After our AH reading on our Autotrail scout kept decreasing I think I am finally understanding the leisure batteries! I read that the AH display is not taking a reading from the battery as I thought but just doing a calculation based on what info it has. We thought we were running out of power.
I've Reprogrammed the AH display to show we have 220 AH instead of the 110 it thought we had. Set the start point at 100% because I think we are in fully charged state. It will now calculate based on what goes out and what the original solar puts in and give us a percentage. It doesn't know about the other fixed and portable solar which have their own controllers that don't go through the sargent unit.
We'll make sure the V reading when not being charged doesn't go below 12.2 which would be around 50% discharged.
Finally got to grips with the smart charge system. Starts with a slow increase then does the bulk charge at around 14.2/14.4 (This is when the portable comes into its own to get the V high enough). Then when fully charged it maintains a float charge at around 13.6 to keep them in fully charged state. If you put some load on them during this phase they will again enter bulk charge phase of around 14.4 if the power is available to top them up before going back to float. If during this process the vehicle battery drops to 12.4 the charge will automatically swap to it for 4 hours though you can override this.
Then overnight we use some of the stored energy. Last night at 1.30am we were at 12.5.
Starting off tonight with 12.9v vehicle and 13v leisure. Get the telly on!!
We've been off grid for 21 days in Andalusia now and hopefully can continue to manage the batteries.
We've had the van since 2016 so it's about time I understood. I'd appreciate it if anyone sees any errors in my understanding you let me know.
Sent from Android device
I've Reprogrammed the AH display to show we have 220 AH instead of the 110 it thought we had. Set the start point at 100% because I think we are in fully charged state. It will now calculate based on what goes out and what the original solar puts in and give us a percentage. It doesn't know about the other fixed and portable solar which have their own controllers that don't go through the sargent unit.
We'll make sure the V reading when not being charged doesn't go below 12.2 which would be around 50% discharged.
Finally got to grips with the smart charge system. Starts with a slow increase then does the bulk charge at around 14.2/14.4 (This is when the portable comes into its own to get the V high enough). Then when fully charged it maintains a float charge at around 13.6 to keep them in fully charged state. If you put some load on them during this phase they will again enter bulk charge phase of around 14.4 if the power is available to top them up before going back to float. If during this process the vehicle battery drops to 12.4 the charge will automatically swap to it for 4 hours though you can override this.
Then overnight we use some of the stored energy. Last night at 1.30am we were at 12.5.
Starting off tonight with 12.9v vehicle and 13v leisure. Get the telly on!!
We've been off grid for 21 days in Andalusia now and hopefully can continue to manage the batteries.
We've had the van since 2016 so it's about time I understood. I'd appreciate it if anyone sees any errors in my understanding you let me know.
Sent from Android device
