How to Build a Small Solar Power System
How to Build a Small Solar Power System
This guide explains everything you need to know to build stand-alone photovoltaic systems that can power almost anything you want.
I just skimmed, but noticed one small discrepancy in one of the pictures. It shows an inverter connected to the "load" terminals on the solar charge controller. This is not the way to do it, because the inverter draws way too much power.
The inverter should be connected directly to the battery with low gauge wire.
It depends on the hardware you have, as the charger and inverter can interfere with each other in a number of ways.
For an RV with a couple lead-acid batteries, separate devices all connected to the battery usually work fine.
For more sophisticated set-ups (at least around here) all-in-one devices incorporating both charger and inverter are preferred. You also get load managenent this way.
If you have a separate inverter and charger that are designed to talk to each other and have good MPPT, you connect them both to the PV panels so the inverter doesn't sabotage the charger's ability to measure the battery's state of charge or charge it optimally. This is 'preferable' for lead batteries and critical for lithium batteries.