Critique proposed solar battery upgrade
Currently have a Jayco hybrid (Jayfeather 26L) but moving to a Denali 5th wheel in the spring (2012 DE324LBS). Currently have 4 Trojan T125’s with 600 watts of solar, with a Kisae 2000 watt pure sine...
Forum Discussion
Mr Wiz, that's a good point about which amps are going where. I need to think about that some more.
It was easy when I had a total battery disconnect switch from all RV loads, but now I don't. With one, you can plug shore power in to the gen and run on converter while also plugging battery chargers into the gen to do the disconnected batts.
No I don't do an hydrometer check often while off grid. I did when I was checking to see how the Trimetric AH counter worked at its normal setting for charging efficiency. I found that in the camping situation we have in summer (everyone else can get a different Trimetric result in other locations at other times of year) the counter got to about plus 15AH before the batt SG was right up there. That was on solar of course , or would never get past 90%, and ASSumes little "SG lag" when it is all so slow on solar by the end of the daytime.
Once I knew that, I just use the Tri counter and know if I am only up to plus 5AH, I am not quite there. ( If you are in one spot like a stick house long enough, you can fiddle with the Tri setting for that so it comes out to full SG at the same time the Tri gets back up to zero.)
It's the same thing with doing a small recondition with the AGMs when you know they need it. Give them some 15ish (how many--specs don't say) volts for ??? time --you have to guess) and then stop. OK how to tell if that was enough? You have to wait till the next recharge from when ever you cycle again.
I agree it probably makes no difference in real life for this "issue" since the batts are going to die anyway eventually whether AGM or Flooded. It is just me--I hate not being able to do an hydrometer check on my AGMs. :(
It was easy when I had a total battery disconnect switch from all RV loads, but now I don't. With one, you can plug shore power in to the gen and run on converter while also plugging battery chargers into the gen to do the disconnected batts.
No I don't do an hydrometer check often while off grid. I did when I was checking to see how the Trimetric AH counter worked at its normal setting for charging efficiency. I found that in the camping situation we have in summer (everyone else can get a different Trimetric result in other locations at other times of year) the counter got to about plus 15AH before the batt SG was right up there. That was on solar of course , or would never get past 90%, and ASSumes little "SG lag" when it is all so slow on solar by the end of the daytime.
Once I knew that, I just use the Tri counter and know if I am only up to plus 5AH, I am not quite there. ( If you are in one spot like a stick house long enough, you can fiddle with the Tri setting for that so it comes out to full SG at the same time the Tri gets back up to zero.)
It's the same thing with doing a small recondition with the AGMs when you know they need it. Give them some 15ish (how many--specs don't say) volts for ??? time --you have to guess) and then stop. OK how to tell if that was enough? You have to wait till the next recharge from when ever you cycle again.
I agree it probably makes no difference in real life for this "issue" since the batts are going to die anyway eventually whether AGM or Flooded. It is just me--I hate not being able to do an hydrometer check on my AGMs. :(
