maximizing battery capacity
I have an 8 foot camper with a 100 watt solar panel and charger. Right now I have a group 24 12v battery and would like to increase the amp hr capacity, I was wanting to run two 6v in parallel but I c...
Forum Discussion
People with generator and no solar tend to treat their batteries, er... "differenty" :)... I can understand this, given a difficult task of getting it 100% full without having to run darn machine all day and night.
It's not that 255 AH wet battery at 50% "demands" 52A. It can "accept" 52A, but recommended maximum rate is 0.15-02C or 40-50A. Exceeding it will shorten battery life. OTH, charging it at 20A would only result in longer charging time (which you don't want of course).
Keeping it for 2 hours at 14.4V Absorption is also not something curved in stone, this depends on battery and SOC. Majority of solar controllers - especially those with a fixed timer - have 1 hour Absorption stage, as engineers determined this to be sufficient in "most" scenarios.
In any event, 127 AH daily is pretty fat energy budget for a boondocker. With moderate use of microwave you can get by on 80 AH, and without MW - on 30-50 AH.
With planned 150 AH bank, 45 AH daily will put the OP at 70% full in the morning. 200W solar is perfectly capable of delivering that much in summer, even in places like Langley BC. As long as it doesn't rain. 8ft camper sounds like a truck camper - those tend to move around more often than big rigs, and can get some charging while on the road.
It's not that 255 AH wet battery at 50% "demands" 52A. It can "accept" 52A, but recommended maximum rate is 0.15-02C or 40-50A. Exceeding it will shorten battery life. OTH, charging it at 20A would only result in longer charging time (which you don't want of course).
Keeping it for 2 hours at 14.4V Absorption is also not something curved in stone, this depends on battery and SOC. Majority of solar controllers - especially those with a fixed timer - have 1 hour Absorption stage, as engineers determined this to be sufficient in "most" scenarios.
In any event, 127 AH daily is pretty fat energy budget for a boondocker. With moderate use of microwave you can get by on 80 AH, and without MW - on 30-50 AH.
With planned 150 AH bank, 45 AH daily will put the OP at 70% full in the morning. 200W solar is perfectly capable of delivering that much in summer, even in places like Langley BC. As long as it doesn't rain. 8ft camper sounds like a truck camper - those tend to move around more often than big rigs, and can get some charging while on the road.
