Understanding Electrics (2 Viewers)

[Outdoorrambo]

Trying to understand how the electrics work in our van (Fiat Ducato conversion).
Looking at the CTEK picture I was told that pressing the button in the bottom right hand corner switched off the vans 12v living area electrics. It stopped the lights from working but the Diesel Heater still worked and lights on the CTEK are still on so not sure what powers that (solar panel?). Also what's this supercharger for?
Sorry for being a bit thick and vague.

 

[funflair]

Deleted previous post as I have just realised that the CTEK is more than just a battery charger so just guessing again but I would say the Supercharger is your battery charger and the CTEK is looking after the alternator supply to your habitation battery and also the solar (do you have solar) but can't quite see the other two connection in your photo.

https://www.ctek.com/storage/62C0325267EE284C66455E94D8803524EA2902D582D8446B21497C5E5D693133/00000000000000000000000000015925/pdf/media/fd92ffa0753449f686a3c287831f0bc9/D250SE-manual-low-UK-EN.pdf

 

[AdrianChen]

Looks to me like the CTEK charger positive is wired directly to the battery via a fuse, whilst the "button" on the thermal breaker (which are often rubbish unless from an expensive brand like Blue Sea and best replaced by a fuse) is wired from a separate cable from the battery, so the charger output cable will always be live, perhaps keeping its lights on. The charger negative appears to be correctly connected to the load side of the shunt. The Ctek seems to be able to take care of the Solar, and act as a B2B if wired to do so.....

There are thinner red and black pair wired to the battery directly, but I cant see clearly from the photo, if so it maybe the negative is not going via the shunt, so the impact from these may not show on the shunt screen/app or be included in the SOC calculations. Do these go to the Supercharger? The "supercharger" device is a simple mains powered transformer charger/power supply with a fixed 13.8v DC output, If it is the main EHU battery charger it would not be very good with an AGM battery which would need a charge profile getting up to 14.7v to fully charge.....

There are two further black negative cables coming of the battery one seems to go to the shunt, the other the the right of the photo, but again not clear. For the shunt to be accurate only the shunt should be connected to the battery, all other negative connections should connect to the load side of the shunt.

Would need clearer photos to be sure, better still get an opinion from an expert/pro who can have a proper look!

 

[autorouter]

The CTEK D250SE charges the leisure battery from the alternator while the engine is running. It is commonly called a Battery to Battery (B2B) charger, DC-DC charger or Charge Booster. It also has a solar panel input so it acts as a solar charge controller, and will charge the leisure battery from a solar panel.

The Supercharger is a mains-powered constant-voltage supply of 13.8V. It will charge the leisure battery while you are connected to mains hookup.

The Supercharger, sadly, is not very good for charging lead-acid batteries. It won't get them to 100% full charge, and they will gradually deteriorate due to sulfation. It would be better to get a multi-stage intelligent charger, they are not much more expensive than a 'dumb' charger nowadays.

Of all the different battery types (flooded, Gel, AGM etc) the worst affected by this type of charger is an AGM, like yours. It requires a sustained higher voltage, about 14.7V, to get to full charge and clear out any residual sulfation.

The CTEK is a multi-stage intelligent charger, so should be fine for taking care of the alternator and solar charging.

There are at least two independent circuits from the leisure battery. One of them goes through that cutoff switch to the habitation devices like the lights. The other circuit goes to the CTEK unit, and is for the charging. Also it looks like there's a third wire going down behind the battery, maybe that's for the diesel heater.

That brass block with the negative connections looks like it might be a 'shunt', for measuring the amps going into and out of the battery. Is there a small round display (Battery Monitor) somewhere that shows the battery percentage charge? A shunt is usually located next to the battery negative terminal.

 

[Outdoorrambo]

Wow, expert feedback guys, thank you so much, my understanding has been enlightened significantly
The van has gone back into storage but I'll follow up the leads (excuse the pun) next time it's out. Thanks again

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