Solar Panel Question ....

[booster]

Originally Posted by themexicandoctor

By golly Booster,

You are the last person on this site who I thought would have any kind of learning curve which makes your hard earned recommendations all the more valuable!

How did the mismatch behave?

I am assuming you now have three or four 6 volts? What* is the model & manufacturer?

*if you prefer to send me to a thread you created on this, that's okay too.

I probably am not going to.take my generator out now that I have invested $1200 in it the last couple of years & I like the idea of its utility & resale. Next time it turns Turtle, that is where I would put a new Battery system if I hadn't already.

But I might go 6 volt, with Lifeline products, next time knowing that they have better qualities for our needs.

I imagined that having them under the bed & closest to the wiring systems made them more efficient or is the effect, negligible?

Mismatch was not great, we eventually just disconnected the 12v battery as we found we did fine without it once we increased the solar to 300 watts. The issue with mismatch may have been exaggerated because the 12v battery, I found out later, as actually not the same construction and design as the golf cart 6v batteries, so it charged faster, used more water, came up to high specific gravity, and discharged faster. I am sure the wiring mismatch contributed, but couldn't differentiate.


Here is a link to our current setup, which is 4 Lifeline 6v golf cart batteries.


https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f...rade-4007.html

[themexicandoctor]

Booster,

Priceless info.

Immediate answers.

And a lot clearer than the novel between you, Photog & the rest of us regarding lifting our Roadtreks.

Thank you.

[themexicandoctor]

Booster,

By the way, its 2.50pm in Los Angeles.

I do not have the Fridge in yet, only loads were the Inverter for 60 minutes an hour before, Water Pump & the constant Fantastic Fan.

Been driving for two intervals of 15 minutes.

Looking at my Batteries via the Victron MTTP Controller it tells me that they are fully charged right now &;

Have been in Float for over 5 & 1/2 hours.

Were in Bulk for 1 hour & 55 minutes.

And in Absorption for 1 hour & 17 minutes.

With a Pmax high of 147 watts during the inverter run at first & a Vmax high of 21.69 volts.

The Smart Battery Meter reads 13.25 with a current of 0.13amps & power at 2 watts.

The moment I turn on the key & let it idle, the current changes to 14.25 volts & 23 amps.

I have a Chassis battery voltmeter that reads 13.4 volts at idle.

First cold start up in the morning I have seen the battery volts go to 14.71 volts & 35 amps.

Yesterday I added a Blue Seas Double USB 2.1 amp charger instead of the standard Chevrolet Cigarette Chargers. I did not rralise it had a light & so called the manufacturer who said the lights parasitic draw is only 15-24 milliamps.

I have the best car/truck battery money can buy, an Odyssey 78-PC

https://www.odysseybattery.com/Batteries/Model_78PC1500

1. Do those figures look good to you?

2. And should I go ahead & put another Blue Sea charger for the passenger or is that Parasitic draw to high?

[booster]

Originally Posted by themexicandoctor

Booster,

By the way, its 2.50pm in Los Angeles.

I do not have the Fridge in yet, only loads were the Inverter for 60 minutes an hour before, Water Pump & the constant Fantastic Fan.

Been driving for two intervals of 15 minutes.

Looking at my Batteries via the Victron MTTP Controller it tells me that they are fully charged right now &;

Have been in Float for over 5 & 1/2 hours.

Were in Bulk for 1 hour & 55 minutes.

And in Absorption for 1 hour & 17 minutes.

With a Pmax high of 147 watts during the inverter run at first & a Vmax high of 21.69 volts.

The Smart Battery Meter reads 13.25 with a current of 0.13amps & power at 2 watts.

The moment I turn on the key & let it idle, the current changes to 14.25 volts & 23 amps.

I have a Chassis battery voltmeter that reads 13.4 volts at idle.

First cold start up in the morning I have seen the battery volts go to 14.71 volts & 35 amps.

Yesterday I added a Blue Seas Double USB 2.1 amp charger instead of the standard Chevrolet Cigarette Chargers. I did not rralise it had a light & so called the manufacturer who said the lights parasitic draw is only 15-24 milliamps.

I have the best car/truck battery money can buy, an Odyssey 78-PC

https://www.odysseybattery.com/Batteries/Model_78PC1500

1. Do those figures look good to you?

2. And should I go ahead & put another Blue Sea charger for the passenger or is that Parasitic draw to high?

It is pretty hard to tell exactly what is happening without seeing the readings on the monitor over those times, but If the monitor is telling you the batteries are full, and you start the engine, you should not see 23 amps to the coach batteries. If you have 200 amp hours of lifeline batteries, Lifeline would declare them full when they are charging at .5% or 1 amp. That said, there often will be a bit of spike when the voltage goes up, but if the batteries are full on the monitor, and it is set right and working right, you should quickly get down under 5 amps the batteries.


I think you will get much better information if you start watching the monitor for amp hours or watt hours in/out of the batteries. It should reset to zero at a full charge and then totalize use as you discharge, the count back up toward zero and above on recharge.



I think 20 amps would indicate your batteries were at least 10-15% discharged, so something is odd there.


It sounds like you van voltmeter is not correct as the voltage you show to the coach batteries looks pretty much what the engine should be putting out when running.


That parasitic is low enough I would only worry about it in long term storage.

[themexicandoctor]

THANK YOU, I just checked, after leaving the van with the fan on for 30 minutes I started up for a minute & at Idle I see that I made a decimal mistake, its only 0.23amps to 0.18amps¹

[GeorgeRa]

I didn't follow this thread in detail so answer could be somewhere. Are you monitoring batteries state of charge with Victron MPPT charge controller?

[themexicandoctor]

I thought the difference between the volts reading of the chassis battery versus what is going to the house batteries was the work of the isolator?

[themexicandoctor]

Here they are ...

[themexicandoctor]

George,

I don't know if your message was being written before I posted but it was my mistake, the amp draw was NOT 23amps but 0.23amps.

Yes I am using both the Victron BMV712 meter & the Victron MTTP Controller.

Does that seem much more accurate since I changed the decimal point?

[booster]

Originally Posted by themexicandoctor

George,

I don't know if your message was being written before I posted but it was my mistake, the amp draw was NOT 23amps but 0.23amps.

Yes I am using both the Victron BMV712 meter & the Victron MTTP Controller.

Does that seem much more accurate since I changed the decimal point?

That certainly makes it look better!

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by booster

That certainly makes it look better!

Probably why NASA & SPACE X chose not hire me ...

Thank you Booster, makes me relieved.