Forum Discussion
Quint_Da_Man
Feb 17, 2022Explorer
otrfun wrote:
If I were in your shoes, I'd want to do some kind of energy audit before going any further. I'd want to know how many ah's equate to "4 or 5 hours of light duty use". This data would help size any future system. Plus, it would be the perfect time to verify there are no high current parasitic situations drawing down your batteries excessively. You'd definitely want to rectify that problem before proceeding.
Have you had your 2 house batteries load-tested? Bad cells in relatively new batteries is not unheard of. It takes a fair amount of current, roughly 20-25a, to draw down two properly charged mid-sized, Group 27 12v batteries to 50% SOC in 4 or 5 hours. If you're hearing alarms, odds are the batteries are being discharged much lower than 50% SOC. This significantly reduces their longevity, ah capability and compounds your problem. Unless you're powering a residential fridge or some other higher current device, something doesn't sound quite right.
A voltmeter and a clamp-on DC ammeter would help answer all these questions in relatively short order.
Thanks for your input and suggestions.
There may very well be parasitic drain that I am not aware of I'll take a look at that.
I do have a residential refrigerator and a couple of monitoring devices (about 10 watts a piece)that are a continuous drain. Refrigerator is a single door style with a top freezer and ice maker I estimate about 1kWh per day.
I can pull the batteries and do a load test that's the only way I'll know if they are being fully charged.
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