Volt Meter
I'm far from an expert on battery banks but would like to find some sort of volt meter to mount in the wall to keep track of my batteries. Something simple with a momentary switch so it's not a draw. ...
Forum Discussion
TEDDYU - My meters like yours just monitors the DC VOLT LEVELS.. I use this DC VOLTS VERSES BATTERY SOC chart to get me in the ball park of the battery state of charge...
Granted it is not an absolute battery state of charge indication but gets you in the ball park.. This is what I look for when using my batteries when camping off the power grid. If I see around 12.0VDC on my meters I know I am very close to being around 50% charge state and need to start re-charging right away so that I won't do internal harm to my batteries.
I designed for all of my DC loads for the 120VAC item using an Inverter and direct connected 12VDC items we wanted to have ON for one day. Then installed a battery bank to provide this. For us we get away with a 255AH capacity 12VDC battery bank. Then hopefully my batteries will not drop below 12.0VDC by 8AM each morning when I am usually allowed to run my 2KW Generator to safely re-charge my batteries back up to their 90% charge state. Then I can do all of this all over again for the next day/night battery run.
This has been my successful method for the past five years or so now surviving the off the power grid operations of my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup.
Roy Ken
Granted it is not an absolute battery state of charge indication but gets you in the ball park.. This is what I look for when using my batteries when camping off the power grid. If I see around 12.0VDC on my meters I know I am very close to being around 50% charge state and need to start re-charging right away so that I won't do internal harm to my batteries.
I designed for all of my DC loads for the 120VAC item using an Inverter and direct connected 12VDC items we wanted to have ON for one day. Then installed a battery bank to provide this. For us we get away with a 255AH capacity 12VDC battery bank. Then hopefully my batteries will not drop below 12.0VDC by 8AM each morning when I am usually allowed to run my 2KW Generator to safely re-charge my batteries back up to their 90% charge state. Then I can do all of this all over again for the next day/night battery run.
This has been my successful method for the past five years or so now surviving the off the power grid operations of my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup.
Roy Ken
