Solar while the RV is in Storage
Need some guidance for how to use solar while in storage. My solar panels are suppling a daily charge, topping off both my house and chassis batteries. Each night my class A has the charge drawn dow...
Forum Discussion
Lead acid batteries self-discharge even if completely unconnected; the rate of this self discharge is dependent on many factors, including the battery construction, its age, and (notably) the ambient temperature.
If you were storing outdoors in subfreezing temperatures, fully charging then disconnecting the batteries is fine. In a warm climate, that's not so good a plan. I'd leave them hooked up to the solar and the rest of the RV in your shoes, assuming that the storage location generally gets enough light to keep them up to snuff. It might also be possible to connect the solar charge connection on the other side of the disconnect switch without much effort so as to have them kept nicely charged without the parasitic loads in the RV discharging them.
If you were storing outdoors in subfreezing temperatures, fully charging then disconnecting the batteries is fine. In a warm climate, that's not so good a plan. I'd leave them hooked up to the solar and the rest of the RV in your shoes, assuming that the storage location generally gets enough light to keep them up to snuff. It might also be possible to connect the solar charge connection on the other side of the disconnect switch without much effort so as to have them kept nicely charged without the parasitic loads in the RV discharging them.
