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Anderson PowerPole 1452G1 low voltage connector housing

The Renewable Energy community has long been in need of a standardized connector for our low-voltage DC connectors. In the past few years as moderator of the 12VDC Power group on Yahoo! I've seen recommendations for all kinds of connectors. Everything from 240 VAC plugs (as long as there's no 240 in the house, you understand), to foreign plugs of various types and often questionable quality. And there's always someone holding out for the ubiquitous lighter plug. If those plugs had the same ampacity as the lighter recep in the car, that might be a possibility. But lighter plugs vary in quality and ampacity so that you can't count on them to do the job you bought them to do. Other industries and groups have standardized on their connectors – why can't we?

It is time for the RE community to standardize on these excellent and economical connectors. Anderson PowerPoles are a reliable and inexpensive solution to the problem of supplying 12VDC power to end-use devices in our off-grid homes.

By selecting PowerPoles as our standard, we will reap the benefits of universal interchangeability in our end-use devices. We will enable manufacturers to finally begin building and selling quality appliances for the RE market. And we will gain the advantage of reliability and ease of connection. PowerPoles are simple to fabricate as shown in the composite photo below.

The connector housing size is the same for ratings from 15A – 45A, only the contact sizes change. However, the contacts will mate with each other, so that a 15A connector and a 45A connector will mate. This permits a great degree of flexibility in the interconnection of properly protected circuits. We recommend that the Renewable Energy community come together and adopt the PowerPole connectors as our standard for 12 VDC connections in our RE-supplied homes and other buildings. We propose that Red and Black be used for 12 VDC circuits (other colors can be adopted for higher voltages) and that the 1470G1/HS-4 4-pole connector (shown in the first photo) be adopted as the “duplex receptacle” of the 12 volt world.

Additional information on the Anderson PowerPole series of connectors is available at Anderson Power's website.

Larry D. Barr (KE5FWE) is the Editor & Publisher of Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter, the owner of Rebel Wolf Energy Systems and the founder and moderator of the 12VDC Power group at Yahoo!. He is an electrical systems designer with experience in automotive, marine, aviation and off-grid residential systems.)

For detailed .PDF drawing of the 2-set Housing Click Here

 
Other very useful information is provided by:

Green-Trust	Homepower Magazine	Back Woods Home Magazine
Rebel Wolf Online	Back Home Magazine	Mother Earth News

Steve Spence 09:09, 10 Sep 2005 (EDT):
“The RV/Camping and Boating markets would benefit from these items as well!”