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Need a breaker or not?

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  • Need a breaker or not?

    Suppose someone is planning to install one solar panel with the highest capacity and a (mppt) chargecontroller to charge one 12v deep cycle battery.

    Does he need any breaker if there is a built-in mainswitch of turning off the chargecontroller?

  • #2
    Originally posted by GeorgeF View Post
    Suppose someone is planning to install one solar panel with the highest capacity and a (mppt) chargecontroller to charge one 12v deep cycle battery.

    Does he need any breaker if there is a built-in mainswitch of turning off the chargecontroller?
    The charge controller has to be DISCONNECTED from the PV before disconnecting from the battery. So that's 2 switches you need.

    Running raw, uncontrolled power into a controller that is not connected to a battery, creates a fault state that may or may not be destructive. Experiment with your expensive gear and be sure to record the raw PV voltage, and let us know what happened.

    Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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    • #3
      Remember breakers and fuses are there to protect the wire and not necessarily the equipment.

      Also as Mike stated having a way to safely disconnect a component is both smart and will pay for itself.

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