13 yr old Lead Acid battery

[Mick H]

We're much the same in terms of short stopovers Mick and then you're back to full power once you've had a boost from the alternator.

I've gone for overkill now though because we've scrapped the gas system and everything is now electric apart from the heater which is Diesel. We got by for many years though without solar and were never uncomfortable in this and previous vans.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'll have to look at the one I'm taking out for the date code.

Can't see one

 

[Mick H]

We're much the same in terms of short stopovers Mick and then you're back to full power once you've had a boost from the alternator.

I've gone for overkill now though because we've scrapped the gas system and everything is now electric apart from the heater which is Diesel. We got by for many years though without solar and were never uncomfortable in this and previou

Sorry, it's not a 340 watt system, it's 440 watts

 

[Mick H]

We are always interested in stuff like this so please do let us know how you get on. Glad it worked. My immediate thoughts would be to keep all the batteries the same. I'm no expert but I thought an old one of different AH could possibly bring the others down if its a bit dodgy.

You're right, Barry. Also the another factor is the length of the connecting cables. In this particular case, that's about 1.5 metres.
Trev has posted a diagram, in the past, as to how they should be wired.

 

[Robmac]

Sorry, it's not a 340 watt system, it's 440 watts

440W is a very decent system. I have 850W and 600AH of Lithium and a 2Kw Inverter but as said I use electricity for virtually everything.

Just recently I noticed that a cable on my Solar Isolator had become detached and so I wasn't getting any Solar input for 4 days whilst the van has been sat out on the drive. I never switch off my compressor fridge and there are a couple of live USB sockets/battery voltage displays always on, a control panel for the heating and a display for the shunt always lit up. All this had brought the Batteries capacity down to 72% - I quickly reconnected the isolator and it was up to 100% in a few hours where it remains now and bear in mind it has been quite overcast since.

You can probably equate this to your system but I reckon you will be able to watch TV until the cows come home and it will be a relatively cheap fix to replace the 13 year old battery with another 90H if you ever felt the need.

Please keep us informed.

PS. What washing machine do you run?

 

[merl]

Adding batteries in parallel is cumulative and adding a weedy battery to a larger bank WONT bring the others down but will actually contribute by it's exact Ah capacity.
Because of this it'll be hard to asses exactly what the 13yr old battery is contributing to the overall capacity. A bit like a school boy on the end of a rope of a much larger tug o war team he'll be contributing SOMETHING but probably not a lot and in order to assess the actual power of the boy (or battery) you'd really need to remove him from the team and test him separately.

 

[Mick H]

Adding batteries in parallel is cumulative and adding a weedy battery to a larger bank WONT bring the others down but will actually contribute by it's exact Ah capacity.
Because of this it'll be hard to asses exactly what the 13yr old battery is contributing to the overall capacity. A bit like a school boy on the end of a rope of a much larger tug o war team he'll be contributing SOMETHING but probably not a lot and in order to assess the actual power of the boy (or battery) you'd really need to remove him from the team and test him separately.

I understand, and did initially rig up the old battery, to the inverter, just to try it, and boiled the kettle.
The battery stood at 12.7 volts, before testing, and 12.6 volts tested after about 1/2 hrs rest.

 

[Mick H]

440W is a very decent system. I have 850W and 600AH of Lithium and a 2Kw Inverter but as said I use electricity for virtually everything.

Just recently I noticed that a cable on my Solar Isolator had become detached and so I wasn't getting any Solar input for 4 days whilst the van has been sat out on the drive. I never switch off my compressor fridge and there are a couple of live USB sockets/battery voltage displays always on, a control panel for the heating and a display for the shunt always lit up. All this had brought the Batteries capacity down to 72% - I quickly reconnected the isolator and it was up to 100% in a few hours where it remains now and bear in mind it has been quite overcast since.

You can probably equate this to your system but I reckon you will be able to watch TV until the cows come home and it will be a relatively cheap fix to replace the 13 year old battery with another 90H if you ever felt the need.

Please keep us informed.

PS. What washing machine do you run?

It's a Innotec washer, which is a large bucket, with an impellor in the bottom. This literally sits on top of a base that contains the motor, which agitates. This just has simple settings/timer. For a hot wash, you just fill the washer with hot water. It's only ok for small items, really, but we have washed larger ones. The difficulty with this is wringing out, before drying. Normally, it lives in the garage, and we put small items in, so that it swills around, as we travel, before washday.

 

[merl]

I understand, and did initially rig up the old battery, to the inverter, just to try it, and boiled the kettle.
The battery stood at 12.7 volts, before testing, and 12.6 volts tested after about 1/2 hrs rest.

Did you measure the voltage at the battery terminals during the test? I assume it stayed reasonably high and the inverter didn't go into low voltage warning mode? That's the clincher because as batteries age their internal resistance increases and this severely affects their output voltage under high loads, OK for TVs, lighting etc but not so good when it comes to driving a high load inverter. If the battery has seen only light work and had been stored well and floated often then it'll probably contribute quite well.

 

[Mick H]

Did you measure the voltage at the battery terminals during the test? I assume it stayed reasonably high and the inverter didn't go into low voltage warning mode? That's the clincher because as batteries age their internal resistance increases and this severely affects their output voltage under high loads, OK for TVs, lighting etc but not so good when it comes to driving a high load inverter. If the battery has seen only light work and had been stored well and floated often then it'll probably contribute quite well.

I didn't measure the voltage with a multimeter, during the test, but the display on the inverter was showing between 11.4 and 11.3 volts. It didn't go into low voltage warning, just operated the internal fan. The old battery hasn't had a hard life, and has had the occasional "pulse charge".
If anyone is wondering how I know that the battery is 13yrs old, I have the original receipt, from Tayna batteries, dated June 2012.