How charge controllers stop battery discharge

[littleharbor]

The only way for the CC to prevent over discharge would be for it to have the ONLY load(s) connected to the load terminals on the CC. Most better controllers don't even have this feature. It is intended to control lighting or some other small loads. While they are supposed to disconnect from the battery in the event of over discharge to protect your battery they are initially meant to turn on a lighting circuit for a preset amount of time. The load terminals are generally limited to the amp rating of the controller. Most all solar systems will have larger load requirements than a simple lighting circuit and thus make the load terminals nearly useless.

[wpmasterdesign]

I am a little confused about something and I hope one of you pros can help.

So my charge controller is supposed to keep my battery from overdischarging and from over charging. I understand how overcharge protection works because the cc will stop charging the battery when it is full. What I am cinfused about is the discharge protection.

If I have it setup correctly, then there is nothing between the inverter and the cc to stop stop discharge. So I have the chain like this: Solar pane to CC>> CC to battery>>battery to inverter>>Inverter to load. It seems to me that in order to stop the battery from discharging at a certain point, there would have to be something to cut off the electricity between the battery and the inverter.

So how can a CC prevent over-discharge? Do I have my system wired completely wrong?

This instructable says connect the inverter to the charge controller, but that is a heavier load than a light, especially if I have my devices running on the inverter. So that doesn't seem right.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Power-System/