Solar panel controller question

[collectors]

Hi, looking to fit 3 solar panels to the camper roof at around 360 watt with a 40 amp solar controller. All the diagrams i have seen, there is a solar/panel Pos/neg, Bat Pos/neg & a 12 volt output Pos/neg going to a 12 volt fuse board. Now! i want to take a fused link direct from the battery bank to a 12 volt fuse board & onto whatever is needed.
Dose this 12 volt out of the solar control need to be connected to anything as i see on some solar controllers need an electrical dump.

Thanks,

Chris

[littleharbor]

Welcome Chris.
No you don't need to use the load terminals on the controller. They are (in most controllers) used to control a single load such as a lighting circuit that can be set to run for X amount of hours at night. They are triggered by darkness or can be set to run 24/7. The normal set up is as you are wanting to do. All loads are drawn from the battery. The best location for fusing is on the battery. Blue Seas makes a great fuse for this..

https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat...al_Fuse_Blocks
Blue Seas terminal fuse..jpg

[collectors]

Ah! that solved the conundrum. We was looking at this one "ebay" as its had some good review on you tube & alike. They go under a couple of names. Thanks
solar.png

[Wrybread]

I think that's thee same as the charge controller I use, but yours has a different body and a display. Here's the one I got on Amazon ($180):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015ZBOHKC

This looks the same but for $124:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KW5W49J

And interestingly looks like they now have models up to 200 amps / 200 volts:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TXNBB7H

I've had great luck with that controllers, I've installed 3 of them and never had a failure. I upgraded to a Morningstar MPPT 60 (long story, someone basically gave it to me) and in general it doesn't give me any more power than my old Tracer 40 with my 930 watts (three 310 watt panels) flat mounted on the roof of my RV in parallel.

If I was doing a new install I'd seriously look at the Victron charge controller too, which have really nice software (ability to monitor output from your phone, and can easily use them with lithium batteries in the future):

https://www.amazon.com/SmartSolar-MPPT-100-Charge-Controller/dp/B073ZJ43L1