# Leisure battery & EHU



## kgreville (Oct 16, 2010)

We are motorhome virgins and are unsure of a few items
We own a Fiat Ducato CI, 6 years old. When we purchased the van we were told it had a new leisure battery! but we are finding it does not hold a charge.
Q1 does EHU charge the leisure battery or is it only charged when driving.
Q2 can the leisure battery be charged any other way
Q3 if only charged by driving how many miles would we have to go to get a full charge
Q4 how can you check I check we have sufficicent charge
Q5 how long would the battery last if you had blowair heating on & the TV
Thanks


----------



## Tbear (Oct 16, 2010)

kgreville said:


> We are motorhome virgins and are unsure of a few items
> We own a Fiat Ducato CI, 6 years old. When we purchased the van we were told it had a new leisure battery! but we are finding it does not hold a charge.
> Q1 does EHU charge the leisure battery or is it only charged when driving.
> Q2 can the leisure battery be charged any other way
> ...


 
1/ Yes EHU should charge it
2/Solar panel or wind turbine
3/ Depends on size of battery, state of discharge and how much charge it gets from alternator. Lidl or Aldi sell a cheap meter which will tell you what your battery output is in volts so if you check it a few times you should be able to tell 
4/ If you but not have a built in meter get the lidl one.
5/ Depends again on TV demand but even with a good sized one you should be ok for a couple of nights.

In summary if you are worried a cheap multimeter from maplin and they will show you how to use it. Hope this helps but keep asking questions as there is loads of help on here.


----------



## caspar (Oct 16, 2010)

kgreville said:


> We are motorhome virgins and are unsure of a few items
> We own a Fiat Ducato CI, 6 years old. When we purchased the van we were told it had a new leisure battery! but we are finding it does not hold a charge.
> Q1 does EHU charge the leisure battery or is it only charged when driving.
> Q2 can the leisure battery be charged any other way
> ...


 
Agree mostly with above but here's my take on things:
1. EHU does charge the battery and it will be charged as you drive.
2. Yes - solar panels becoming very popular to trickle charge the batteries, wind turbines possible, but very uneconomical. Can always charge using a generator as well - we have a silent one that sips fuel and keeps everything nicely charged.
3. How long is a piece of string? It depends how much it needs charging. Sorry to state the obvious, but it's true. A discharged battery will take a couple of hundred miles to recharge fully, but depends what else is being used and how much spare capacity the alternator has at any particular time.
4. Buy a multimeter. Cheapish one is fine - about £5.00. It has two prongs, put one on the positive of the leisure battery and the other on the negative. It will give you a reading. A well charged battery will give you a reading of just under or just over 13 volts. If it drops below 12 you need to be charging it up.
5. Sorry - don't know! We use the generator and run a mains TV and gas for heating.

Hope this helps. Keep asking away!


----------



## Tony Lee (Oct 16, 2010)

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

will give you a lot of basic information about RV electrics. It is US-centric so not all of it will be directly applicable

Poop Sheets by phred is another.

Read both these sites top to bottom, pick out what is applicable to your RV situation and having done that, you will be able to give expert advice to the next one to ask the same questions.


----------



## jogguk (Oct 17, 2010)

No one has stated the obvious yet  So I will

Familiarise yourself with the 12v control panel on your van. To charge the caravan battery (leisure battery) from the engine alternator while driving the rocker switch should be set to "touring" or "driving" or whatever it says (it varies different makes). 

When at home or on site with the mains electric hook up cable plugged in (EHU for short)a light will illuminate, could be orange to indicate power to the control/charger panel. The rocker switch should now be moved to the "on site" position so the built in charger can charge the leisure battery and/ or power the 12v bits. This will not charge the engine battery. But if both batteries are inside like my old VW LT van then a short jump lead between the two batteries will keep both topped up when parked up on a driveway at home for example. I used a simple plug in timer  so the EHU was on for about 2 hours each day.

Also be aware that something could be draining the battery. TV amplifiers, 12v fridge left on, gas detectors etc. 

John


----------



## caspar (Oct 17, 2010)

jogguk said:


> No one has stated the obvious yet  So I will
> 
> Familiarise yourself with the 12v control panel on your van. To charge the caravan battery (leisure battery) from the engine alternator while driving the rocker switch should be set to "touring" or "driving" or whatever it says (it varies different makes).
> 
> ...


 
Good point. Have to say I took it for granted when the original thread mentioned the leisure battery charging as you drive along, but I shouldn't have. Useful post. Well done you!


----------



## kgreville (Oct 18, 2010)

caspar said:


> Good point. Have to say I took it for granted when the original thread mentioned the leisure battery charging as you drive along, but I shouldn't have. Useful post. Well done you!


 
Thank you for your help


----------



## kgreville (Oct 18, 2010)

jogguk said:


> No one has stated the obvious yet  So I will
> 
> Familiarise yourself with the 12v control panel on your van. To charge the caravan battery (leisure battery) from the engine alternator while driving the rocker switch should be set to "touring" or "driving" or whatever it says (it varies different makes).
> 
> ...


 
Thank you for your help


----------



## kgreville (Oct 18, 2010)

Tony Lee said:


> The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)
> 
> will give you a lot of basic information about RV electrics. It is US-centric so not all of it will be directly applicable
> 
> ...


 
Thank you for your help


----------

