Solar Battery Charge Issue
Hello I have a 100W Renogy solar suitcase charging two AutoZone Duralast lead acid Marine deep cycle group 24 batteries. Batteries are 3 years old. Lately I have noticed the charging cycle time drasti...
Forum Discussion
It depends on what you do with the portable set. IMO posters are under-estimating what a 100w panel could do in a blue sky all day scenario.
It depends so much on your latitude and time of year, but eg, at 49N in May, with a 130w panel measuring with Trimetric monitor and best I could, I got 90AH tilted up and "tracking", 70 AH tilted up facing South all day, and 56 AH lying flat.
so scaling down from 130 to 100, that would be:
Tracking- 69AH
Tilted up to South- 54AH
Flat- 43AH
Note--"Equalizing" means taking the full batts to 16 volts till their SG stops rising. NOT to be confused with the miss-named "equalizing" some chargers do every so often to their "boost voltage" of 14.x volts which is not designed to equalize, but just to stir the electrolyte as a de-stratification measure.
IMO your batteries are near death from undercharging and sulphation. Call those your "learner set" :)
Next time around follow the charging specs for whatever batteries you buy, which could mean getting a proper charger or controller that can do those specs.
It depends so much on your latitude and time of year, but eg, at 49N in May, with a 130w panel measuring with Trimetric monitor and best I could, I got 90AH tilted up and "tracking", 70 AH tilted up facing South all day, and 56 AH lying flat.
so scaling down from 130 to 100, that would be:
Tracking- 69AH
Tilted up to South- 54AH
Flat- 43AH
Note--"Equalizing" means taking the full batts to 16 volts till their SG stops rising. NOT to be confused with the miss-named "equalizing" some chargers do every so often to their "boost voltage" of 14.x volts which is not designed to equalize, but just to stir the electrolyte as a de-stratification measure.
IMO your batteries are near death from undercharging and sulphation. Call those your "learner set" :)
Next time around follow the charging specs for whatever batteries you buy, which could mean getting a proper charger or controller that can do those specs.
