100w portable solar report
Yesterday March 8 we had full sun here at Roosevelt Lake, AZ. My two Group 27 batteries read 12.52v at the start of the day, measured at the batteries with the Turnigy WattMeter. I used it to collec...
Forum Discussion
Snowman9000 wrote:
It starts out as bulk, constant current. Then it goes to absorb, constant voltage. At our temps, that should be ~14.5, but the most I saw was 13.8. In the past it has held the 14+v when the battery is near full.
You said "72F". At 72F Absorb should be close to 15V. With ambient below 77F it is raised by ~0.06V/1 Celsium or less, depending on the controller. So if you battery has Bulk/Absorb 14.7 (at 77F), at 72F it should be ~14.8. 13.8V means the panel doesn't generate enough current to bring the batts even close to Absorb.
It appears though, that things were better "in the past" when it was at least 14+. Not perfect, but better than 13.8. What was different "in the past"?
And one more thing. It could be that this is how your controller is designed, so you can't change it, but missing Float mode is a major flaw. It's not good for a battery to be kept at 14+ when full.
