Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

barryd said:
It might still have been dodgy. We need an update from @yeoblade to see if his fish are happy or not as its powering his pond lights now. :ROFLMAO:

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They doing fine mate,
Pond.jpg


Mind you you they've few devices to power and 270W Solar with MPPT charger 👍😉.
 
So just in case anyone is interested we went back off grid yesterday lunchtime. Everything fully charged. Late afternoon the little plug in charger was saying 14.1v! It never ever read that high on the solar only. So we watched stuff on Michelle's laptop with the new usb c charger Kev found last night and this morning I had the inverter on for half an hour fast charging my phone and Michelle's phone on for well over an hour slow charging on usb only.

It's been misty and grey all morning but the solar charger has a green light for sun on it and showing both batteries as fully charged. The little plug in meter is reading 12.7.

I think the point I am trying to get round to making is a full charge from hookup seems a lot better and longer lasting than a full charge from solar. Is the solar controller stopping the charge too soon? I presume when it's flashing which means fully charged it's no longer charging.

This is all for general interest and opinion now. I'm not trying to fix anything. It is what it is and will be replaced soon.
 
I'm no ex spurt, but charging is charging the rate may change but 100% is 100% regardless of where it came from, flashing if red would I suppose mean a fault, Green ok.
 
Not if the controller is defective it might not be. I just put some load on and the solar controller is still saying fully charged. Volt meter says 12.6. the old mppt controller would stop charging when fully charged but as soon as you put a light on or drew a load it would start charging again. I have never seen the swift controller panel or the plug in volt checker as high from a solar charge in this van as a mains charge. It might explain how it's ok for a couple of days and then gradually goes down. In theory if fully charged is fully charged no matter what and you are not doing anything different each day in terms of usage if should never drop to below a similar level as long as at some point in that day the controller says it's fully charged.
 
I was responding to this bit Barry "is a full charge from hookup seems a lot better and longer lasting than a full charge from solar.

lasting refers to what is in the battery and what is coming out and has nothing to do with what or how it went in
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I was responding to this bit Barry "is a full charge from hookup seems a lot better and longer lasting than a full charge from solar.

lasting refers to what is in the battery and what is coming out and has nothing to do with what or how it went in
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I would agree, a full charge is a full charge you would think wouldn't you regardless of the charge source. Unless of course it isn't. 😁

I can almost guarantee after a day of full sunshine off grid using the same devices and use of power there will be less in the battery 24 hours later than if we had come off hookup.
 
trevskoda said:
Why would anyone use a inverter to charge a mobile or laptop, usb and sockets all around.View attachment 134021View attachment 134022View attachment 134023View attachment 134024
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Faster charging in the case of my mobile phone Trev. They take hours on a usb cable only. Less than an hour from flat to full charge on the 240v fast charger.

The usb c dedicated 12v charger for Michelle's laptop Kev found seems good though.

I think I might have sussed out what was taking the power also. I wasn't going to mention it yet as I've not proved it and it's early days but my laptop battery is now pretty knackered and we use it plugged into a 12v charger for watching stuff for hours on a night. I've noticed it's losing power even when switched off. So my theory is it's drawing a lot of watts trying to constantly charge a battery. Maybe up to 65watts instead the usual 12-14 when fully charged. It's just a theory. I've removed the battery so I'll only use it plugged in if I need it.

I'm also avoiding using the sat dish and Freeview box and TV. The TV is really low power (14 watts) but the Freeview box gets quite hot and is drawing up to 18w I think.

So we are just using Michelle's laptop now on the new power supply for TV and downloads and streams. Last couple of nights we were down to just 12.6v and it was thick mist all day yesterday.

Early days though but the trouble is if I've sussed it it's gonna be a harder sell for lithium! 🤣 Im still doing it though.
 
My lights went out this evening. For ten mins. I was just foaming up for a shave.
The bms cut in and shut down discharge on both jks.
Over current protection. 245 amps draw max 200.
That new water heater pulls continuously at 2000w untill reach and air fryer hadn't finished.
No bang ! But a nutter running around with shaving foam on face as they won't restart .
The invertor kept over loading bms on start up.
Needed help as black outside so no solar. Had to start van to boost the 12v system with b2b.


What would you have done ???


Lights on found razor started / finnest shaving.
Screenshot_20240811_232715_BMS.jpg
 
I just have a 120 solar panel and a 100ah battery going through the Sargent system EC500,
I just leave it on smart charge.
On most sunny days it will go up to the mid 14 volts,
We are not heavy power users tv on an evening and charging phones and I pads and it will usually be down to 12.3 ish in the morning.
Being off grid in winter months is a struggle.
 
We're off for two weeks soon to Scotland where there is usually less sun, I'll try to record how ours does, the VB was new in March 2024 but the LB was on its last legs when we bought the van (the lights would go out) but not got around to changing it yet, only been 4 years, no rush, if it ever does give up the ghost properly I can swap it out anywhere.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
We're off for two weeks soon to Scotland where there is usually less sun, I'll try to record how ours does, the VB was new in March 2024 but the LB was on its last legs when we bought the van (the lights would go out) but not got around to changing it yet, only been 4 years, no rush, if it ever does give up the ghost properly I can swap it out anywhere.
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You should never run out of power Kev the amount of driving you do each day. I think I might have been right about the power drain. 12.5 at close of play around midnight and 12.5 this morning and I think the controller is fully charging the battery. Still not as fully as hookup though I don't think.

Be interesting to see if we can make it work until Sunday when we may move on.
 
1 Cup said:
My lights went out this evening. For ten mins. I was just foaming up for a shave.
The bms cut in and shut down discharge on both jks.
Over current protection. 245 amps draw max 200.
That new water heater pulls continuously at 2000w untill reach and air fryer hadn't finished.
No bang ! But a nutter running around with shaving foam on face as they won't restart .
The invertor kept over loading bms on start up.
Needed help as black outside so no solar. Had to start van to boost the 12v system with b2b.


What would you have done ???


Lights on found razor started / finnest shaving.View attachment 134032
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Whatsthe noncence about shaving.
first 100 skoda.jpg
 
barryd said:
You should never run out of power Kev the amount of driving you do each day. I think I might have been right about the power drain. 12.5 at close of play around midnight and 12.5 this morning and I think the controller is fully charging the battery. Still not as fully as hookup though I don't think.

Be interesting to see if we can make it work until Sunday when we may move on.
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True, not concerned about charging up, I was thinking more of the drain each day, 3 tablets and 2 phones to keep topped up, plus a vac to charge up, we may need heating or fans, darker nights now so more lighting and more cooking (extractor fan) etc will load up the gas usage, I'll make sure the Gaslow is full and keep a check on how much we fill it up if at all over two weeks.
 
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