Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

Start flapping about leccy when you haven't got enough to do what you want to to do. At the moment it's doing fine for you or are you going to start taking welding lessons.
 
Fazerloz said:
Start flapping about leccy when you haven't got enough to do what you want to to do. At the moment it's doing fine for you or are you going to start taking welding lessons.
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Can't do gas welding either before anyone suggests it. Only got a little Gaslow. 🤣
 
I just fitted a 30 ltr water heater @ 2000 watts lovley. Only four bolts and 2 pipes took all day. Lol

And a lagoon table thing. Im looking for top.


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But what is this in the plastic bag there's 2 of them and you can blow both ways ?



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Epic fail! :ROFLMAO:

I will understand if I am now ousted from this forum and sent into Exile to the Caravan and Motorhome Club Together forum. Please take pity on me before you kick me out as I have tried but there is only so long you can sit there fretting about your phone being on 18% and going into super power save mode. :D

Normal service will be resumed later in the week (depending on the weather and if there are too many Indians or Chinese leftovers that will of course need a microwave). Getting my moneys worth though. We were moved and pitched by 9am. :D

 
Fazerloz said:
I think Pudsey has a valid argument with sticking with lead acid over your 10 year life span for a light power user. You can buy a lot of LA batteries for 3 grand and they have worked well for you over the years. Think back how many new LBs have you bought in the last 10 years or are you just getting caught up in the hype of must have latest tech. I think I would be tempted just to add another panel and a better solar controller. It’s now coming up to 7 years since I put in a pair of 6v Trojans and Robs are about the same age.
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I'm not just a pretty bear tha knows.
 
barryd said:
Well third day off grid again and here's my thoughts. I don't think the new battery is going to last. It's been wall to wall sunshine. First night battery was at 12.5 at the end of the evening and the same in the morning second night 12.4 and and the same in the morning and last night also 12.4 but read 12.3 just now. On the old van in this weather the 120agm and the brilliant mppt controller would have not dropped below 12.6 or maybe 12.7 in this weather.

So I bet there was nothing wrong with the battery we replaced. It's just this van. Or the controller or both. When the weather changes by Monday I reckon we will be back to square one unless we sit there twiddling our thumbs in the dark. Maybe I'm being pessimistic but my gut feeling is it's just not enough power and charge in this van. There is no way a brand new 120ah battery should drop from supposedly fully charged yesterday afternoon to 12.3v overnight after five hours tv and some laptop use. Mind you the bloody Freesat box uses up to 18w which is more than the TV at 14w
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Sounds like the controller to me, get one bought from MpSolar, I posted a link soewhere.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
Sounds like the controller to me, get one bought from MpSolar, I posted a link soewhere.
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Its charging, we tested it. It even shows the battery as fully charged. To be honest it was hovering around 12.3v each morning in the end but given the forecast is a bit mixed and being fed up of being stingy with power I just thought fcuk this for a game of soldiers and upgraded us to the CL Hilton. I reckon AGM batteries are just shed loads better. We had similar experiences with the battery before the one I got a couple of years or so back off @RichardHelen262 but I decided against splashing out on a more expensive AGM this time as it was likely just temporary. My minds made up on this. Im getting something much much better for this van.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
It will be charging, that's its job, but not as good as a MPPT one.
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But here's the thing. Once its fully charged the light on the controller flashes so I assume it stops charging. So MPPT controller or not its fully charged yet by morning the battery is still reading just 12.3 so its gone from 12.7 to 12.3 after one night of use. Surely that would be the same with any controller. You could argue that this would be fine but two days of not much sunshine like the last two (Which is why we moved) and its likely your into battery damaging territory. Unless of course its not fully charged. My other theory was as its got two sets of outgoing wires charging both the hab and cab battery its not dedicating enough charge to the hab battery but the engine battery always shows fully charged.

I just think its a combination of crap batteries, this van and our ever increasing reliance on stuff that needs powering. On that score old hank coped a bit better as it had a better battery and I reckon less parasitic draw or demanding electronics.
 
What is missing and stopping you really knowing what is happening and therefore what is really needed (as opposed to wanted ;) ) is a way to see what loads you have and show much power (capacity) your battery actually has (hint: it is not what is written on the side :) ).
Did you ever do the capacity load test I suggested?
 
barryd said:
But here's the thing. Once its fully charged the light on the controller flashes so I assume it stops charging. So MPPT controller or not its fully charged yet by morning the battery is still reading just 12.3 so its gone from 12.7 to 12.3 after one night of use. Surely that would be the same with any controller. You could argue that this would be fine but two days of not much sunshine like the last two (Which is why we moved) and its likely your into battery damaging territory. Unless of course its not fully charged. My other theory was as its got two sets of outgoing wires charging both the hab and cab battery its not dedicating enough charge to the hab battery but the engine battery always shows fully charged.

I just think its a combination of crap batteries, this van and our ever increasing reliance on stuff that needs powering. On that score old hank coped a bit better as it had a better battery and I reckon less parasitic draw or demanding electronics.
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A mppt will cycle a battery and go into float mode, it will also pass more amps par day over a pwm, plus makes the battery have a longer life.
 
barryd said:
But here's the thing. Once its fully charged the light on the controller flashes so I assume it stops charging. So MPPT controller or not its fully charged yet by morning the battery is still reading just 12.3 so its gone from 12.7 to 12.3 after one night of use. Surely that would be the same with any controller. You could argue that this would be fine but two days of not much sunshine like the last two (Which is why we moved) and its likely your into battery damaging territory. Unless of course its not fully charged. My other theory was as its got two sets of outgoing wires charging both the hab and cab battery its not dedicating enough charge to the hab battery but the engine battery always shows fully charged.

I just think its a combination of crap batteries, this van and our ever increasing reliance on stuff that needs powering. On that score old hank coped a bit better as it had a better battery and I reckon less parasitic draw or demanding electronics.
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I'm not certain but I think MPPT controllers work better in lower light conditions too so if I'm right the start and stop trying to charge for longer.

The engine battery will always be likely to show a better charge as it is hardly used, you can always switch over to it on the control panel.

This was why I suggested a while ago to keep the old panel and controller, but divert the feed to the VB and then if you want to update the hab side fit a new MPPT + whatever wattage panel you can fit and the batteries you think you need (but likely don't really) I'd go for a 150w + 2 x 110ah it's more than you had before and you have the advantage of a fully charge VB as back up and it doesn't involve selling Michelle.
 
wildebus said:
What is missing and stopping you really knowing what is happening and therefore what is really needed (as opposed to wanted ;) ) is a way to see what loads you have and show much power (capacity) your battery actually has (hint: it is not what is written on the side :) ).
Did you ever do the capacity load test I suggested?
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No but Julian did show me on the Sargent system how to check what the draw is at any given time which is how we discovered there was 0.7amps going out with nothing switched on but its all over the place that thing. Not a conclusive test. I cant remember how you said to test the battery but given this one is brand new and a supposedly off grid battery I presume 120ah. The old AGM was also 120ah but in one nights usage on the old van if it was fully charged it would probably drop to 12.6v overnight or maybe 12.5.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I'm not certain but I think MPPT controllers work better in lower light conditions too so if I'm right the start and stop trying to charge for longer.

The engine battery will always be likely to show a better charge as it is hardly used, you can always switch over to it on the control panel.

This was why I suggested a while ago to keep the old panel and controller, but divert the feed to the VB and then if you want to update the hab side fit a new MPPT + whatever wattage panel you can fit and the batteries you think you need (but likely don't really) I'd go for a 150w + 2 x 110ah it's more than you had before and you have the advantage of a fully charge VB as back up and it doesn't involve selling Michelle.
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I wont be selling Michelle. She is priceless. :D

Yep, people keep saying get a cheaper solution but how much cheaper? Im still going to have to pay someone to do all that for a last century solution that wont last as long. Lets say it works out at half the price of what I have been quoted for a Lithium system, it wont last as long and likely after a two or three years will have depleted and wont be anywhere near as good.

There simply wasnt time to swap the old systems over to this van in the end. I wish there had been but I literally had two hours to empty the van and deliver it in the end.
 
I'd not go cheap per se, just a cheaper style of system with quality components, having said that, the Controller we had wasn't expensive but it was very good, I always bought the cheapest panels from ebay.de, and the cheapest 11ah batteries from Alpha and even when we did run a 240v 32" TV and a PVR etc it was always up to the job, plus charging all the gubbins we took.

This Lithium and associated stuff is all good of course but I bet most of us will never get near it's capacity, and if one does go kaput getting another might be fun when away, but a LA you can get anywhere, (I'm not sure what the real diff is between starter and leisure over the labels) Controllers and panels don't normally konk out do they.
 
barryd said:
No but Julian did show me on the Sargent system how to check what the draw is at any given time which is how we discovered there was 0.7amps going out with nothing switched on but its all over the place that thing. Not a conclusive test. I cant remember how you said to test the battery but given this one is brand new and a supposedly off grid battery I presume 120ah. The old AGM was also 120ah but in one nights usage on the old van if it was fully charged it would probably drop to 12.6v overnight or maybe 12.5.
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I lost track of what you have done! given you are looking at quotes for a Lithium Battery I didn't realise you had also bought a brand new Lead Acid?
 
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