Boatbuilder79
Well-known member
What is the purpose?
Why not just hook all the loads to the battery bank?
Why not just hook all the loads to the battery bank?
Why do solar controllers have a set of “load” terminals?
- Thread starter Boatbuilder79
- Start date
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
The load terminals monitor the load, there's a couple of reasons for this.
One is to protect the battery from being too deeply discharged and ruining it. The controller may be able to disconnect the load if the battery discharges too low. It could also protect a load that cannot tolerate being run at a low voltage.
It also may be a feature in the controller to measure power consumed and returned to the battery. If you connect directly the battery the controller doesn't know how much has been consumed by the load and only knows what it's putting in during charge.
One is to protect the battery from being too deeply discharged and ruining it. The controller may be able to disconnect the load if the battery discharges too low. It could also protect a load that cannot tolerate being run at a low voltage.
It also may be a feature in the controller to measure power consumed and returned to the battery. If you connect directly the battery the controller doesn't know how much has been consumed by the load and only knows what it's putting in during charge.
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
Originally used for a nightlight on a solar powered electric gate setup, where you want to make sure the nightlight doesn't drain the battery so far that the gate motor doesn't operate.
Many electric gates run the electronics and motors off a 12v battery, so it will work even in a power outage, and only use the 120v from the building to trickle charge the battery.
It's been that way since before solar, so one of the first uses of solar was to add a small (they used to be "real expensive*") solar panel to an electric gate.
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Many electric gates run the electronics and motors off a 12v battery, so it will work even in a power outage, and only use the 120v from the building to trickle charge the battery.
It's been that way since before solar, so one of the first uses of solar was to add a small (they used to be "real expensive*") solar panel to an electric gate.
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Martyn
Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
The load terminals allow you to pull power direct from the controller before it goes to the battery. It’s more efficient than pulling from the battery as some of the energy is lost due to heat in the battery charging process. Most controllers will not provide power to the load terminals until the battery has reached a preset charge level.