BFL13 wrote:
The controller location and wiring might do with another look, not sure.
The controller needs to "see" the battery voltage as is with as little voltage drop as possible so the controller will control at the set-points it uses. eg, if voltage drop from controller to battery is 0.5v at the current, and set point is 14.5v, then the controller will "see" 14.5v when batt is only 14.0v
So with that, the battery will be undercharged perhaps or at least you won't get to as high a SOC in the daylight available. Or you could make the set-point 15 :)
So usually they say put the controller close to the batteries to avoid that and it is ok to have a longer wire run from controller to array.
It is ok to have the controller-battery wires sharing with the converter where the two "chargers" are in parallel at the DC panel battery lugs. It is not ok to have the array wiring meet with the converter's wires before going to the controller, where the converter will "charge through" the controller.
(I got some good help from the forum here with that issue last winter when re-designing my set-up)
So the nice new programmable controller will be fussy about seeing the real battery voltage for its programs. MPPT also needs good voltage from the array to work right.
The controller instruction manual will likely have something to say about all that. Anyway, I don't know how it all is in that rig, now or as planned, but could be worth a review of the plan to make sure the solar side will be ok too.
I can certainly install the solar controller immediately adjacent to and directly connected to the battery bank - there would be a longer run from the array to the controller, but it maxes out right now at 18A, so 4AWG would be more than ample for a 30' run.
