Need New House Batteries - HELP!
Hello all, I could sure use some help and guidance from the experts! I'll do my best to keep this short and really appreciate you taking the time to read about my dilemma. I have a 2005 American E...
Forum Discussion
SJ Eagle wrote:Several issues here.
we had two large solar panels installed because we also do a lot of dry camping.
my volts seem to follow the sun going down, to around 12.2, from a full 14.7 during the day. Is this normal?
I can't really see spending $1600 on 4 house batteries...what's a good, maintenance FREE battery that will hold a charge and last, without breaking the bank?
Who decided just two panels would be enough?
It's not normal, assuming there's no load at the time you're seeing the 12.2 AND your solar is enough to FULLY charge those batteries AND the batteries are healthy. That's part of the problem: we don't know if your solar is enough.
You've got a nice expensive MH there, so I can't quite go along with getting cheap on batteries...meaning flooded batteries you have to babysit. AGMs are the way to go (Lithiums are still way too $$) if you want the best quality and NO maintenance.
All that said, you really need an energy audit to figure out what will keep you in power when you need it, and so you keep those nice new batteries charged so they don't poop out on you in 3 years.
This is sort of RV electric 101 around here. You've been on here for 6 years so I'm sure you've seen this before.
12v side of life.
