Solar Pane advicel

Sundancekids

Sundancekids

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Good morning.

The 2013 Elldis 115 I have just purchased already has a solar panel fitted but it is only connected to the Leisure Battery by a Truma Solar Dual Battery charger SDC 10 / 20.3
Any tips or advice on the best way to connect to the vehicle battery as well would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Karen
 

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The simplest way possible is a single wire pos to pos with a fuse at each end, just remove a fuse before starting the engine.

This idea comes from Clive Mott, a bit of a guru, he did have a website with the actual method, but it seems to have been taken down.

There are other ways.
 
Buy a votronic mppt control unit, it has a second take off at 1 ah to starter battery, the above wire/relay and switch will also work.
 

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There are several ways to get the solar to maintain the starter battery too.
1, change the controller to a dual output type. Like Trev mentioned (he's posted the wrong picture BTW) This would give you the opportunity to change the controller to a more efficient MPPT type while your at it because your current unit is only PWM type and not as good.
2, Fit the Clive Mott link like Kev suggested.
3, Install a battery maintainer either to the existing controller or a new single output MPPT one. Lots to choose from including,Vanbits, Sterling, Ablemail. Etc.
4, Install a DIY option but you'll need a little technical ability or know someone who can build one for you. Here's mine that's successfully kept several batteries maintained over the winter.
MERL

Thread 'High performance DIY Battery maintainer.'

I posted details of my DIY battery maintainer on here a while ago,

Charging cab / engine battery from Solar panel.

Ive often left all my vehicles for months on end with no charge. Cars get left for up to five or six months, bikes often the same and the motorhome often gets left over winter. I just disconnect the negative lead off the batteries. Seems to work. Ask any good battery shop and you will be told...
wildcamping.co.uk wildcamping.co.uk
I've had it installed in my van for a few years and although it's worked well, keeping my starter battery topped up over a couple of winters the improvement of semiconductors and the drop in prices lead me to revisit the design and produce something better and cheaper, this new version costs less than £10 to make from easily available items and you only need basic soldering skills to be able to make it.
Just like any...
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Have you got the manual for the controller?
The simplest way is a fused wired from the secondary outputs to the starter battery, but you would probably want to set the charge priority for each battery such that most charge goes to the leisure battery, the instructions for which are in the manual.
BTW, nobody who has so far replied seems to have understood that your charge controller can do this. :rolleyes:
 
colinm said:
BTW, nobody who has so far replied seems to have understood that your charge controller can do this. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Spot on Colin. It's already a dual controller👍. Assuming it was fitted from new then there's a decent chance it already maintains the starter battery anyways? Puzzling to see why they'd fit a dual output controller and only connect it to one battery but odd things do get done sometimes?
If not then a starter battery feed will very possibly be available within the PDU, if so there's no need to go all the way back to the starter battery with a separate cable.
 
Yes it looks very similar to my old PWM controller. They are dead simple. One lot of wires goes to the leisure battery and the other the vehicle battery. Thats it. Or at least it was on mine. Not as efficient as MPPT controllers though as pointed out.

 
colinm said:
Have you got the manual for the controller?
The simplest way is a fused wired from the secondary outputs to the starter battery, but you would probably want to set the charge priority for each battery such that most charge goes to the leisure battery, the instructions for which are in the manual.
BTW, nobody who has so far replied seems to have understood that your charge controller can do this. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
No need to be stating the obvious that the Truma Solar Dual Battery charger can connect to two batteries :)

Only problem is the controller is both rather inefficient, being a PWM controller and the secondary output is usually very low. If anyone was putting any time into working on this setup, my own suggestion would be to throw away the Truma controller and get a better one, then address how to look after the starter battery.

PS. One often significant problem, especially on a motorhome, is getting a starter battery connection to the solar controller if you want to do that method. The controllers are usually stuck in a top cupboard and running another cable can be quite awkward.
 
wildebus said:
No need to be stating the obvious that the Truma Solar Dual Battery charger can connect to two batteries :)

Only problem is the controller is both rather inefficient, being a PWM controller and the secondary output is usually very low. If anyone was putting any time into working on this setup, my own suggestion would be to throw away the Truma controller and get a better one, then address how to look after the starter battery.

PS. One often significant problem, especially on a motorhome, is getting a starter battery connection to the solar controller if you want to do that method. The controllers are usually stuck in a top cupboard and running another cable can be quite awkward.
Click to expand...
Simple, drill a hole in the floor and run a thick cable along chassis up into engine bay to starter battery, make sure its fussed at both ends.
 
wildebus said:
Drill a hole in the floor in order to run a cable to a locker below the roof? :unsure: Interesting approach :D
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Every van is not the same, some cannot get a clean run for cables, mine had to go from engine bay along the chassis and up through a vent to the less batts, there already was a set of hoops for the original tail lift, so all i did was shorten the old battery cable to stop at my less batt which is half way down the bus.
 
trevskoda said:
Every van is not the same, some cannot get a clean run for cables, mine had to go from engine bay along the chassis and up through a vent to the less batts, there already was a set of hoops for the original tail lift, so all i did was shorten the old battery cable to stop at my less batt which is half way down the bus.
Click to expand...
yup, every van is different. So maybe not start your reply with "simple" and then just suggest what you did on your van?
 
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