I setup a small solar setup on a floating dock that powers 3 led lamps (about 24 watts total) when turned on. The system uses 2 marine batteries that I hoped would maintain a full charge for use with a trolling motor. I setup the system in the spring of 2018 with essentially no load on it since the inverter that powers the lamps has an on/off switch and stays on off. I've checked on the system about twice per month over the last 8 months and all has looked ok - batteries at 100% and lights work when turned on. However, when I checked this week, the charge controller displayed a battery discharge error and both batteries (wired in parallel) were dead with zero charge. I also noticed some corrosion on the positive terminal connection of the lead battery. I'm thinking that only a dead short in the system could drain two 200 Ah batteries with no load over about a 3 week period. The 30 watt solar panel appears ok as it's I'm seeing 21.2 volts and 1.35 amps. If the panel diode battery current block had failed, I would think that the panel itself would have failed.- any ideas on this problem. See setup below :
SolarConfig.JPG
SolarConfig.JPG
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