Battery cutoff with solar
Do you use the battery cutoff if you have solar. I just installed my solar and was wonder if I still need to cutoff the batteries because the solar will keep them charged and the little drain might he...
Forum Discussion
Ralph from Bogart responded to my inquiry about whether I'd be damaging his SC2030 controller (that is paired with the TM2030) by disconnecting the battery side in order to get an amps reading that wasn't influenced by the battery. He said that should be no problem for the controller BUT .....he said I wouldn't be able to see the true capabilities of the panel without the batteries connected. AND to do that I would of course need to put enough load on the batteries to keep the battery voltage below 13.0 volts. One of the Trimetric readings available, SOL, shows the amount of current being delivered by the solar panels from the SG2030. When I've looked at that the reading was always compromised by a battery that was not hungry. Another of my many duh moments arrived. I'd never thought of getting a big enough load on the batteries to make sure the controller allowed the max amps from the panels out to the batteries. Much easier to check things out now.
