upgrading power converter
My power converter has apparently bit the dust, lights flickering for past couple of years now no charge to batteries... Anyhoo, we do a lot of dry camping, where we need to daily boost the batteries...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:
Don't forget that AGMs have a higher voltage per SOC than Wets, so 14.4v means less with AGMs. I don't know how the 5 amps per 110AH gouge would work for SOC.
I make my ugly graphs by sitting there with the ammeter (Trimetric) and a clock and record amps and time. From Start, take an amps every minute till 5 minutes are up, then go to an amps every five minutes till 20 minutes are up then go to an amps every ten minutes. Take battery voltages every so often too. Now you can plot your amps curve and your voltage curve with time. If you have a Tri, you can also take the AH readings when you take the amps readings, or after you plot your amps vs time curve you can sort of take sections and get the AH along the way and add them up (poor man's calculus)
With a PD, it is likely that the first five minutes will tell the tale and it will drop in amps in that first five minutes instead of holding steady or even climbing.
With some chargers, the amps climb in the first few minutes then steady to constant as the battery warms up and accepts some more. My "100 amper" starts at 100a and goes to 103a in the first couple minutes and holds there.
Seeing the PD drop right away instead would make me upset! I know it doesn't make hardly any difference in over all gen time on a small battery bank, but I have a big battery bank. Every amp counts!
Yeah my batts are full at 13.0ish, but only want 14.4-14.6 for charging and absorbing.
The one time I watched the PD for a while it held 55, actually 55.7, until the voltage hit 14.4 then the amperage dropped. I wouldn't consider than an early drop, any longer with the amperage would have driven the voltage up.
