Connecting solar panels to Converter

I'm going to retract my 'yes' after seeing that you said you were using the other terminals. Now I'm not so sure.

I'd not hesitate to connect to the existing wiring however.

Yes you can connect the output of your solar controller to the output of the converter, so they are in parallel on the battery.

EDIT per above-- Be sure the second set of terminals is connected to the first set or else just use one set of converter output terminals for both controller and converter

Thanks for the help. Not to be cheap but I'm trying to keep wire runs to a minimum.

I was going to connect the solar controller output to the same terminals as the output from the converter to the batteries just in case. I just wasn't sure if running them in parallel was ok or not. When my RV is parked at home I have it plugged into the house and was wondering if it would matter that both the solar and the convereter were providing power. I'm assuming that the solar controller would see the voltage from the converter and not push additional power to the battieries.

With both on, the battery voltage will rise to the higher voltage of the two chargers, which leaves the other charger idle.

Say the converter is at 13.6v so it is there all night, then solar comes on during the day and it is set to 14.3v. Solar will take over and raise the battery above 13.6 to 14.3 then quit at dusk, when better voltage will fall back to 13.6 again.

If you want to keep a steady Float voltage of 13.6 then just turn off the solar when at home and plugged in.

EDIT: to turn off the solar, put your on /off switch on the array side of the controller on one of the wires. The sequence for connected a controller is battery first then array. So the controller stays on battery, but the array is disconnected and connected by the switch.

Hi,

My converter has three outputs, each on a separate circuit. So if you put 14 volts from the solar into output #2, while output #1 has the wire going to the battery, then no power would get from output #2 to the battery output wired to terminal#1. The ground side will not matter, the grounds are all connected together, however my outputs are separated by diodes coming off of the converter output triacs.

So my suggestion is to loosen the output of your converter and place the solar output wires inside the same terminals - if there is space. Or if there is not enough space for a additional large wire, check to see if there is a bond between the connections, or else put in one to bond the 2 positive and another to bond the grounds together.

Fred.

The one down side may be voltage drop, this depends on wire gauge and run length. Voltage coming from the panel is higher than from the controller to the 12V system. If you have big honking wire from the battery to the PD not a problem, but they are not really built for big wire.

Wires from the converter don't have to be big.
Wires from the controller to the converter only have to be big enuff to handle the amperage of the solar.....for that distance, no matter where the batteries are. Then the wires from the converter have to be big enuff to handle the amperage output of the converter to (normally) the 12v distribution center, no matter where the batteries are..
Then the wires from the 12v distribution center have to be big enuff to handle the converter's output to the batteries, no matter where the batteries are.

The wires from converter to battery (via DC dist panel) can easily handle the solar amps, where say it is a 55amp converter and solar can do max 15 amps. But there is still the voltage drop issue for the solar controller.

If the controller "sees" 14.4v when the batteries are only at 14.3, and the controller's set point to start controlling is 14.4, then the batteries will only ever get to 14.3.

You can beat that by either reducing the voltage drop with a wiring change, or just crank up the controller's set point to 14.5.

Changing the set point leaves a possible issue that the battery still won't get to 14.4 if it takes too long to get up that last 0.1v that day before dark, but that is just in theory. In real life once the batteries are up into the 14s voltage rises fast.

That would work in an emergency but not recommended for normal operation.

All battery charge sources (charge controller, converter, alternator) should all terminate at the battery with separate cables. As part of their routine, the charge controller and converter monitor battery voltage. These smart chargers can react to what voltage they see at their battery cable connection. If you turn on the generator for 5 minutes to operate the microwave, the charge controller that's connected to the converter will not see battery voltage but the sum of V_bat and V_cable_drop.

Both chargers could drop down to a lower charging mode.

Sal.

sdmotor wrote:
Not to be cheap but I'm trying to keep wire runs to a minimum.

sdmotor wrote:
Is it possible to connect the output from my charge controller to converter instead of direct to the batteries? I have the PD 9100 series that has two sets of pos and neg terminals on it.

Yes, It will work just fine.
I installed 500 watts of solar and put the charge controller in the same compartment as my PD9180. I wired the charge controller into the second set of terminals, as you purposed. It's a no brainier, if the wiring will handle the PD9180, it will handle the solar. In my case voltage drop is not an issue. My charge controller has a separate voltage sense lead.

Richard