Poor Man's Trimetric?
I want a cheap sort of 12v battery monitor that can measure at least 100a and keep track of AH. Need some advice here on whether these possibles are any good in the first place, and then about the ac...
Forum Discussion
I must smile at BFLs advance to appreciate why kWh has a place in battery management.
The best way is to establish your own personal, precise, CEF for your own personal battery bank. This is why I SCREAM about chargers not having the ability to be absorbsion voltage adjustable with at least 150% time allowance at absorbsion voltage limit to allow amperage to slump to 2-3% of total bank amp hour capacity. A few trials using a hydrometer will tell a person how long the battery must remain at this minimum amperage to have the batteries fill to capacity. Use the weak-sister cell of the bank and make life easier.
The CEF calibration should be performed every six-months with heavily cycled batteries. It isCRUCIAL to insure all cells are at maximum gravity before doing a CEF calibration.
Once a CEF calibration has been established voltage is used to insure both amperes and amp hours are stable for the C rate and return amperage minimum indication which tells you the batteries are full, INDEPENDENTLY of the amp hour or kWh meter reading. If the readings all agree which includes hours totalization of amperage or wattage then batteries are cgarged, performance is verified, and battery management reaches a new dimension with a 10-second glance at the meter.
A vital operation is the ability to reset or zero the meter. Everytime a non automatic zero rrsetmeter cycles to a new day the previous day's readings will bias current readings. When CEF is manually adjusted by past-zero-positive amp hours, it is vital to compensate for this as the meter has no idea which day is involved so CEF has to be manually calculated. Meters that have manually settable CEF are only useful if CEF compensation (not available on all meters) can be adjusted percentage point by percentage point to YOUR exact CEF definition.
This is a lot of information that should be discussed segment by segment to make it more comprehensable for the average Joe.
The best way is to establish your own personal, precise, CEF for your own personal battery bank. This is why I SCREAM about chargers not having the ability to be absorbsion voltage adjustable with at least 150% time allowance at absorbsion voltage limit to allow amperage to slump to 2-3% of total bank amp hour capacity. A few trials using a hydrometer will tell a person how long the battery must remain at this minimum amperage to have the batteries fill to capacity. Use the weak-sister cell of the bank and make life easier.
The CEF calibration should be performed every six-months with heavily cycled batteries. It isCRUCIAL to insure all cells are at maximum gravity before doing a CEF calibration.
Once a CEF calibration has been established voltage is used to insure both amperes and amp hours are stable for the C rate and return amperage minimum indication which tells you the batteries are full, INDEPENDENTLY of the amp hour or kWh meter reading. If the readings all agree which includes hours totalization of amperage or wattage then batteries are cgarged, performance is verified, and battery management reaches a new dimension with a 10-second glance at the meter.
A vital operation is the ability to reset or zero the meter. Everytime a non automatic zero rrsetmeter cycles to a new day the previous day's readings will bias current readings. When CEF is manually adjusted by past-zero-positive amp hours, it is vital to compensate for this as the meter has no idea which day is involved so CEF has to be manually calculated. Meters that have manually settable CEF are only useful if CEF compensation (not available on all meters) can be adjusted percentage point by percentage point to YOUR exact CEF definition.
This is a lot of information that should be discussed segment by segment to make it more comprehensable for the average Joe.
