Solar install
 

I bought a Komaes solar kit on amazon. comes with 100 watt panel, Controller, and wiring. I installed it and it works great. However, when I hit the on/off button it still charges my batteries. Maintains them at 13.7 volts if the sun is out. Shouldn't the on/off button shut the system down? Or is it only for the load circuit? I do not want my batteries charging all the time. I wire it as follows. +- from solar panel to solar input, +- from battery to battery input on controller. Load +- on controller is not used.

The function of the controller is to charge when needed and to maintain them at a float voltage if not needed, ready for use. The on/off button probably only turns on the controller display and the load circuit.

You could add an ON/OFF switch or better yet a circuit breaker between the solar controller and the battery bank. That way you can trip the breaker (like an on/off switch) if you don’t want it to charge your battery bank or when you need to do maintainance on them (add water / test / replace down the road).

I have been looking at adding solar to mine and I plan on added TWO Circuit breakers, one before and one after the solar controller. Not only for safty but just in case I need to remove the controller for any reason or mess with the battery.

I used circuit breakers between the solar panels and CC and CC to batteries.
The few controllers that I am aware of with an on/off switch it only controls the load circuit.
For the most part I leave the 2 100 watt roof mounted panels on all the time.
The charge controller, CC, I have has a float mode which is like a trickle charger.
If your batteries are flooded, wet cells, check fluid level once a month until you get a feel for things.

I have a pair of circuit breakers, one on the incoming solar line and one on the output line to the batteries. My charger is a Bogart SC-2030 and doesn't have an off switch. Up top I have 2 100-watt panels, plus I have a 120 watt portable panel that I can plug into a pigtail that I ran to the battery compartment.

I am a little concerned about the float voltage being 13.7 volts. On my prior systems on my boat I adjusted float voltage to 13.2 volts to minimize water usage on the batteries. Is 13.7 ok long term?

13.7 volts sure sounds healthy-enough to me! :thumb:
When I fired my generator up today: it was sending 14.4 volts to the batteries... :o