That thread appears to have been closed and I can't add additional information. Addressing this to time2roll...Thanks for your post. I have a better sense of things now. Agreed...just need to figure out what you need...decide what it's worth to you. Easier to invest in a project like this since it pays for itself.I just checked out my owner's manual. This inverter/3-stage charger unit is pretty great. Lots of built in protection. It charges according to battery temperature as well and has a battery type selection which was, fortunately, in the right position. The battery bank's total amp hours setting...I didn't take note of it when I first got into it as I was trying to figure out how to operate the settings but it's definitely set correctly now (actually my battery amp hours total about 368 but the only options are 300 and 400. If that was set too high it may have overcharged them. I *can* turn my charger off via this panel. I also found the instructions for equalizing. I'm going to do that tomorrow. Then I'll turn off the water heater/fridge/charger and test again to see how long it takes for the battery status to go from high to medium under the same conditions (without shore power).The manual says marine batteries are acceptable but recommends true deep cell or golf cart deep cell. I was thinking that with 200 Ah 6v batteries you'd have 400v so the total Ah of 4 6v golf batteries won't be much higher than 4 12v deep cell batteries. So what's the advantage? They last longer? This gives me only 200v to play with. How do you know when you're at 50%? I do have green, orange and red lights on the control panel. Nothing below orange?

compare the light blue (12v marine RV) line to the red line (6v GC deep cycle). For properly charged batteries. either can be ruined quickly from abuse. although the 6v can handle more abuse.Volt meter, digital multi meter, 50% state of charge @ ~ 12.2v under little load. colored lights are a guess.

cannesdo wrote:I was thinking that with 200 Ah 6v batteries you'd have 400v so the total Ah of 4 6v golf batteries won't be much higher than 4 12v deep cell batteries. So what's the advantage? They last longer? This gives me only 200v to play with. How do you know when you're at 50%? I do have green, orange and red lights on the control panel. Nothing below orange?No idea what you mean by "400v" and "200v" :h but regardless a single GC-2 flooded 6 volt battery such as the Trojan T-105 is 20-HR rated @ 225 AH so obviously four connected in series parallel would offer 450 AH, half of which is usable @ 50% DOD (Depth of Discharge) which is about as far as you'd want to draw them down on any regular basis. Compare that to the Trojan SCS200 12 volt flooded 12 volt deep cycle battery which is 20-HR rated @ 115 AH - obviously four of those connected in parallel would offer 460 AH, half of which is usable @ 50% DOD.While GC-2s like the T-105 are perennial favourites with the dry camping crowd some do prefer 12 volt versions because they may fit available space better and because if one goes bad the others can still remain in service. 12 volt jugs also generally have less internal resistance so for those of us running an inverter that can mean less voltage drop under heavy inverter load, which in turn means the inverter is less likely to low voltage alarm compared to powering it with a 6 volt battery with higher internal resistance.Next is the issue of whether you want flooded or might benefit from the advantages more expensive AGMs can offer, not the least of which includes easier installation as they don't have to be mounted sitting up, generally can be safely drawn down to a lower DOD than flooded, and will usually accept a recharge more quickly. These of course are generalizations so the key is to make sure you compare apples to apples when designing your battery system which consists not just of batteries but also an appropriate charger for properly maintaining those batteries.Idiot meters with coloured bands to indicate state of charge are just about useless - at the very least get yourself a reasonably accurate DVM but those seriously interested in solar and wanting to accurately track how much power they're using and how much their system can restore are much better served by investing in a Bogart Engineering Trimetric.

cannesdo wrote:How do you know when you're at 50%? I do have green, orange and red lights on the control panel. Nothing below orange?I use the CHART METHOD here...Google ImageThis of course is not absolute but gives you a close assumption that you are getting close to the 50% State Of Charge point with your batteries..I monitor this on my BATTERY MONITOR PANEL that looks like this pictorial. The OEM % panel meters are pretty much worthless for me Roy's Image I have my Battery Monitor panel mounted in a good spot to be able to observe it when being used... I can watch BANK 1 - Bank2 or both together as well as total DC Current being drawn from the loads or how many DC Amps are being demanded by the batteries when being charged. Only thing I wish I have added was a settable AUDIO ALARM when the batteries get below a threshold like 12.0VDC etc...Roy's ImageWhen my battery voltage drops to around the 12.0VDC range than I want to start my re-charging routines to get it back up to its 90% charge state as soon as possible. Going below the 50% charge state will start doing harm to your batteries...My battery use was all planned out for camping off grid running the things I wanted to run... My biggest drain of course is between 6PM and 11Pm each evening and of course always have the parasitic drains to deal with. Camping at various place sometimes does not allow one to run the generator to get the batteries charged back up and this is where having solar panels will be the best PLAN B thing to have. Of course solar panels don't work except in high sun so in my case I would always have the generator around.I am just now starting to consider installing solar panels for my setup and have been doing the generator three hour run every morning since starting to use my off-road camper and bigger batter banks in 2009. I only think of the solar panel to be battery chargers...My new battery bank just now being planed will be two groups or two 6VDC batteries in series which will give me around 440AHs capacity replacing my current battery bank shown in this photo... This was originally two groups of two 12VDC GP24 Interstate Batteries in parallel but one died from being over-charged using a single mode converter/charger unit. I now use a PD9260C 60AMP DC Converter/charger unitRoy's imageRoy Ken

Just to add to some of the other posts in this thread. Using the chart that Roy posted works well, however you must do the check when the system in not under load and has not been charged recently. Ideally, several hours of idle state. You can get one of the devices that plugs into the cigerette light plug that will display the voltage. Same thing applies, system must have been idle for a few hours to get a good reading on state of charge. If I were you I would buy a clamp-on DC amp meter and learn how to use it. I will be a tool that you will find many uses for around the house and the RV.Here is an example of one that is on amazon. This is cheap one, you can buy other ones that much better. But for a casual user this is probably good enough.UT210E

Idiot lights are for the salesman to sell the rig - You have this great battery monitor. Otherwise they are not very useful.Battery voltage is acceptable for determining charge. However the battery must be at rest and that is very inconvenient. A battery monitor like the Trimetric gives you the needed information.The typical Marine deep cycle battery is just a variation of the starting battery so don't use them for comparison.

Solar discussion continued.. | Good Sam Community

33 Replies

beemerphile1
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
SoundGuy wrote:

Ah nuts, what makes you so special? Where's my derogatory PM?!! :W :B

The PM I received went on essentially about how I and other men are evil and then wrapped it up with;
"So yeah, don't need the blaming mansplaining so I will add you to my block list. Perhaps you could add me to yours so you won't feel compelled to "help" in the future."

As a courtesy I decided to abide by their wishes and have also blocked their posts and PMs. My blocked list now consists of one person on the forum.
SoundGuy
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
westend wrote:
Soundguy,
You may have just been blocked because of your agreement with Landy about the dynamics of marriage. The OP doesn't tolerate that or much of anything else involving gender.

Here is one of her statements about how she internalizes posts from men trying to help:
"Glad to have cleared out the riff-raff....Note for the record: One does not pay a smaller price by simply sitting quietly and allowing entitled men to abuse you. That's the highest price of all. Their shaming is punishment for having the self-respect to ask for what you need and hold others accountable for their bad behavior. Plain and simple. It's unacceptable in any community or forum to behave this way and we all know most of that would have never been said in front of me. Cowardly and sad...straight up."

Thanks for the heads up! ... glad to have been set straight by this "expert" on male / female relationships. :R :S
westend
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
Soundguy,
You may have just been blocked because of your agreement with Landy about the dynamics of marriage. The OP doesn't tolerate that or much of anything else involving gender.

Here is one of her statements about how she internalizes posts from men trying to help:
"Glad to have cleared out the riff-raff....Note for the record: One does not pay a smaller price by simply sitting quietly and allowing entitled men to abuse you. That's the highest price of all. Their shaming is punishment for having the self-respect to ask for what you need and hold others accountable for their bad behavior. Plain and simple. It's unacceptable in any community or forum to behave this way and we all know most of that would have never been said in front of me. Cowardly and sad...straight up."
SoundGuy
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
landyacht318 wrote:
Fellows, there is only so much advice and effort you can give.

You married ones, should be well aware of that point, when there is no more point in presenting logical options toward solutions of a problem...

westend wrote:
Yeah, well you will soon join my status with the OP as I remember I was blocked as a sexist in one of her previous threads....

beemerphile1 wrote:
I received a derogatory PM informing me that I am now blocked also because the OP didn't like my explanation as to why the previous thread was locked.

It appears the OP has a chip on their shoulder that they cannot shake.

Ah nuts, what makes you so special? Where's my derogatory PM?!! :W :B
beemerphile1
Explorer
Jan 30, 2017
westend wrote:
landyacht318 wrote:
Fellows, there is only so much advice and effort you can give.

You married ones, should be well aware of that point, when there is no more point in presenting logical options toward solutions of a problem...
Yeah, well you will soon join my status with the OP as I remember I was blocked as a sexist in one of her previous threads....

I received a derogatory PM informing me that I am now blocked also because the OP didn't like my explanation as to why the previous thread was locked.

It appears the OP has a chip on their shoulder that they cannot shake.
time2roll
Nomad
Jan 29, 2017
Back on topic...

How did the equalization go?
pianotuna
Nomad III
Jan 29, 2017
Focus.

Do an energy audit by living for six days as though you were boondocking. But don't "stint" on the energy use. Just live as you wish to. Connect a kill-a-watt meter between the RV and the shore power. That will tell you how many watt hours of storage you need for a 3 day battery bank.

Once you know that, a solar system can be designed to meet your needs.

Boondocking without a generator needs to have enough reserve battery power for 3 days.

The rest is all off topic and quite frankly, blather.

cannesdo wrote:
I don't plan very far ahead. I'm not very interested in generators as I'm not really interested in hauling and feeding it gas...or the noise. I doubt I will want to e that far out and away for very long. If I can come up with a really great solar system and a good battery bank then I think I would use it for short periods in cool places where I was out and about most daylight hours (national parks etc...)
westend
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
SoundGuy wrote:
landyacht318 wrote:
Fellows, there is only so much advice and effort you can give.

You married ones, should be well aware of that point, when there is no more point in presenting logical options toward solutions of a problem..

If you are a male who tries their best to employ logic and problem solve, in an attempt to help, You are wrong on all sorts of levels.

Good luck with that.

And to the OP as well.

Too funny, too true! :B

Welcome to the Brotherhood, too!:B
westend
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
landyacht318 wrote:
Fellows, there is only so much advice and effort you can give.

You married ones, should be well aware of that point, when there is no more point in presenting logical options toward solutions of a problem..

If you are a male who tries their best to employ logic and problem solve, in an attempt to help, You are wrong on all sorts of levels.

Good luck with that.

And to the OP as well.
Yeah, well you will soon join my status with the OP as I remember I was blocked as a sexist in one of her previous threads. Your statement above involving gender/marital relationships qualifies you to join this exclusive Brotherhood.

The bad part of that is I didn't recall my status before responding in her initial thread about solar or this present one.

Since memory is starting to fail, reciprocation is about the best alternative to wasting my time. :B
SoundGuy
Explorer
Jan 29, 2017
landyacht318 wrote:
Fellows, there is only so much advice and effort you can give.

You married ones, should be well aware of that point, when there is no more point in presenting logical options toward solutions of a problem..

If you are a male who tries their best to employ logic and problem solve, in an attempt to help, You are wrong on all sorts of levels.

Good luck with that.

And to the OP as well.

Too funny, too true! :B