CHARGING LEISURE BATTERIES.

[Mtbcol]

Evening all.

I'd like to keep my two 110ah leisure batteries topped up during cloudy days, and at night, when my solar is not charging or topping them up and my van is sitting on my drive awaiting our next adventure. Can I just connect my 240 volt charger to them and leave it connected to trickle charge when full even through the day when I'll be solar charging them with out damaging them? Also if this is possible does it matter which terminals I use to connect the charger e.g. furthest positive terminal and nearest negative terminal if that makes sense?
I run our diesel heater some times after dark when at home to stop the van getting damp and want to keep the batteries charged especially on heater start up without starting the van engine.
Thanks in anticipation.

Colin.

 

[trevskoda]

Best to use a smart charger, yes the solar control unit will not have a problem with back feed, I'm running a numax 10ah smart charger, there are cheaper units from china at 20ah, they work well as I have one in my workshop for over a year and no probs,
I would wire this in and fix/bolt down and connect to the fuse box mains inlet.

 

[Mtbcol]

Thanks trev. I think my charger is a smart charger? Got it from Aldi. I'll check tomorrow and maybe send a picture if I'm in doubt. Thanks for the reply

Colin.

 

[Obanboy666]

Evening all.

I'd like to keep my two 110ah leisure batteries topped up during cloudy days, and at night, when my solar is not charging or topping them up and my van is sitting on my drive awaiting our next adventure. Can I just connect my 240 volt charger to them and leave it connected to trickle charge when full even through the day when I'll be solar charging them with out damaging them? Also if this is possible does it matter which terminals I use to connect the charger e.g. furthest positive terminal and nearest negative terminal if that makes sense?
I run our diesel heater some times after dark when at home to stop the van getting damp and want to keep the batteries charged especially on heater start up without starting the van engine.
Thanks in anticipation.

Colin.

Reading your post I assume you have no EHU and onboard charger.
If that is the case yes you can connect your 240v charger to the batteries as long as it is a modern intelligent smart charger that won’t cook the batteries, it should monitor the battery charge level and go into float mode and monitor the charge level only charging the batteries when the charge level drops.
YOU must connect charger negative to battery negative and charger positive to battery positive.

 

[Mtbcol]

Reading your post I assume you have no EHU and onboard charger.
If that is the case yes you can connect your 240v charger to the batteries as long as it is a modern intelligent smart charger that won’t cook the batteries, it should monitor the battery charge level and go into float mode and monitor the charge level only charging the batteries when the charge level drops.
YOU must connect charger negative to battery negative and charger positive to battery positive.

Sorry I didn't make that clear, I understand the charger connection, it was just which pos and neg terminals of the two parallel batteries the charger should be connected to? I'm assuming it's furthest battery POS and nearest battery NEG, so the charge passed through both batteries in theory.....or does it not make any difference?

 

[wildebus]

Sorry I didn't make that clear, I understand the charger connection, it was just which pos and neg terminals of the two parallel batteries the charger should be connected to? I'm assuming it's furthest battery POS and nearest battery NEG, so the charge passed through both batteries in theory.....or does it not make any difference?

You should use a balanced connection, i.e. as you are suggesting. Will YOU see a difference? No. But the batteries will.

 

[trevskoda]

Numax also do a duel output charger so you can keep the starter batt up, or you can use a relay and switch to link them all up for charging.

 

[Mtbcol]

You should use a balanced connection, i.e. as you are suggesting. Will YOU see a difference? No. But the batteries will.

Thanks widebus ... the batteries are the important thing

 

[colinm]

Evening all.

I'd like to keep my two 110ah leisure batteries topped up during cloudy days, and at night, when my solar is not charging or topping them up and my van is sitting on my drive awaiting our next adventure...
I run our diesel heater some times after dark when at home to stop the van getting damp and want to keep the batteries charged especially on heater start up without starting the van engine.
Thanks in anticipation.

Colin.

I would question why your solar isn't keeping the batteries topped up, occasionally running a diesel heater should have little effect. Unless you are talking about mid winter.

 

[r4dent]

I would question why your solar isn't keeping the batteries topped up, occasionally running a diesel heater should have little effect. Unless you are talking about mid winter.

So many possibilities small solar / location in country / dirty panel / parked in shade / residual draw/

 

[wildebus]

My Solar when parked at home used to be pretty poor even in the summer months. and the "peak time" of around 12 to 2 was one of the worst time of days.
Parked on the north side of a tall 2 storey house. Tall pine tree to the east side and other trees blocking decent sun until around 5PM

Storm Arwen was a blessing ripping out the main pine tree sun block and then removing another tree it went into.

 

[Mtbcol]

This is my charger, will this be suitable? My solar charger is a Victron smart solar MPPT 100/20 48v.

 

[trevskoda]

It will be fine but there are better ones that exercise the battery with pulse charge etc then float and slight discharge before going through the cycle again.

 

[Colinc]

Getting a small electric heater with a frost setting might be a simpler and cheaper solution. Wire that direct to the mains. Let the solar keep the batteries good.

 

[Mtbcol]

Getting a small electric heater with a frost setting might be a simpler and cheaper solution. Wire that direct to the mains. Let the solar keep the batteries good.

Yeah, we were doing that with an oil filled rad.....but have you seen the price of electricity these days!

 

[QFour]

Running the heating will cause more damp than ventilation. You warm the van up inside and water in the air condensers on the cold glass and any other cold area causing damp. Save the fuel and just keep it ventilated. Check it regularly.