| Author |
Message |
Henry Draper (12.82.128.73)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 12, 2002 - 10:50 am: | |
Hi folks,
Got an electrical/battery question for you electrical types!
Is it better to discharge batteries, say to the 50% level, once in a while or keep them charged so that they only discharge to something less than 10%?
I have solar panels charging my batteries and, while the rig is in "semi-drydock mode" during the winter, the batteries don't get much of a workout. The panels keep them fully charged all the time. I read somewhere that batteries should be "exercised" once in a while, that it was eventually bad for them to be fully charged almost all the time.
So, should I turn off the panels periodically, and use the batteries to something short of a deep discharge, then charge them up again, to maintain capacity?
Thanks for any wisdom you can provide.
Henry Draper
1964 Eagle
Edmonds, WA |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 12, 2002 - 11:30 am: | |
All battery types behave differently and have different needs. If it's a "Ni-Cad" battery, it should be deeply discharged periodically or it will fall victim to a "memory effect" characteristic of ni-Cad batteries and loose it's capacity.
HOWEVER all RV and Solar batteries are currently either Lead-Acid or Gel-Cell (also a variant of Lead-Acid) and to maintain either type at anything less than full charge will permanently damage them. It is OK to "excercise" them but not necessary...they have a finite number of "deep-cycles" before their useful service life is over, and "excercising" them uses up some of this number. I'd just let them sit fully charged- they're happier this way!!
Cheers
Gary Stadler |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (12.146.33.40)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 12, 2002 - 10:23 pm: | |
Hi Henry.
Heart Interface recommends equalizing batteries every month or six weeks while they're in use. They seem to regard discharges of 10 percent or more as in deep cycle use.
They don't seem to say what you are to do if they are unused for a period of time while riding along at their float voltage.
We have had quite a few batteries that we have had to keep alive over long periods of disuse. We seem to notice an appreciable loss of high output (cranking power) if left on a regulating charger to keep them from going dead.
However, when they are put back in service, they seem to recover a good part of the lost cranking power.
We have gotten awfully good results by leaving a battery in storage "without" being hooked up to the charger, and then putting them on a 10 ampere regulating charger once every six weeks for 24 hours.
I'm talking about the cheap kind, around $40 new, not a fancy one with filtered output. We have used both kinds. The pulses seem to do a better job.
We have kept batteries alive for around five years in storage this way. We just put two 8Ds in our coach that were in storage for about two years, and they're doing fine, so far as I can tell.
FWIW.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576 |
Keith (65.33.34.54)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 19, 2002 - 2:18 am: | |
Met a gentleman at a campsite here in Florida with a converted coach (I appologise for not remembering his name). He has the solar panels and raves about them. Said he gets around 7 years life out of his batteries and attributes that to the solar panels keeping them always charged. Third party info.... but hope it helps.
Keith |
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