| Author |
Message |
FAST FRED (4.245.158.112)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 12:09 pm: | |
The recent interest in boondockin coaches prompted me to outline the following concepts.
To have a lifestyle that depends on battery banks , they must be monitored and charged properly.
A GOOD battery monitor will learn (with much owner tweaking) the capacity and charge ability of your set.
It will display at a minimum the percent of capacity used or remaining.
And it will show the state of charge as the set is being recharged , so one can estimate remain charge time.
Bogart Engineering (Tri Metric) 813.338.0616, www.bogartengineering.com $155.
Zantrex (Link series) 800.6700707 www.zantrex.com Link 10 $240
CruzPro 649.838.3331 www.cruzpro.com various models $200 to $300
The Cruz pro is marinized , and fits in a std dash cutout .
The Link 10 is for a single bank , the 20 for two house banks. (an old marine setup , no longer in favor).
A good choice if you have a Trace inverter.
The Bogart is my choice as it can display the most info & comes with a good book.
ALL require a shunt (included) to be between the Bat bank & the loads & charger.
Money spent on proper monitoring will repay itself the first time you save the set from destructive discharge.
Really fine if you can have a bat set that is large enough so only 40% is normally discharged before recharge.
50% discharge is beginning of danger area for REAL deep cycle batts ( over 20% is dangerous for start batts , and on starts you only get ONE chance!).
All the web sites have useful information,
Have it YOUR WAY,,
FAST FRED |
pete (64.12.116.135)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 4:00 pm: | |
Fred,
Its worth mentioning that 1. if someone intends to dry camp..the house batteries should never be hooked up to the bus batteries. this should be a seperate system. mine are totally isolated, a seperate charger runs off the genset to charge the bus batteries when and if needed.
2. conservation is essential. if you live in the feild like you live in your house your gonna have some dark evenings. what you outlined is the best way to monitor the system but smarts is just as important |
joe shelton (67.242.199.211)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 28, 2004 - 10:00 am: | |
I have an write-up on how build a monitor that lets you know when the electrolite is low. I am planning on building 8 of them, one for each of my 6 house bats and 2 for my starters. what do you think? joe |
Peter Broadribb (Madbrit) (67.136.93.73)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 28, 2004 - 11:15 am: | |
Joe,
Sounds interesting, how does it work?
Can you email me a copy? Thanks.
Peter. |
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