My little setup.

[Deleted member 165]

I'm doing some upgrades to my small system today. 2-200ah Renogy Gel batteries wired in parallel, 30 amp PWM charge controller, 40 amp fuses, 3000/6000 12 volt inverter, panels are 2-100w wired in parallel. Hopefully tomorrow I'll add 2 more identical panels and all 4 will be wired in parallel (24 amps max). The green wire is an earth ground to an 8' copper rod. There is no ground for the charge controller.

I know I need a fuse between the batteries and the inverter, but is it critical if I'm only using 500w or so? Also, recommendations for a fuse there?

Next steps are to close the circuit between batteries and charge controller, program battery type, then connect the negative from the panels to the charge controller and close that circuit.

When I can afford more panels I'll be going 24v but this is working for now-I'm upgrading from a basic Renogy kit.

Thoughts?

 

[Delta-V]

Looks like a good usable system.

Recommend:
An MPPT charge controller, if possible
An on/off switch - like a marine/ boat battery switch, a master shut-off is always a good idea (battery to inverter)
A fuse holder and fuse, perhaps 200A or 300A depending on what you're trying to power, or possibly a circuit breaker (battery to inverter)
I'm guessing the inverter is pure sine wave? Preferred over modified sine wave
Some sort of meter (or meters) to see how much power you're pulling in and how much you're using

You could probably use more like a 1,000 Watts or more per day with 400 watts of panels, and still be good to the batteries.

What do you plan on powering with this setup (ie. backup power, a handful of appliances, etc...)?

 

[bwalendy]

You should use an MPPT controller and wire in series not parallel otherwise you will have large efficiency losses and slow charging.