I am a wildlife biologist setting up a solar powered battery bank in a remote forest to power 12V DC cameras for observing a nesting bird colony. Because of surrounding trees, we want to set up two separate solar panel arrays to capture sunlight from two different gaps in forest canopy, each with their own charge controller (MPPT 100|20). We want the two controllers to charge the same battery bank (4-6 12V batteries), and use the controller’s load output to power the camera system. My question is how best to wire in the two controllers into a battery bank (wired in parallel), and can I combine the two controller’s load outputs into 1 power input for the camera, or do I need to pick just one controller for load output. The reason for potentially combining the load output of the two controllers is in case one fails, as environmental conditions in the forest (heat, humidity, insects) causes many issues with electronic devices.
For greatest redundancy connect both solar charge controllers and your load to the batteries in parallel. Add a Battery Protect device between the battery and loads to prevent over discharge.