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Old 04-15-2017, 05:55 PM   #1
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Name: Matt
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Burro Solar plan

Hey there, maybe an easy question, but here goes. My wife and I have a 1980 Burro that she uses as her home office in the backyard. I'm in the mode of working on it these days, making a new ceiling, new cabinets, a bunch of little stuff. I hooked up a solar panel/battery/charge controller, and am going to install a couple LED ceiling lights and a fantastic fan where the vent currently sits. My question is: should I run any/all of these off of the 'load' terminals on the charge controller? My instinct says that I should run everything off the battery terminals themselves, but I thought I'd see what other people have done.
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Old 04-15-2017, 07:49 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by mattshal View Post
Hey there, maybe an easy question, but here goes. My wife and I have a 1980 Burro that she uses as her home office in the backyard. I'm in the mode of working on it these days, making a new ceiling, new cabinets, a bunch of little stuff. I hooked up a solar panel/battery/charge controller, and am going to install a couple LED ceiling lights and a fantastic fan where the vent currently sits. My question is: should I run any/all of these off of the 'load' terminals on the charge controller? My instinct says that I should run everything off the battery terminals themselves, but I thought I'd see what other people have done.
Your instincts would serve you well in the wild. Check the manual for the controller and you will likely find that the load terminals are not for much more than a single light bulb (or a couple of LED bulbs).

As for the battery - of course any loads must be properly wired and fused.

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...I thought I'd see what other people have done.
That is never a good plan.. remember the Lemmings?
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Old 04-15-2017, 07:58 PM   #3
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If your solar charge controller works like mine (Windy Nation P20L), attaching your 12vdc load to the solar charge controller allows the solar charge controller to monitor the 12vdc load and cut off the load if the battery voltage drops too low.

I did not attach the 12vdc load to the solar charge controller, but instead just monitor the battery state of charge and reduce or stop power usage if necessary. I prefer this approach when I am boondocking.

PS: To respond to gordon2's comment above, the Windy Nation P20L is designed to handle a 12vdc 20 amp load. That would easily handle the total 12vdc load in my camper, but still I DON'T use this feature.
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Old 04-15-2017, 08:09 PM   #4
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...
PS: To respond to gordon2's comment above, the Windy Nation P20L is designed to handle a 12vdc 20 amp load. That would easily handle the total 12vdc load in my camper, but still I DON'T use this feature.
Interesting... but it just goes to show, solar controllers are not all the same.. check the manual, follow the manufactures directions, and dont follow Lemmings.
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Old 04-15-2017, 08:22 PM   #5
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P20L features

The P20L actually will disconnect the load if the battery drops below a certain voltage and then re-connect the load once the battery recovers. The disconnect and re-connect voltages are adjustable.

Edit: So if you are relying on the battery and solar charging, and not using shore power, it might make sense to use these load monitor and control features to avoid damaging your battery (by completely discharging it).
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Old 04-15-2017, 09:58 PM   #6
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been there too

and I have come to the conclusion that the "load" output terminals are supplied for a different application than what most of us use solar for...

as in a remote single use application like one yard light, one battery, one panel...connected to the load feature the light would go off before daining the battery completely (killing it) in the event that snow or something else shaded the panel....makes sense in that application...and could be others like a driveway gate....same sort of thing

I, like many others I suspect, did not use the load terminals....I do have a 4 digit panel meter wired into the system that provides useful information....I have 70W of panel flat on the roof and a 40W panel "deployable" stored in the tailer
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Old 04-16-2017, 09:59 AM   #7
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You can use the "load" for anything you want, up to the amperage limit of the controller. In my case, I have a Windy Nation p30L, where the 30 indicates the amperage rating. Even with my 12v fridge running, furnace blower blowing, lights on, and music playing, I've never drawn more than 12 amps.
As gordon2 suggests, read your owner's manual. I had a question about that load connection, because the manual was a bit vague about it, and called Windy Nation to clarify. What I found was that they don't want uninformed customers over-loading it and frying the controller, as in wiring an inverter to it. It is easier to just show a diagram with all loads connected directly to the battery. No angry customers.

If you don't use the load connection, you won't be able to monitor your amps in - amps out, amp hours in -amp hours out, and other educational functions that are built in a good controller.

Gordon
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Old 04-16-2017, 10:15 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by mattshal View Post
Hey there, maybe an easy question, but here goes. My wife and I have a 1980 Burro that she uses as her home office in the backyard. I'm in the mode of working on it these days, making a new ceiling, new cabinets, a bunch of little stuff. I hooked up a solar panel/battery/charge controller, and am going to install a couple LED ceiling lights and a fantastic fan where the vent currently sits. My question is: should I run any/all of these off of the 'load' terminals on the charge controller? My instinct says that I should run everything off the battery terminals themselves, but I thought I'd see what other people have done.
:A charge controller is something u would use for a solar panel and if you were to hook up one 50W to 100W would keep tow and Camper batteries charged but that is where you would use the Charge controller.
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Old 04-16-2017, 10:42 AM   #9
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You can use the "load" for anything you want, up to the amperage limit of the controller. In my case, I have a Windy Nation p30L, where the 30 indicates the amperage rating. ..
Just to clarify this for everyone who ever reads this..

I don't know about your particular controller but if it is like the ones I had looked at, the amp rating is NOT the rating for the load terminals and treating it like it is the rating for the load terminals is a sure way to overload it. The 30 amp rating is the max current from the solar panels to the battery. As you said, RTFM still applies and good idea to call the manufacturer if you still have questions (and if they speak English).
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Old 04-16-2017, 12:01 PM   #10
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Quoted from the owner's manual for the Windy Nation P30L:

Rated Charge Current 30 Amps
Rated Load Current 30 Amps

So, I suppose that, just because a controller has "30 amp" in its model number, it doesn't necessarily mean that it can handle a 30 amp load out. But in this case, it does.

Always a good idea to read the specs.

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Old 04-16-2017, 01:03 PM   #11
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Windy Nation P20L Specs

Rated Charge Current 20 Amps
Rated Load Current 20 Amps
Typical Idle Consumption At idle < 5mA
Maximum Solar Input Voltage 50V DC
Rated Working Voltage 12V DC or 24V DC Battery Systems
Float Charging Voltage (adjustable) 13.8V DC 27.6V DC
Low Voltage Protection (adjustable) 10.7V DC 21.4V DC
Low Voltage Recovery (adjustable) 12.6V DC 25.2V DC

Also the boost voltage is set based on selectable battery type:

Lithium Battery Adjust Float Parameter to battery
Sealed Battery 14.4V / 28.8V
Gel Battery 14.2V / 28.4V
Flooded Battery 14.6V / 29.2V
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Old 04-16-2017, 06:09 PM   #12
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Thanks so much for all the info, everyone. The controller that I'm using has a discharge current of only 10 amps... but it's only going to be running at most two small led lights and a fantastic fan... that's obviously under 10amps. If I run it all off the battery, though, it'd look like this, I think. It's a positive-ground system.
Obviously if I ran it off the load terminals it'd be simpler.


If anyone notices something crazy I'm doing, lemme know.
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Old 04-16-2017, 07:16 PM   #13
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Apparently you are using a positive ground controller. Thus, for any loads attached to the controller, if a ground were needed it would have to be isolated from the tow vehicle.

However, since camper 12vdc systems are generally not grounded and since you aren't using the load connection on the controller, you can just wire your 12vdc system in the usual way. Thus running fused circuits from the positive side of the battery.

Edit: And no 12vdc ground needed ...
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Old 04-17-2017, 02:47 PM   #14
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thanks, John. That makes sense. I'll run it all that way. Thanks again for your help.
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Old 04-17-2017, 03:06 PM   #15
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Looked at this again. It seems like it WOULD make sense to run a ground wire from the negative side of the battery to the chassis. Definitely wouldn't run a ground from the positive side of the battery because tow vehicle grounds are from the negative side of the battery.
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Old 04-17-2017, 04:20 PM   #16
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Thanks again, John. I see what you're saying. Since it's only ever going to be a couple small lights and the fan, I think I'll run it off the controller. Just to make things easy. I appreciate your taking a thoughtful look at all of it.
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