Advice on wiring up a solar panel regulator please

[Tam Lin]

So I bought a solar panel to keep the boat batteries topped up. I also bought a regulator but I am not sure how to wire it and yes, I have read the manual!
There are positive and negative inputs from the solar panel, pos and neg outputs to the battery and pos and neg outputs to load. I understand how to wire the first two but not sure about the load. Does it mean all the things which are powered by the battery should be connected to the load? If so I can't see how to do it as there are quite a few wires connected to the battery, or am I missing something?
Any advice would be welcome, thanks!

 

[VicS]

So I bought a solar panel to keep the boat batteries topped up. I also bought a regulator but I am not sure how to wire it and yes, I have read the manual!
There are positive and negative inputs from the solar panel, pos and neg outputs to the battery and pos and neg outputs to load. I understand how to wire the first two but not sure about the load. Does it mean all the things which are powered by the battery should be connected to the load? If so I can't see how to do it as there are quite a few wires connected to the battery, or am I missing something?
Any advice would be welcome, thanks!

Ignore the load terminals.

There are two possibilities anyway, but you dont tell us what regulator you have bought!

Perhaps for a load that would normally be on all the time but which you would want to be disconnected if the battery volts fell below a certain figure, eg a fridge, but be reconnected when the solar panel has recharged the battery.

alternatively maybe to switch on a load when the solar panel output falls below a certain level. eg to switch lights on at dusk and off again a dawn.

Your manual should indicate which type you have .... You probably have no use for the latter although the former might be useful .

 

[JumbleDuck]

There are two possibilities anyway.

Perhaps for a load that would normally be on all the time but which you would want to be disconnected if the battery volts fell below a certain figure, eg a fridge, but be reconnected when the solar panel has recharged the battery.

alternatively maybe to switch on a load when the solar panel output falls below a certain level. eg to switch lights on at dusk and off again a dawn.

A third possibility - and this, as I understand it, is what my regulator does - is that it's where the power from the solar panels is diverted when the regulator thinks the battery can't take any more. So, for example, you might have a 12V heater in a locker somewhere which would get an extra dry-out if there were surplus amps going begging. Related to you #1, but it's a load you would like to have on sometimes rather than one you want on all the time.

 

[Tam Lin]

Thanks VicS. "Ignore the load terminals" is advice I can understand! FWIW it is a 20W panel and an EP Solar charge controller from a company off eBay. Nothing fancy, but then it is a cheap boat!