Battery monitor: useful tool or toy?
Hello all. As we prepare for FT (mostly boondocking) I am working through the 12v upgrades. Got the 600 AH of Lifelines in place. Two banks of 6v pairs; 4 batts in all. Upgraded the converter to 80, p...
Forum Discussion
I can't imagine dry camping without something like the Trimetric.
Last winter I collected amp hour usage data to decide how much solar to install. This winter I will use it to manage generator time.
That said, there's 200-300 of us military retirees dry camping for the winter down at Trumbo Point. I'm the only one I know of that has a Trimetric. Most don't even have voltmeters, the ones that do with solar think all is well when they see 12.6+ when the sun has been up a while.
The ones without solar run their generators a lot. In either case when the lights don't work in the morning before generator or sun hours, they go pick up a new battery. That works too I guess.
I guess you could manage reasonably well looking at voltage after sunset and before evening power usage and morning voltage before sunrise and adjusting generator time to make those happy numbers.
I managed a few winters before Trimetric. Start generator when Charge Wizard light went solid on, stop when you could hear generator speed when you turned a light on.
Joel
Last winter I collected amp hour usage data to decide how much solar to install. This winter I will use it to manage generator time.
That said, there's 200-300 of us military retirees dry camping for the winter down at Trumbo Point. I'm the only one I know of that has a Trimetric. Most don't even have voltmeters, the ones that do with solar think all is well when they see 12.6+ when the sun has been up a while.
The ones without solar run their generators a lot. In either case when the lights don't work in the morning before generator or sun hours, they go pick up a new battery. That works too I guess.
I guess you could manage reasonably well looking at voltage after sunset and before evening power usage and morning voltage before sunrise and adjusting generator time to make those happy numbers.
I managed a few winters before Trimetric. Start generator when Charge Wizard light went solid on, stop when you could hear generator speed when you turned a light on.
Joel
