Almot wrote:
Are you powering controller from some 12V supply? Because if you are not, the issue with "power supply for maintenance" remains unresolved.
160W panel will work as such maintainer, but not always. Depends on location, time of the year and how badly you've depleted the batteries before putting it into "maintenance mode" between the trips. You can't rely on being always able to equalize on solar whenever you feel like. Not with this ratio of solar W to bank AH.
No just Solar. I believe my controller goes into absorb mode each day as soon as there are amps available from the panels. It doesn't just default into float. So it will run the set absorb time at the selected voltage even if the battery is fully charged. If I have the voltage set high enough and the absorb time long enough they should never get stratified, right? I can also set an equalization schedule as often as every five days.
I never plan to run the batteries lower than 50% and likely never lower than 70% SOC. Also the trailer always comes home first for cleaning before storage. So batteries will be fully charged and SG proper before storage. It is stored outside and panels are never shaded (unless it's cloudy of course).
