House Battery Charge Question
I have a house bank with two 12 volt batteries in parallel. I read that I should not let them fall below 50% charge when boondocking, but I forgot how to calculate what a 50% charge with this setup ca...
Forum Discussion
I always try to stay above 12.2. When recharging you should be fully charged when your converter goes into float and this often takes a surprising amount of time. You dont have to put 100 % back into the battery every day but after a week of two of incomplete charges you will see a lack of performance and possibly not make it through the night or your voltage will start dropping off quicker.
The voltage may go up when charging but your battery capacity becomes smaller and smaller if not fully charged. If you have a wet battery you will see this with a corresponding drop in the specific gravity. After doing incomplete charges for x days and you return to shore power it should charge fully and go into float. If you are boondocking long term there will be days that you need to do very long charges to get the converter or charger to reach float.
We use a lot of power and I shoot for a complete charge every day. If I'm down a lot by my standards I will charge off my converter while we run the genny to make coffee and use microwave and then let the solar bank finish off. The specific gravity is the true indicator of battery charge and sometimes differences in each cell. This is not to say you should need to dip the battery often. When you get the rhythm of how you operate you will know when performance is dropping.
The voltage may go up when charging but your battery capacity becomes smaller and smaller if not fully charged. If you have a wet battery you will see this with a corresponding drop in the specific gravity. After doing incomplete charges for x days and you return to shore power it should charge fully and go into float. If you are boondocking long term there will be days that you need to do very long charges to get the converter or charger to reach float.
We use a lot of power and I shoot for a complete charge every day. If I'm down a lot by my standards I will charge off my converter while we run the genny to make coffee and use microwave and then let the solar bank finish off. The specific gravity is the true indicator of battery charge and sometimes differences in each cell. This is not to say you should need to dip the battery often. When you get the rhythm of how you operate you will know when performance is dropping.
