Shut off Location

Where in my system should I place a shut off. I am building a small 400 Watt system on a house boat and want to turn it off after weekend use. It can harm solar charge controllers to have power from panels hooked up with out battery connected correct? So having a disconnect for batteries is not a good idea? Do I wire shut off at input before solar enters controller? I can simply turn off inverter at back of unit switch and lights have built in switch, only other load is toilet.

Just would be strange to have no shut off, is that standard?

Thanks, First post...

Welcome to the forums!

Many put a cutoff switch as a first stop after the main fuse from the battery, or you can use a breaker for both purposes (over-amperage and disconnect) if you’d like.

I have a breaker on the solar input, just before the SCC on the positive leg, to disconnect power in from PV. It’s a whole other discussion, but my research has lead me to believe that a quality SCC won’t be damaged by disconnecting the batteries without disconnecting the PV. But it also doesn’t hurt a thing to break the solar circuit when turning off the battery bank, so I have both.

I have a PWM charge controller. I use a DPST Blue Sea battery switch to disconnect the panels and battery. I also have a disconnect on the battery negative to completely isolate the battery.

I have a breaker (could have gone for fuse as well) just between my positive battery side and my shut off switch. There's also a switch for PV, no breaker but I have an inline fuse on the roof in the positive leg.

It's a big pain in the backside if you need to do any work and you can't shut off the power.

You should have at least two shut offs.
One for the battery and one for the solar panels. My system can be charged from solar or grid (when available) so I also have a shut off between the scc and the positive bus bar. No need to power the scc all the time if you are not using solar all the time.