Charge controller ?

I'm wired up with around 6 feet of 4 gauge between controller and battery's. Controller seems to be showing the same voltage as my voltage meter but I will keep an eye on it to make sure its not running a little hot.

Eventually I will pick up some group 27 battery's but do to certain events and my lack of paying attention I ended up with 2 24's. Learned another lesson in life.

Thanks for the help guys.

Rough rule of thumb for stuff like group 24 batteries, which can be a PIA to get top charged... Set your unit at 14.8V when charging while camping, and I'd set it at 13.4V when you completely disconnect the battery from the camper, but leave just the solar panel connected while in storage.

14.8V camping
13.4V storage

The Chinese are banking on you being cheap, and running thin gauge copper wire from the charge controller to the battery, which will create DC voltage losses, depending on the length of the copper wire run and how close the controller is or isn't to the battery.

Don't be cheap, run fat wire, your battery will last a lot longer running the fat wire and staying top charged like it should

The P30L is a Solar30. I have a Solar30. The one voltage you set is the charging voltage which is also the floating voltage. That is, the controller lets the batteries get to that voltage and then holds that voltage there the rest of the day until the light fades and it can't maintain that voltage anymore.

While camping I set mine to 14.8 volts. For not camping (storage float battery maintaining only) I would set it at 13.4 or whatever depending on ambient temperatures at the time--80F is 13.2v, 50F is 13.8v eg.

EDIT: first time out, check the actual battery voltage when the controller gets to the voltage where it stops rising. My Solar30 overshoots a little on the setting (so does Niner's) so to get it to stop at 14.8 I have to set 14.3. Once you know the amount that's it, it stays the same for any setting. I can get mine to to go to 15.5 when the max setting is 15, eg.

I suppose you could run loads like that but you can also just use the 12v socket in the Winegard TV panel. If you have an inverter, you can use that with whatever charging adapter your gizmo uses. Some inverters have USB for that. When on whole house inverter you can stick one of those 120v-to USB adapters in any 120v receptacle in the rig and use that.

BFL13
Yes I now I can adjust the load voltage but my controller also has Floating charging voltage adjustment I don't understand.

Another question you brought up, I was planning on using the load terminals off the controller to hook up a 12 volt plug to charge cell phones at night. Controller is in the bedroom and I would like to charge my phone at night so I was thinking the easiest way would be to hook into the controller load terminals then to run more wire. Good idea or not?

Link to manual, http://www.windynation.com/cm/P30L%20Controller%20Manual_R1.pdf

Here are the specs on my controller, What I am talking about adjusting is what they call the "Floating Charging Voltage (adjustable) 13.8 V DC 27.6 V DC"

Technical Specifications
Rated Current Charge 30 Amps
Rated Load Current 30 Amps
Typical Idle Consumption At idle < 5mA
Maximum Solar Input Voltage 48 V DC
Rated Working Voltage 12 V DC or 24V DC Battery System
Floating Charging Voltage (adjustable) 13.8 V DC 27.6 V DC
Low Voltage Protection (adjustable) 10.7 V DC 21.4V DC
Low Voltage Recovery (adjustable) 12.5 V DC 25.0V DC
No Load Loss ?30mA
Loop Voltage Drop ?170mV
Temperature Compensation -4.0 mV/Cell°C
Physical Specifications
Parameter Value
Dimension (L x W x H) 90 mm x 188 mm x 48 mm (3.54" x 7.40" x 1.89")
Weight 12.7 oz (360 g)
Operating Temperature 14°F to 140°F (-10°C to 60°C)
Operating Humidity ?90% relative humidity (non-condensing)
Wire Size Up to 16mm² (7AWG)

The "shut off" and restart voltage settings are for the "load" terminals and have nothing to do with the "battery" terminals. You should have the batteries on the battery terminals and nothing on the load terminals when using the controller for RVing.

The only settings you care about are the charging voltage (absorption voltage ) and floating voltage (if they are not just the one setting for both like on a Solar30 )

Be sure to always have the controller connected to the battery first, then hook up the array. Always unhook the array before disconnecting the battery side.

IMO for storage you should have a controller that goes into float mode after full charge