Solar panel help needed!

[Ian Bosman]

Had the vehicle battery out today having found a couple of days ago it was a bit slow to start after a month and a half of inactivity. Thought that a bit of liquid in the cells would not go amiss, alas no it is sealed for life and no matter what I tried I could not pry off the cover. It is a Lucas Premium monster of a battery. But in removing it I found the battery terminal connectors were not very tight, especially the positive side of the battery. So got that sorted which meant disconnecting the solar panel both positive and negative which gave me the opportunity to clean and check the connections, chassis earth included. I did this also removing the solar panel fuse before disconnecting at the battery end. Ensured that all the block of connections were tight and clean and lo and behold the engine started with the starter motor running as it should. The battery under the cab floor is a bit a sod to get at and inspect and maybe a good thing to include this when doing an electrical work. Placed this in this conversation as it all too easy to not check the connections when carrying out electrical work. One query I have is that the block of connections at the positive end is under a cover and is fixed to the battery by a red plastic strip with two screws for which the battery has two holes. Is this just to secure the block in place or is there some other purpose?

 

[autorouter]

Thought that a bit of liquid in the cells would not go amiss, alas no it is sealed for life and no matter what I tried I could not pry off the cover

Many modern batteries don't need topping up. Older battery designs use lead with added antimony to add strength because pure lead is very floppy. It was found that most of the gassing during normal charging was due to the added antimony. Using a different additive (calcium, silver etc) provides strength without the gassing.

The other cause of gassing is overcharging. If you use an intelligent charger with a 'sealed' battery design there is almost no gassing, so no provision is made for topping up.

The older lead-antimony batteries are still cheaper, so are preferred by some.

 

[Ian Bosman]

Many modern batteries don't need topping up. Older battery designs use lead with added antimony to add strength because pure lead is very floppy. It was found that most of the gassing during normal charging was due to the added antimony. Using a different additive (calcium, silver etc) provides strength without the gassing.

The other cause of gassing is overcharging. If you use an intelligent charger with a 'sealed' battery design there is almost no gassing, so no provision is made for topping up.

The older lead-antimony batteries are still cheaper, so are preferred by some.
[/QUOTE
That is a bit of interesting information - you live and learn even at 78

 

[Al n Val]

this might help some of you guys

i’ve a Sargent EC700 unit fitted and it came as standard with a 100W solar panel and dual 95ah habitation batteries as well as the vehicle battery.

the batteries are connected in parallel so they are seen as one. The Sargent unit can be set to “Smart” so it can sense when a certain battery bank needs charging or it automatically switches every 4 hours between each bank to keep each bank topped up or this is how it was explained to me by Sargent.

The control panel above the hab door is where the owner can choose how they want it to operate, I just leave mine in Smart tbh. It also shows you what is charging and how much voltage is in each battery bank and also the amount of Solar current is being generated

I can also remotely “see” what’s happening by logging online and make any changes if I feel the need to

i’m looking into adding another 200 Watts of solar next hopefully to make me EHU free but this would need a separate MPPT solar controller, probably Victron and a 3000W pure sine wave inverter.

It’s a sizeable outlay but with spending half the year in Spain, taking advantage of the free sunshine makes a lot of sense, especially when EHU is usually around .40 euro a kilowatt

cheers

Al ?

 

[Ian Bosman]

this might help some of you guys

i’ve a Sargent EC700 unit fitted and it came as standard with a 100W solar panel and dual 95ah habitation batteries as well as the vehicle battery.

the batteries are connected in parallel so they are seen as one. The Sargent unit can be set to “Smart” so it can sense when a certain battery bank needs charging or it automatically switches every 4 hours between each bank to keep each bank topped up or this is how it was explained to me by Sargent.

View attachment 380704

The control panel above the hab door is where the owner can choose how they want it to operate, I just leave mine in Smart tbh. It also shows you what is charging and how much voltage is in each battery bank and also the amount of Solar current is being generated

View attachment 380705

I can also remotely “see” what’s happening by logging online and make any changes if I feel the need to

View attachment 380706

i’m looking into adding another 200 Watts of solar next hopefully to make me EHU free but this would need a separate MPPT solar controller, probably Victron and a 3000W pure sine wave inverter.

It’s a sizeable outlay but with spending half the year in Spain, taking advantage of the free sunshine makes a lot of sense, especially when EHU is usually around .40 euro a kilowatt

cheers

Al ?

I am interested that your unit changes from one battery bank to another every four hours, the unit I have changes every 15 -20 seconds according to the way it is set by default. What are the pros and cons of these two systems?

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[Al n Val]

I am interested that your unit changes from one battery bank to another every four hours, the unit I have changes every 15 -20 seconds according to the way it is set by default. What are the pros and cons of these two systems?

hi Ian

i’m not sure having a charging system change over every 15-20 seconds is correct, or is it?

For me that’s pointless but i’m no expert tbh, having a charge for 4 hours per bank seems to make more sense to me so at least it should allow that particular bank to receive a good amount of charge.

Allan

 

[Ian Bosman]

hi Ian

i’m not sure having a charging system change over every 15-20 seconds is correct, or is it?

For me that’s pointless but i’m no expert tbh, having a charge for 4 hours per bank seems to make more sense to me so at least it should allow that particular bank to receive a good amount of charge.

Allan

I have the system now for two years with both batteries well up to the full charge mark so it does seem a bad setup, but then, I am no export

 

[Ian Bosman]

I have the system now for two years with both batteries well up to the full charge mark so it does seem a bad setup, but then, I am no export

Last word should be expert, spell checkers for you!