Solar battery charging question (7 Viewers)

[Purrfecttune]

Just had an excellent upgrade by Offgrid Power Solutions:
Gone from 80Ah lead acid battery with 100w solar panel to 280Ah Fogstar Drift and an additional 185w solar. (Also had 12/1200 inverter fitted & B2B)

It all works marvellously but I have always wanted to know the ‘ins and outs’ of everything, so here’s my question:

On the charging app I can see the three stages of charging and notice that the third stage each day (float) is in operation despite the battery being increasing slightly depleted (currently at 73%).

Is this normal and will it wait until the battery reaches a certain minimum before fully charging again?

With my limited knowledge I thought that the battery would always be fully charged, but I’m now guessing that constantly charging small amounts to full is not good for the battery, hence fully charging less often when it is much more depleted is better for it?

Is my guess correct?

Thank you to all those Funsters that have offered soooooo much advice in our 4 years of ownership, be assured that it has greatly enhanced our use of it

 

[Happy Jack]

I thought float was when batteries were fully charged?
I have 300W solar, 100/30 Victorian mppt going into 185A of AGM batteries and this "summer" in the UK we have been OK until September when it did get down to below 50% on one occasion.
Future upgrade is to go to Lithium and b2b.
Would suggest you could do with more solar to keep your Lithiums charged.

 

[funflair]

Just had an excellent upgrade by Offgrid Power Solutions:
Gone from 80Ah lead acid battery with 100w solar panel to 280Ah Fogstar Drift and an additional 185w solar. (Also had 12/1200 inverter fitted & B2B)

It all works marvellously but I have always wanted to know the ‘ins and outs’ of everything, so here’s my question:

On the charging app I can see the three stages of charging and notice that the third stage each day (float) is in operation despite the battery being increasing slightly depleted (currently at 73%).

Is this normal and will it wait until the battery reaches a certain minimum before fully charging again?

With my limited knowledge I thought that the battery would always be fully charged, but I’m now guessing that constantly charging small amounts to full is not good for the battery, hence fully charging less often when it is much more depleted is better for it?

Is my guess correct?

Thank you to all those Funsters that have offered soooooo much advice in our 4 years of ownership, be assured that it has greatly enhanced our use of it

Needs to check the settings in the solar controller as I am sure it should be back to bulk charging at 76%.

 

[Jev88]

Ask offgrid solutions for advice.
I agree should still be bulk charging.

 

[Sandancers]

Eddie Van Bits is the man to answer this one perhaps.

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[berni109]

As has been said - ask the fitters.
How much charge you put into the battery will depend on your use of the vehicle and the weather.
If you are driving regularly or you've plenty of sun or hooked up then I would expect the battery to be getting fully charged.
If none of those and your consuming amps to run the normal hab functions and also using your new inverter for 240v appliances then it won't get back to full.

 

[Rollingwheels]

It may be that the battery is actually nearly charged up but the app is out of sync ours was a similar problem so we were advised to turn off battery completely isolate solar disconnect ehu wait an hour or two for all loads to drain then turn battery back on, then solar, all good since, it seems when the battery is depleted in small amounts and just topped up the system doesn’t always recognise the full amount just like adding 1ml to a litre bottle father than 750ml, the potential for a margin of error is greater