12v System

24v System

Note the above schematics are meant to be examples and specific solar arrays may vary.

Using the “load” feature on your charge controller is absolutely a valid way to protect your batteries from being over discharged. A major benefit of using this feature is that smart charge controllers such as the Victron Smartsolar will keep track of your energy usages, which can be accessed through the Victron mobile app via Bluetooth. One major drawback of this is that you most likely will not be able to run an inverter through it as it is much too large a load. Also, through my experience, in rush currents from inductive loads (motors) such as a fridge will trip the sensitive over current protection in devices like Victron. The good news is most fridges and inverters have their own low voltage cutout so they can be directly connected to any fused battery supply. Check your owners manual for cut out voltages.

One last possibility is to have the load output of your charge controller, control a relay, making it possible to control loads upwards of 100 amps. The downfall of this is the charge controller will no longer be able to keep track of the energy you are using but that only the power the relay uses.