Trouble choosing between more solar, another battery or...nothing

[trevskoda]

Dec comes before jan, getting bad on here with some folks ejitmacation LOL
Yep correct above mths very low or little solar through the day, i plug my van in 24/7 during the dark days at home.
If living full time a genny or a few days on a site may be required, or a 40 miles drive to charge batteries.

 

[colinm]

post deleted

 

[Nabsim]

Dec comes before jan, getting bad on here with some folks ejitmacation LOL
Yep correct above mths very low or little solar through the day, i plug my van in 24/7 during the dark days at home.
If living full time a genny or a few days on a site may be required, or a 40 miles drive to charge batteries.

How much of a drive depends on how many amps you can put back while driving. I would need to drive at least two and a half hours every day for my 30A B2B to replace the 65Ah I use

 

[colinm]

That is not a problem
I had my Alternator die a few months ago. Simply connected a mains charger to the starter battery, plugged into a van socket fed by an inverter driven by the leisure battery and bob's your uncle Did this and then drove to the garage around 15 miles away for them to change the alternator.

And by leaving the B2B enabled, the leisure battery was getting charged by the mains charger, so had perpetual power








(PS. I DID turn off the B2B ; ) )

So you don't think it's a good idea to connect the leisure and starter with "truck jump leads" as the op wanted to.

 

[wildebus]

So you don't think it's a good idea to connect the leisure and starter with "truck jump leads" as the op wanted to.

I have no idea what the OP wanted to do I was replying to YOUR post (hence the quoted text ) and what you could do in the situation where the alternator failed.

 

[trevskoda]

How much of a drive depends on how many amps you can put back while driving. I would need to drive at least two and a half hours every day for my 30A B2B to replace the 65Ah I use

Prob a smart alt or b2b, mine is direct through a switch so i can charge starter and all batteries up fast.

 

[trevskoda]

So you don't think it's a good idea to connect the leisure and starter with "truck jump leads" as the op wanted to.

Yes no bother in a emergency, my van with a flick of a switch through a 200amp relay and thick battery cable connects all batteries together, handy if you left van lights on or something silly, or wish to jump start someone else.

 

[colinm]

Yes no bother in a emergency, my van with a flick of a switch through a 200amp relay and thick battery cable connects all batteries together, handy if you left van lights on or something silly, or wish to jump start someone else.

From a lithium battery!

 

[Nabsim]

Last time I checked I thought you needed a special lifepo4 battery to jump start vehicles/use as a starter battery?

 

[wildebus]

Last time I checked I thought you needed a special lifepo4 battery to jump start vehicles/use as a starter battery?

The current pulled from the battery by the starter motor would be too much for a single LFP Battery and the BMS would cut out.
I understand that there are quite a few motorbikes now with Lithium Batteries and an Electric Start? no idea what type of Lithium Battery they have though.
If you had a situation where you had a dead Starter Battery and a Lithium Leisure Battery, a useful technique is to connect the two together, not in order to do a jump start but to transfer some charge from Leisure to Starter batteries. Make the connection and leave like that for maybe 15 minutes and you should have transferred enough to do a normal start.

 

[trevskoda]

From a lithium battery!

No im still on l acids but im sure liths will do the same to boost starter battery, after all electric cars run on them which is a tuff ask.

 

[trevskoda]

The current pulled from the battery by the starter motor would be too much for a single LFP Battery and the BMS would cut out.
I understand that there are quite a few motorbikes now with Lithium Batteries and an Electric Start? no idea what type of Lithium Battery they have though.
If you had a situation where you had a dead Starter Battery and a Lithium Leisure Battery, a useful technique is to connect the two together, not in order to do a jump start but to transfer some charge from Leisure to Starter batteries. Make the connection and leave like that for maybe 15 minutes and you should have transferred enough to do a normal start.

Correct 100% the way to go, i do the same with l acids, 5/10 mins hit the button.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Chromebook from what I read uses similar to what I have already.

Chromebooks generally use less current and have better battery life compared to Dell Latitude laptops (what I have)(or other Windows laptops) because they are designed with energy efficiency in mind. Chromebooks have a lightweight operating system and focus on web-based tasks and cloud applications, which consume fewer resources. Windows laptops, while offering more features and software compatibility, tend to consume more power.

 

[trevskoda]

Chromebooks generally use less current and have better battery life compared to Dell Latitude laptops (what I have)(or other Windows laptops) because they are designed with energy efficiency in mind. Chromebooks have a lightweight operating system and focus on web-based tasks and cloud applications, which consume fewer resources. Windows laptops, while offering more features and software compatibility, tend to consume more power.

Much more than a linux distro uses, windows 11 is way to heavy and its never yours, you only rent it, if you buy any pc you can ask for a reduced fee of £50 and make them remove windows operating sys.
Then home to install a distro of your picking, free.