1/17/2026 – So my wires have been melting despite having 1/0 wires. At first it’s the bad terminals. I had got some really thin ones. I bought some better ones but the wires are still melting with only 10A-12A going through them. So I finally figured out the cause. Basically It’s not using PURE COPPER wires. I thought I had pure copper but apparently not. I ordered some new pure copper wires.
GROK: “The wire melting with your 1500W inverter (≈125A DC draw at 12V) is a classic symptom of using CCA (Copper-Clad Aluminum) wire instead of pure copper.
CCA is not suitable for high-current 12V DC applications like inverters, especially with runs longer than a few feet.Why Your 0-Gauge CCA Wire is Melting
- CCA has ~60–70% the conductivity of pure copper — it has much higher resistance per foot.
- At 125A over 4.5 ft one-way (9 ft round-trip), CCA generates 2–3× more heat than pure copper.
- Even 1/0 CCA is only rated ~100–130A max continuous in free air — your load pushes it into overload territory → melting insulation, hot lugs, burnt smell.
1/0 Gauge 1/0 AWG 10 Feet Red Welding Battery Pure Copper Flexible Cable Wire – Car, Inverter, RV, Solar
Earlier post
Manged to Level 1 charge my Tesla. I got another (4) panels of 100w that were brand new for only $120. I should have bought more but times are tough. I’m currently running 120w but I have another 400w I can add on a 2nd one.
I ran an extension cord out a window and back into the garage from my setup inside. I could jam all this in the garage somewhere but it takes up a lot of room that I don’t quite see a good place to dump in the garage and actually access it. It’s ghetto but it’s worked for 5 years.
The sun is NW of the picture which is (SW) of me and I have no angle to reach it with 100-foot trees blocking my whole house. There’s just a tiny window of 2 hours where the sun can hit otherwise I’m just getting non-direct sun. I have the absolute worst setup for solar power. So then I have to just add so many solar panels that I catch up because none of them can reach the sun.
Black Friday I picked up:
BELTTT 3000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter
I was already running a 2000W but I was reaching near 1480 or so. The thing felt like it was way too loud running the fans and smelling like burnt plastic. It still worked though. A lot of that smell was just wires/terminals. So I switched to this one. The display is way nicer but it is not showing watts. Ideally, you’d spent $200-300 on another one but this was sub-$200 at least.
I also got (but then Black Friday it was only $160), for $175
BougeRV Sunflow MPPT Solar Charge Controller 60A
The only issue with that, was that their account creation was broken. I emailed them several times and they fixed it. It seems to be broken for months before I mailed them. haha. No one complained? Now it’s all working. Only weird thing is the app is showing higher A, 36A and the unit itself is only showing 10A.
This is the best I’ve been able to do. 52A with 60A cap. I have a second 40A solar charge controller that MIGHT still work not sure. But the second round of solar panels are just some shitty portable ones that are only 19V. Solar panels are pretty cheap. I could get some off facebook marketplace if I get the $$. The only problem is I need some perhaps block mounting to put on roof without professional installation.
WattCycle 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery
(2) of these. You should have at least (4) but I had a 206AH SOK battery that is fucked at the moment.
SolarI have them all facing the right direction 198 degrees, but they’re not tilted correctly.
I just stumbled onto this site going down a rabbit hole looking up past blizz employees.
Who is this site for? does anyone ever talk to you here? reading up on you, and reading your past posts..man, youve lost a lot. Seems kinda sad n lonely tbh. Honestly surprised youre still around.