Will she Float??? (3 stage Chargers)
have a hypothetical. conversation was brought up on another forum. here's the scenario. you have a 3 stage charger, you are plugged into ac. you have 1 battery, and the charger and the load...
Forum Discussion
BFL13 wrote:mena661 wrote:
RJ, does your PD go into float overnight?
The PD is supposed to have 30 hrs of no activity at 13.6 before it drops to 13.2 The mystery is what does it take to go back to 13.6? It seems from the manual (and what people are reporting here) that it doesn't. It should go from 13.2 to 14.4 if the system voltage indicates batts have fallen to under 50%, then it starts over.
There is nothing wrong with operating all the time at 13.2 instead of 13.6. On battery you operate in the 12s. If you are camping and it has gone from 14.4 to 13.6 after the last recharge, you would not be going 30 hrs with no activity so no 13.2.
Float charging voltage may as well be the equivalent of "power source" voltage, provided your charge controller can provide enough amps to cover all your power source usage items without depleting the battery banks and drawing them down. Me thinks one will not be dry camping and instead be in a pay campground with a 30 or 50 amp hookup for days to see that float voltage at 13.2 showing up.
