to intrude from the top, sides or cable connection points.
Great video, thanks for making this available! You covered how protect wires going over the roof edge with spiral cable wrap and the importance of a drip loop for cables entering the side of the shed. Very real world - I appreciate the fine details such as the ordering for the assembly of the gland nut around the MC4 connector. The good thing is that by including your inadvertent missteps and describing them you make this a much more valuable resource because these are exactly the issues a first-time installer like me will run in to. Other comments on this thread are also helpful - zip ties to stand in for a drip loop, dielectric grease on the MC4 connectors, and using a cleaner Soladeck roof penetration to get the cables into the shed. All of this is going to slow me down for my install while I order a few parts but the end result is going to be a lot better.
You could have moved the pass thru to the right and rotated it 180 so the wires are coming in from the left and angle the whole thing down to get your drip loop. Also MC4 connectors can be taken apart by unscrewing and then pulling out the wire.....not recommended but i have done this several times and yet to have any problems with the connection later.
My tip to help the water drip off the cable when a loop is not possible, is to tie/fix a say 3mm cable tie around the cable, leaving about 25mm or 1 inch of the cable tie not cut off for the water to track down and drip off, which will be lower than the glad….
is there any reason why you could not have run the wire through the cable entry and attached MC4 connectors and tucked it up under the solar panel and that way had the play to mount the cable entry with the wires coming out the bottom giving you a drip loop. ** ALSO do you have a link for the wire protector? Thanks again for your videos, I am just in the process of adding 2 panels on my shed to power my Echoflow
I use a similar feedthrough, but mine has built-in MC4 connectors with solar wire on the inside. I wanted the ease of replacing cables without needing to remove the feedthrough or pull the wire all the way out.
Are those batteries okay to be in the shed when it's cold? I'd like to do the same, but it gets down to about 5-10 degrees fahrenheit where I live in the winter. It would be nice to have a permanent solution.
The Delta 2 will have an issue going down that low. From the Specs The Delta 2 can discharge down to 14F and charge down to 32F. So to get this type of setup to be a permanent solution you would need some type of insulated box for the lowest temps in the winter.
This is the second video in a week where someone has cut the connectors off just to crimp them back on again so they can pass the wires through a small hole. Do these connectors not come apart?
They come apart and it is a bit of a pain to pull the pins back out. It can be done with a bit of work but in the end it is pretty easy to just add new connectors.
You should have just gone down through the roof under the panel. Cleaner install and no worry about rubbing the cable on the shingles. Soladeck is perfect for this.
Agreed, that is a good option. I should have mentioned that option as that is what I did over on the garage ua-cam.com/video/icBKYACja7Y/v-deo.html . This installation I was trying to keep as easy as possible when you only have 1 panel. Thanks for the feedback.
This seems like an awfully restrictive method. Wouldn’t it be much better to use a IP67 junction box so you could also use the box to route wires to (for example) security lights, cameras, Christmas lighting etc.? This method only gives toy two solar wires only and leaves you drilling more holes if you need to add on.
Cable Entry With Gland Connectors - amzn.to/43GyYmD
Cable Entry With MC4 Connectors - amzn.to/3TYkKtd
iCrimp MC4 Crimping Kit - amzn.to/3J0a33Y
MC4 Connectors (12-Pack) - amzn.to/4czSCVA
Calculate Solar Panel Cost For Your Home - www.solarreviews.com/solar-estimator?aff=66965&cam=713
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.
I recommend whenever you run a cable down and into a wall, let them go lower and bring them up to form a drip loop. Ideally coming up into the bottom of your housing. Yes, your gland connectors should stop water, but the best protection is done in layers.
Edit: And you covered it. Nice! :)
I actually agree, I was limited in the slack but mentioned that exact point of the drip loop as that is a much better practice. Thanks for the feedback.
Don’t silicone the bottom edge of the cover. This will leave an egress point for any water that happens to intrude from the top, sides or cable connection points.
Great video, thanks for making this available! You covered how protect wires going over the roof edge with spiral cable wrap and the importance of a drip loop for cables entering the side of the shed. Very real world - I appreciate the fine details such as the ordering for the assembly of the gland nut around the MC4 connector. The good thing is that by including your inadvertent missteps and describing them you make this a much more valuable resource because these are exactly the issues a first-time installer like me will run in to. Other comments on this thread are also helpful - zip ties to stand in for a drip loop, dielectric grease on the MC4 connectors, and using a cleaner Soladeck roof penetration to get the cables into the shed. All of this is going to slow me down for my install while I order a few parts but the end result is going to be a lot better.
if you were cutting off the connector anyways why didn't you just splice in more cable to avoid not having enough slack?
You could have moved the pass thru to the right and rotated it 180 so the wires are coming in from the left and angle the whole thing down to get your drip loop. Also MC4 connectors can be taken apart by unscrewing and then pulling out the wire.....not recommended but i have done this several times and yet to have any problems with the connection later.
Your vids are always highly resourceful!
My tip to help the water drip off the cable when a loop is not possible, is to tie/fix a say 3mm cable tie around the cable, leaving about 25mm or 1 inch of the cable tie not cut off for the water to track down and drip off, which will be lower than the glad….
Nice, great tip 🙌
This is a great video. been waiting for it. Thank you!
Thanks for the support 🙌
is there any reason why you could not have run the wire through the cable entry and attached MC4 connectors and tucked it up under the solar panel and that way had the play to mount the cable entry with the wires coming out the bottom giving you a drip loop.
** ALSO do you have a link for the wire protector?
Thanks again for your videos, I am just in the process of adding 2 panels on my shed to power my Echoflow
I use a similar feedthrough, but mine has built-in MC4 connectors with solar wire on the inside. I wanted the ease of replacing cables without needing to remove the feedthrough or pull the wire all the way out.
I do like the ones with built-in MC4's 👍
Nice project.
Thanks!
Are those batteries okay to be in the shed when it's cold? I'd like to do the same, but it gets down to about 5-10 degrees fahrenheit where I live in the winter. It would be nice to have a permanent solution.
The Delta 2 will have an issue going down that low. From the Specs The Delta 2 can discharge down to 14F and charge down to 32F. So to get this type of setup to be a permanent solution you would need some type of insulated box for the lowest temps in the winter.
@@everydaysolar Thanks for the reply!
What would you use for a ground mounted system on a residential home with vinyl siding? I have 2 seperate ground mount arrays
How about doing a more common install where the cables are going thru a metal shop wall..
How would one do this in an insulated shed?
This is the second video in a week where someone has cut the connectors off just to crimp them back on again so they can pass the wires through a small hole. Do these connectors not come apart?
They do, if you unscrew the bottom the plastic pieces come off leaving the crimped end
They come apart and it is a bit of a pain to pull the pins back out. It can be done with a bit of work but in the end it is pretty easy to just add new connectors.
Add dielectric puddy to the cable connector.
You should have just gone down through the roof under the panel. Cleaner install and no worry about rubbing the cable on the shingles. Soladeck is perfect for this.
Agreed, that is a good option. I should have mentioned that option as that is what I did over on the garage ua-cam.com/video/icBKYACja7Y/v-deo.html . This installation I was trying to keep as easy as possible when you only have 1 panel. Thanks for the feedback.
Awesome video
Thanks!
This seems like an awfully restrictive method. Wouldn’t it be much better to use a IP67 junction box so you could also use the box to route wires to (for example) security lights, cameras, Christmas lighting etc.? This method only gives toy two solar wires only and leaves you drilling more holes if you need to add on.
The orientation of the entry point to shed of the cover should have been higher up on the shed, so that the wires are oriented down.
?
That was about as high as I could go with limited length on the standard solar cables. Thanks for the feedback.
Why do you need to do a video on this? It pre presumes everyone is a thick sod and can't browse amazon like you for solutions?