Can Two Go Power Systems With Separate Charge Controllers Be Connected Together

Question:

My Lance travel trailer has a Solar on the Side connection. We also have a 190W roof mounted solar panel along with a Go Power BMK 25 battery shunt monitor. I read one of your QandA saying we can add the Go Power portable solar system and it will charge direct to the battery bank parallel to and independent of the rooftop solar. Will the battery monitor correctly monitor the solar charging input from both the rooftop and on-the-side portable charging sources, or will the BMK 25 be monitoring charging input only from the rooftop solar?

asked by: Steve D

Expert Reply:

portable options like the Go Power Portable Solar Panel with Digital Solar Controller # 34282610 have their own solar charge controller and would be have to be ran directly to the battery. If you have a port on the trailer to plug into you'd want to verify that it only runs to the battery and doesn't connect to the charge controller inside of the trailer. If it ran to the charge controller in the trailer then you'd most likely receive an error code and the system would cut off power to the battery and shut down to protect itself.

If you don't want to open up the walls and trace the port then you'd be better off just wiring the # 34282610 directly to the posts on the battery and keeping the two systems separated.

expert reply by: Kevin C