Question on Solar and Battery charging when in FHU Park. I have 600W Solar system with TS45 PWM Charge controller. My battery bank that I am using is 4 GC2. I am a high dc user, during evening to morning I can use over 100AH. TV's, Sat, light led light, have 12/120 freezer. My voltage on either the solar controller or Trimetric shows 12.4 v for a low volts in the morning. During the day, I can get up to 197AH of the solar panels ( depending on how much I drained the batteries and what I am using during the day).This is my first time out where I am getting very good sun(RGV area) on my system, 34.4AH for high. Will cycling my batteries like this cause high water lost? Batteries return to 99% every day, I see the charge controller going into PWM down to 25%. My solar charge program is set for high 14.4V. I have my AC converter turned off, just working off solar. Would I be better off keeping the Converter turn on? I am trying to keep my shore AC use low as possible, but I don't want to damage my batteries. I hope you guys can make heads and tail of what I am doing and my question. Thanks for all your input. Gary

Batteries have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles so it makes no sense not to use shore power when available. You won't damage anything leaving converter on while connected to shore power.

Are you doing this full time? For the winter? One week?I would probably do a week on then a week off for solar/converter balance.Almost need a grid tie inverter :B

Your solar charge controller is actually set a wee tad lower than my Blue Sky controller manufacturer recommends.... 14.6V for bulk and top end charge. To answer your question, yes, a good healthy charge such as your solar controller is doing will probably mandate at least a monthly check of battery water levels. I try to check mine every two weeks and they do use a fair amount of water. A 'slight' bubbling of the electrolyte when charging under these conditions is desirable for maximum wet cell battery health ... but overdoing it, such as when my controller was set for 14.8 is too much. Given that you have described a very healthy usage of your batteries on a daily basis.... by not discharging them over the 50% capacity mark, sounds like you are in pretty good shape. As long as you keep the water up in your batteries and the tops cleaned they should last a long time.Incidentally, I often run my RV on shore power when stored at home... have seen no problems with both solar and shore charger working in tandem.... I don't know which, if either, is doing the most work.just my opinion.

You shouldn't lose any appreciable water (more than usual, you will lose some) in the batteries if the controller is set up correctly. What controller are you using?

Leave the converter operational. My PD plays well with the blue sky controller.

FHU - Solar - Battery Charging | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

westend
Explorer
Oct 16, 2015
You shouldn't lose any appreciable water (more than usual, you will lose some) in the batteries if the controller is set up correctly. What controller are you using?
Ed_Gee
Explorer II
Oct 16, 2015
Your solar charge controller is actually set a wee tad lower than my Blue Sky controller manufacturer recommends.... 14.6V for bulk and top end charge. To answer your question, yes, a good healthy charge such as your solar controller is doing will probably mandate at least a monthly check of battery water levels. I try to check mine every two weeks and they do use a fair amount of water. A 'slight' bubbling of the electrolyte when charging under these conditions is desirable for maximum wet cell battery health ... but overdoing it, such as when my controller was set for 14.8 is too much. Given that you have described a very healthy usage of your batteries on a daily basis.... by not discharging them over the 50% capacity mark, sounds like you are in pretty good shape. As long as you keep the water up in your batteries and the tops cleaned they should last a long time.

Incidentally, I often run my RV on shore power when stored at home... have seen no problems with both solar and shore charger working in tandem.... I don't know which, if either, is doing the most work.

just my opinion.
time2roll
Nomad
Oct 16, 2015
Are you doing this full time? For the winter? One week?

I would probably do a week on then a week off for solar/converter balance.
Almost need a grid tie inverter :B
Tom_M1
Explorer
Oct 16, 2015
Batteries have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles so it makes no sense not to use shore power when available. You won't damage anything leaving converter on while connected to shore power.

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FHU - Solar - Battery Charging

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