Battery cut off

greenthumb76

Can you please tell me how to disconnect my battery(ies) when working on my solar power system?

As shown in the illustration, one of the negative battery posts has a battery cut off switch. But all three negative cables are joined together before attaching to the cut off switch. Unfortunately, this still means that, after disconnecting at the cut off switch, one of the batteries is still powering the system.

Is there a better way to wire this, so that I can simply make ONE disconnection, at the cut off switch?

(If so, can you please tell me, in what order I should disconnect, then connect the cables?)

Thank you!!

niel

Re: Battery cut off

proper placement of fuses and switches is key to proper safety and operation. to remove loads in a compromised situation it must be by turning off all of the loads before attempting to remove a wire physically from the loads. the same holds true for the pv end of things as you would remove the wires at night coming from your controller when there's no power being produced by the pvs. the key is to not have power flowing in the wires in question so that they can be disconnected. now that you see the dilemma you are in, you now know where you need to place the switch so that all of the batteries disconnect.
be careful in any case as it is good to assume wires are still energized rather than not.

greenthumb76

Re: Battery cut off

you would remove the wires at night coming from your controller when there's no power being produced

yes, that's what I do--or cover the panels completely with dark towels, when the sun is already low in the sky.

the key is to not have power flowing in the wires in question so that they can be disconnected.

my philosophy as well.

be careful in any case as it is good to assume wires are still energized rather than not

it happens to all of us at some point, doesn't it?