Safe to leave solar hooked to batteries unattended?

[OregonTRX4]

I leave my trailer in a rural area where we camp with no hook ups. I have been looking into solar. A friend leaves his batteries hooked up to his solar and the batteries disconnected from the trailer so that they are charged when we come back to the property every 1 to two weeks. Is there any risk to this? Any known mishaps in regards to fire or something I am overlooking? It would be terrible to have something go wrong while I am not around and have it burn the property down.

Thanks.

[RJsfishin]

I thought leaving it connected was the whole point.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Your batteries will love you for installing a solar system.

[RoyB]

In my way of thinking SOLAR and BATTERIES go hand in hand... SOLAR ENERGY for me would only be usable when in the high SUN so any power that is obtained from the SOLAR PANELs should be captured by the trailer batteries so that I can use it.

You might find a few things to use only when the SUN is high but I really haven't found many things that would benefit me doing that...

I would want to store the captured SUN ENERGY in my batteries to use when I needed it...

Hopefully the SUN ENERGY will do a complete battery charge for you during the high SUN DAY... The SOLAR PANEL Controller should be a smart mode unit that will re-charge your batteries just like when you are on SHORE POWER and not do any harm to your batteries like over-charging or boiling out your battery fluids etc... The SOLAR PANEL Controller should produce the 14.4VDC-13.6VDC-13.2VDC charging modes when the on-board batteries demand it.

Like said in the posts above all solar panel cables should be protected by high current fuses so that short circuits will blow the fuse and protect your system when left unattended just like it does when on shore power.

just my thoughts

Roy Ken

[doughere]

I have 120 watts on the roof of my unit which is parked next to house; only gets sun about half of the day, but that's enough to keep the batteries full. I don't see any reason to disconnect batteries.

Doug

[austinjenna]

I do it. I have a battery disconnect switch to turn it off going to the trailer (like your friend does) for when mine goes back into the storage lot. I got tired of taking the batteries out and bringing them home to put on the charger. Now I leave them in and with no phantom draws from the trailer they are always topped off. Also like westend said, have a fuse in between there and get a decent solar controller.

[westend]

No issues, you should have some fusing or circuit protection between the controller and the batteries, at a minimum.

[WoodGlue]

I think you'll be fine, no risks.

However, as always, I could be wrong!

WoodGlue