And Another Battery Question
We just got back from our yearly trip to the Cades Cove. No hookups in the campground, so we are dry camping. I equalized the batteries right before we left and after resting overnight the batteries ...
Forum Discussion
Katdaddy wrote:2oldman wrote:Katdaddy wrote:What does 'the solar would show' mean? The panel on the controller? During full sun?
The solar would show the voltage up to 13.00 during the day and then it would again drop to 12.30 after dark.
The readout on the controller and my volt meter would read 13.00. Never had what I would call full sun. The most input I saw was 48 watts. The batteries read 12.30 when we got there and, with solar each day read 12.30 when we left.
Your batteries never got close to 100% "full".
13.00V from your panels was nothing more than trickle charging at the max.
Generally your battery needs to see 13.2V just to keep up with the internal self discharge of the batteries.
To effectively cause some meaningful charging to happen you need voltages of 13.8-14.4V.
Flooded Lead Acid batteries typically will have a fully charged resting voltage of 12.8V give or take .1V..
12.3V? Yeah, you have discharged or wornout batteries and your solar is not enough to fully charge them..
