Laying out my control board - where to locate fuses?

[Richiep]

Hey All,
I received my ANL fuses and connectors today and I'm ready to start laying out the components on a control board. I only have a charge controller right now and I'm shopping for an inverter. My charge controller is a SolarEpic Tracer 4215BN

Based on my research so far I should have at least three fuses/breakers.

Fuse #1 between the array and charge controller. Maybe its better to set this up as a breaker/disconnect instead of a fuse?
Fuse #2 between charge controller and inverter
Fuse #3 between battery bank and charge controller.

My gut tells me to put the fuses and breakers as close the energy source as possible. Meaning I'd put a fuse at the battery box instead of the "control board". If so should I put the fuse before or after the battery bank disconnect switch?

If you have a pic of your control board(s) I'd love to check them out.

Any and all advice is appreciated
Thanks!
Rich

[sensij]

There are fuse holder that mount directly to the battery terminals... Blue Sea Systems sells a dual holder that works well for one line to a charge controller and the other to the inverter.

The inverter should be wired to the battery, not the charge controller.

No fuses are required between the panels and charge controller unless you have more than two panels or strings in parallel. More than two, each string needs to be individually fused before they are combined.

[Richiep]

Thanks Sensij

The inverter should be wired to the battery, not the charge controller.
.

I've read that you can do it either way. I like the idea of doing it through the MPPT because I can set it to disconnect if the voltage drops too low. I've read that inverters tend to have a lower voltage disconnect than the charge controller and that inverters generally don't let you tweak the low voltage disconnect.

I want to make sure my batteries are kept safe and healthy.

Thanks!
Rich

[sensij]

The rated load current for that charge controller is 20 A. Is that enough to do everything you want to do with the inverter?

[Richiep]

The rated load current for that charge controller is 20 A. Is that enough to do everything you want to do with the inverter?

For the time being, yes.

[littleharbor]

For the time being, yes.

If you are running a 12 volt system an inverter connected to the controller load output you would be limited to less than a 2 amp ac load. Inverters can potentially draw hundreds of amps. Proper sized cables couldn't be connected to a charge controller. There is no good reason to connect an inverter to a charge controller. It just shouldn't be done.