Capacity Testing and 20 HR Rating
I'm thinking about doing a capacity test on my four GC2's. They have a 20hr rating of 215Ah. One thing I'm curious about is how the 20hr rating would have been determined. Being 6v, would they h...
Forum Discussion
BFL,
Part of the problem is, I'm dealing with a big metal box to begin with... i.e; the bus. The battery cabinet is under the dinette seat... I simply remove the cushions, and a couple of stove bolts, lift the lid, and I have complete access to the bank. But the venting is a grill on the sidewall of the bus, which had to be installed a couple inches below the top of the cabinet... thus my trapped hot air dilemma.
There's about a foot of skirting around the bottom of the bus, which accommodated several storage units, as well as the 60lb lp tank. The charger cabinet is directly under the battery cabinet, under the floor of the bus, and is vented with a grill installed in the door, and an additional smaller grill, next to it; both of which are cut into the skirting. But a lot of hot air gets trapped in there, too. I could add more grills, but I have to consider wet weather and dust issues, as well, not just heat. So, I see me installing two fans in there, one exhaust, one supply.
I hope to limit fan use to whenever I'm charging. But of course, with solar, that could be all day, pretty much. I'm hoping to use no more than a total of about 1a at 12v to power all the fans. And in most cases, there should be plenty of solar available if it's that hot out, anyway.
I think it should be a fair trade off, overall, efficiency wise. I'll need to compare things running hot to running not so hot. Hopefully it will be well worth the trouble. I'm rather confident it will be.
One of the things that attracted me to the tracer bn series was the large heat sink design. Hopefully blowing some air across it will make a significant difference.
I have a similar situation inside the camper. I have yet to install my new roof vent; which I'm sure is going to make a vast improvement in interior temps. Hot air gets trapped in the top foot or so, in between the overheads. The 5100 btu a/c unit is installed at one end, with its output right up near the ceiling. On hot days, I open all the windows and turn on the units fan only, on low, and it pushes air across the entire ceiling, thus pushing the trapped hot air down into the camper, which in turn finds its way out the windows. I can drop temps by 5-10F in a matter of a few minutes, just doing this. So it just goes to show what a little air circulation can do.
Part of the problem is, I'm dealing with a big metal box to begin with... i.e; the bus. The battery cabinet is under the dinette seat... I simply remove the cushions, and a couple of stove bolts, lift the lid, and I have complete access to the bank. But the venting is a grill on the sidewall of the bus, which had to be installed a couple inches below the top of the cabinet... thus my trapped hot air dilemma.
There's about a foot of skirting around the bottom of the bus, which accommodated several storage units, as well as the 60lb lp tank. The charger cabinet is directly under the battery cabinet, under the floor of the bus, and is vented with a grill installed in the door, and an additional smaller grill, next to it; both of which are cut into the skirting. But a lot of hot air gets trapped in there, too. I could add more grills, but I have to consider wet weather and dust issues, as well, not just heat. So, I see me installing two fans in there, one exhaust, one supply.
I hope to limit fan use to whenever I'm charging. But of course, with solar, that could be all day, pretty much. I'm hoping to use no more than a total of about 1a at 12v to power all the fans. And in most cases, there should be plenty of solar available if it's that hot out, anyway.
I think it should be a fair trade off, overall, efficiency wise. I'll need to compare things running hot to running not so hot. Hopefully it will be well worth the trouble. I'm rather confident it will be.
One of the things that attracted me to the tracer bn series was the large heat sink design. Hopefully blowing some air across it will make a significant difference.
I have a similar situation inside the camper. I have yet to install my new roof vent; which I'm sure is going to make a vast improvement in interior temps. Hot air gets trapped in the top foot or so, in between the overheads. The 5100 btu a/c unit is installed at one end, with its output right up near the ceiling. On hot days, I open all the windows and turn on the units fan only, on low, and it pushes air across the entire ceiling, thus pushing the trapped hot air down into the camper, which in turn finds its way out the windows. I can drop temps by 5-10F in a matter of a few minutes, just doing this. So it just goes to show what a little air circulation can do.
