DT220 Solar and Inverter

[Deanobeano]

Hi all

Having recently swapped our newish Burstner for a older Frankia A class I have the following question:

I spent today installing 2x leisure batteries and a 500w PSW inverter directly connected to the batteries.

There is a solar panel and an intergrated Shaudt 1218 controller (so the DT220 shows the solar panel charging and can keep track of the amps used / regenerated).

Now as the inverter bypass' the electroblock and the DT220, using it does not indicate amps used on the the display.

I expected this but wanted to check that the electroblock will still fully recharge the batteries via hook up, but more importantly via solar.

I'm sure this is the case (as charging is regulated by voltage?) but you thoughts, as always would be welcome.

I'm sure a lot of you have this similar setup.

Does the A/Hr remaining on the DT220 get confused and hence becomes useless?

Thanks

 

[SandraL]

I expected this but wanted to check that the electroblock will still fully recharge the batteries via hook up, but more importantly via solar.

The 1218 solar controller works solely on voltage. So when batts are discharged it will, sun permitting, attempt to recharge the batts. My ebl101 mains charger works in same manner.

No idea about ah remaining.

 

[hilldweller]

Does the A/Hr remaining on the DT220 get confused and hence becomes useless?

Thanks

If it never sees the amps going to the inverter then the only answer is yes.

The solution is NASA BM1 or one of the Chinese copies on ebay.

 

[Urs4_2008]

Hi all

Having recently swapped our newish Burstner for a older Frankia A class I have the following question:

I spent today installing 2x leisure batteries and a 500w PSW inverter directly connected to the batteries.

There is a solar panel and an intergrated Shaudt 1218 controller (so the DT220 shows the solar panel charging and can keep track of the amps used / regenerated).

Now as the inverter bypass' the electroblock and the DT220, using it does not indicate amps used on the the display.

I expected this but wanted to check that the electroblock will still fully recharge the batteries via hook up, but more importantly via solar.

I'm sure this is the case (as charging is regulated by voltage?) but you thoughts, as always would be welcome.

I'm sure a lot of you have this similar setup.

Does the A/Hr remaining on the DT220 get confused and hence becomes useless?

Thanks

In my experience many of these Ebl have built in shunts to measure power usage, meaning power drawn or charges from anything else will render the built in display useless. Fitting Ie Bogart engineering trimetric TM2030 or Victron BMV-7xx battery monitor will give you a very nice overview.

 

[Deanobeano]

Thanks for your replies.
I have a NASA BT shunt that I could hook up to give me a true representation. I was hoping that the DT220 display might adjust the Ahrs available by checking the voltage, ie it thinks there are 100 Ahrs available but the measured voltage is lower (due to inverter usage) and the algorithim recalcs the actual Ahrs based on this.

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[Urs4_2008]

Thanks for your replies.
I have a NASA BT shunt that I could hook up to give me a true representation. I was hoping that the DT220 display might adjust the Ahrs available by checking the voltage, ie it thinks there are 100 Ahrs available but the measured voltage is lower (due to inverter usage) and the algorithim recalcs the actual Ahrs based on this.

The NASA BT is your best option

What you describe would be a nice feature, but the voltage level is far too inaccurate to use as a measure of remaining watts/ah. Ie when you switch on your inverter and introduce a big load, the voltage will drop a lot, and the voltage would indicate empty batteries when they in fact are full. To further add to the problem different batteries behave differently when under load. Also, total available capacity would have an effect on the voltage drop under load.