Solar Panel charging system complete ...but

[Deleted member 12539]

At last I have finally completed my 100w solar panel charging system to ensure both the leisure battery and vehicle battery are maintained.

The first stage was the purchase of a 100w solar panel and regulator from ebay, and install to charge just the leisure battery.
The panel kept the leisure battery around 13.5v.
I then searched for a suitable splitter to also maintain the vehicle battery when it is parked for long periods. Eventually after lots of ideas off this site and trawling ebay, I found the ideal item. A '2 Accumulator Charger' (£20) made for the job.
I spent a whole day installing the split charger, with an in line switch so I can isolate the charge to the vehicle battery. The blurb that comes with the 'splitter' says that the two batteries are never connected.
Now the system checks both batteries, and maintains the battery that has the lesser voltage.
Now the but ........
The strange thing is that I was getting leisure battery readings of 15-16v from my vehicles control panel before I 'switched' on the vehicle battery charging. As the vehicle battery took up the charge (it was 11.9v so had priority) the leisure battery slowly dropped voltage back down to a steady 12.5v.
It was a very sunny day today, so the panel was working at its best, but could this overvoltage damage anything on the vehicle?

 

[biker]

eBay site

Hello Beemer, can’t help with your question, but good you tell me/us what eBay site you got your kit from and would you recommend them.

Thanks in advance

 

[AndyC]

A 15-16 volt reading at the control panel is definitely not right. It sounds almost as though the solar panel regulator is being bypassed.

I'm not sure what the '2 accumulator charger' is, can you post some details?

AndyC

 

[maingate]

Before you do anything, check the voltage at the battery with a multimeter.

My ammeter and voltmeter on my control panel are not that accurate as they are analogue gauges and are a long way from the batteries. You may not have a problem at all.

If you checked this under ideal charging conditions then your panel should be pushing out a lot more than 16 volts.

 

[Deleted member 3011]

Perhaps we should check your exact configuration first.

I gather you have the solar panels feeding the solar regulator which then feeds the new "splitter" which feeds both batteries as required.

Is the 2 accumulator charger an active charger (meaning does it incorporate some sort of DC to DC converter that can put out a higher voltage than comes in) and does it have the facility to charge two batteries of different types?

If you had the isolating switch off, the system would try to charge that battery so would increase the output voltage trying to get current to flow. Depending how you have things wired up, your indicator panel could be reading the output voltage of the solar regulator or the output voltage of the splitter, rather than the terminal voltage of the battery. Once the engine battery was connected, the voltage would then reduce to a 'normal' value.

All depends on how you have things connected so more info is required.

 

[Deleted member 12539]

Perhaps we should check your exact configuration first.

I gather you have the solar panels feeding the solar regulator which then feeds the new "splitter" which feeds both batteries as required.

Is the 2 accumulator charger an active charger (meaning does it incorporate some sort of DC to DC converter that can put out a higher voltage than comes in) and does it have the facility to charge two batteries of different types?

Yes... The Solar panel
100W Monocrystal Solar Panel + 10A Charge Controller | eBay UK
feeds Solar Panel Regulator, which then feeds the 'splitter' which is this CHARGER, (LEISURE & ENGINE BATTERY), SOLAR BOAT CAMPER on eBay (end time 08-May-11 16:35:25 BST)
which then feeds both batteries, but will feed the battery that needs the charge first.

I checked both the vehicle battery and leisure battery voltage on the control panel and both batteries are at 13.5v.
The control panel reads off the batteries not the solar panel or regulators.

The whole system seems to be working fine now and I have been very happy with the quality of the Chinese solar panel which took about 5 days to arrive, and I ordered the accumulator charger later which took a short time to arrive too.

The Solar Panel Regulator also has a 'feed' for a 12v connection, which I have connected to a 12v power point (cig lighter type), this has been successfully tested with a 12v lamp.

Hope the above is clear.

 

[freelanderuk]

when you connected everything up did you connect the batteries up first to the regulator then the solar panel to the regulator , 2 years ago i did it the opposite way and boiled the batteries ,was showing 15/16 and sometimes 17 volts on my foxd1 panel

 

[Deleted member 12539]

when you connected everything up did you connect the batteries up first to the regulator then the solar panel to the regulator , 2 years ago i did it the opposite way and boiled the batteries ,was showing 15/16 and sometimes 17 volts on my foxd1 panel

I disconnected the solar panel from the regulator first, then set up the splitter and vehicle battery, then reconnected the solar panel back.
I have just checked batteries again (after 2 days with the set up) both batteries maintaining 13.4v each, if I switch off the connection to the vehicle battery, the voltage settles at 12.8v, and goes up to 15v on the leisure battery.
The readings above are taken from the control panel.
Is 15v too high?
If so should I now disconnect the solar panel (push fit connections) and re-connect?

 

[freelanderuk]

me personally i would disconnect the solar panel leave a while and then reconnect , when i connected mine up solar panel first i was seeing up to 17volts on a very sunny day , if i disconnect the solar panel now my meter shows the true reading of the batteries then when i reconnect it shows about 13.7volt while sunny