Confusion on battery charging
I am confused about the best practices for charging batteries. For 7 years I had 300 AH of Lifeline AGM batteries, 270 watts of solar and a simple charging system. My old camper has a 110 volt c...
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JimK-NY wrote:Almot wrote:
Smoke from forest fires could put quite a dent in your solar output.
Add another solar panel or two - though old Blue Sky might not be able to handle that much. 40A Tracer MPPT could be an option, 200-something dollars, no personal experience, doesn't look like top of the line but should handle more solar.
Generator only gets to 13.3? Are you by any chance running it through OEM converter? Some converters are really cr-appy.
I have a truck camper with little room to upgrade the solar. My backup is a Honda eu2000i which charges through my old Elixir 13.3 v controller. I had thought about replacing the Elixir but that seems to be a major project. Another option seems more feasible. I will just add a separate charge controller for the generator and wire it directly to the battery. Of course I would need to unplug that and use the existing in order to run AC or microwave.
Since I am not sure what I am doing, my other option would be to contact my RV dealer for a price on having them do the upgrade. The parts are not too bad at under $300 but I suspect the labor bill will be high. I think it is a tedious job that requires a skilled tech.
You don't need a new converter, just a battery charger. You can buy a deck mount converter and use it as a portable charger to get a higher amp charger for a decent price. Just put a cut-off end of jumper cables with its clamps into the converter's terminals.
