Stupid Solar Question
Let me preface by saying I have a very limited understanding of how solar energy works. My question is why does the voltage in my battery bank (2 new deep cycle sealed 6v), as measured by my volt mind...
Forum Discussion
You are barely scratching your batteries capacities, good thing too because your solar is matched up to your use rather than your batteries.
while you use a battery or charge it you will get a false reading. Just like there is a drop in surface charge after charging, there is a recovery from the voltage sag from putting a load on it. So the 12.5v that you see while you are using the battery is less than the true resting voltage. The 12.6v you see in the morning is the resting voltage after using it the night before and whatever parasitic loads there are.
Will they last over night? Well what do you want to run over night? I don't know how much load the solar is picking up in the day time but from your description, your night time use is very low. That's great for solar when you may need your batteries to carry you for days in bad weather. The thing is if you do actually get that bank down to 12.0v, that 135w panel is going to have a heck of a time getting it back up, especially if it has to cover your loads too.
So the best thing you can do is figure out how much power you want to use. Compare that too how much you can get out of your batteries and replace with your solar. It all should balance including time of year and situation. You are lucky with a MH because if you don't have a built in generator, you can always run the engine to bring the batteries back up if the solar falls short.
while you use a battery or charge it you will get a false reading. Just like there is a drop in surface charge after charging, there is a recovery from the voltage sag from putting a load on it. So the 12.5v that you see while you are using the battery is less than the true resting voltage. The 12.6v you see in the morning is the resting voltage after using it the night before and whatever parasitic loads there are.
Will they last over night? Well what do you want to run over night? I don't know how much load the solar is picking up in the day time but from your description, your night time use is very low. That's great for solar when you may need your batteries to carry you for days in bad weather. The thing is if you do actually get that bank down to 12.0v, that 135w panel is going to have a heck of a time getting it back up, especially if it has to cover your loads too.
So the best thing you can do is figure out how much power you want to use. Compare that too how much you can get out of your batteries and replace with your solar. It all should balance including time of year and situation. You are lucky with a MH because if you don't have a built in generator, you can always run the engine to bring the batteries back up if the solar falls short.
