question

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gfhughes asked

Directionality/polarity of circuit breaker for charge controller -> battery

What "direction" to I wire the breaker between the batteries and charge controller? Do I put the controller on the line or the load? Presumably power flows in both direction, which I read is unsafe for DC breaker... but this application seems very common. I am using a 100/20 MPPT with a BlueSea Series A 25A breaker.

My guess is that the batteries go on the load side because a majority of the power flows from the controller to the batteries, but that wouldn't account for nighttime when the batteries are powering the controller.

I primarily want a breaker so I can easily disconnect the controller when not in use to avoid unneeded draw.

MPPT Controllersfuses
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1 Answer
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gfhughes answered ·

Sorry, I wrote this after lots of searching, and happened to just find the answer.

According to MidNite, the source with the highest potential goes on the LINE side, so battery on line, controller on load because the battery has the highest potential energy. Between the solar panels and controller, the panels have the highest potential energy, so they go on the line and the controller on the load.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtq3cs9Gucc


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