Does your solar controller need to go directly to the battery, and then the power distributed from there, or can the solar controller be connected to a busbar and the power distributed as required by any peripheral?
I'm trying to find out if there any issues created by connecting the solar controller to a busbar that also feeds other devices like fridges, lights or 12v sockets.
Thank you
Connect to the bus bar. Cleaner install and better power distribution.
But, surely the solar controller has three or more stages (test - bulk – absorption - recondition – float – storage etc), and it will determine which stage to charge at depending on the feedback it gets from the battery. If a controller is connected to a busbar that is constantly being drawn upon by external devices like tv's, phone chargers, fridges, lights, surely it's gonna get confused and not know what stage it's supposed to be at?
Won't this damage the controller, or at the very least mean it won't charge the battery correctly?
You want the solar to supply loads as well to stop your battery cycling as muchin any case.
Mppts can supply loads constantly with surges drawn from the battery. Battery still gets fully charged. (If there is enough solar.)
If you need to know the battery status separately to the rest of the system add a shunt or use a smart battery or a smart battery sense if you are not using ESS (fixed connection). They can be newtoeked anyway through a GX it a amrt network.
From experience I can tell you using a bus bar is better set up by far for a number of reasons. The main one being power (and heat) distribution.
