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06-03-2016, 12:20 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia
Trailer: 2009 Escape 17B 2020 Toyota Highlander XLE
Posts: 17,136
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Too much information
Moved from the rally to Harmon Lake where the temps fell ( 3,600 feet elev. ) and the wind has howled for the past two days. Huddled in the trailer with the furnace running.
I was concerned about running out of battery so this morning I hooked up my two 40 watt solar panels. The monitor in the trailer flickered "good" when I checked it before hooking up.
Day was all clouds and overcast with a brief 30 second sun beam. Checking my Innova volt meter from time to time, I got readings of 12.41 to (once ) 12.81 (I think that's when the sunbeam hit the panels ) and back down to 12.4.
Imagine my surprise then, when the darkness fell and the Innova read 12.30. The monitor in the trailer faintly flickers green or good.
I've got lots of information, but no confidence in the information I've got.
I've shut down the furnace, turned off most lights and disconnected the solar panels. I'm holding at 12.31 and the trailer monitor reads green ( or good ).
Going to bed and will review in the morning, after checking this thread.
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
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06-03-2016, 01:00 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Bellingham and Glacier, Washington
Trailer: 2013 Escape 15A
Posts: 2,051
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Not sure what the concern is here? My batteries are almost always down to 12.2 or 12.3 by the time I go to bed and will recover the next day even with cloud cover (at this time of year with a high sun angle).
Maybe just like a pilot, you should trust your instrumentation?
__________________
Karen Hulford
2013 Escape 15A, "Egbert"
'93 Ford 150 XLT or
'22 GMC Acadia Denali
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06-03-2016, 01:06 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: North Van., British Columbia
Trailer: 2014 Escape 19, sold; 2019 Escape 21, Sept. 2019
Posts: 8,743
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I'd say that the info you have is probably reasonable for your circumstances.
If the battery is already down a bit, and there's very little sun for relatively small output panels not too much is going to happen charging wise.
12.3 in those circumstances at the end of the day seems reasonable. There's probably no need to disconnect the solar panels though. Most have a blocking diode that prevents them from draining the battery.
Hang on, sunny weather's coming.
Ron
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06-03-2016, 01:17 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Trailer: 1979 Boler B1700
Posts: 14,935
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gbaglo
Day was all clouds and overcast with a brief 30 second sun beam. Checking my Innova volt meter from time to time, I got readings of 12.41 to (once ) 12.81 (I think that's when the sunbeam hit the panels ) and back down to 12.4.
Imagine my surprise then, when the darkness fell and the Innova read 12.30. The monitor in the trailer faintly flickers green or good.
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Why were you surprised? The voltage while charging will always be higher than the voltage after you turn off the charger (with a switch, or a sunset). If the solar charger was turned off (or lost sun) after a whole day of charging without using power and the batteries were "empty", then that would be surprising.
The Innova volt meter just has set voltage levels to determine which light is on. 12.3V is "good", because that's a sufficiently well-charged battery.
Instruments are good, if you know what the readings mean.
As flying students, we were always told to "keep our heads out of the cockpit", meaning to pay attention to the outside world and the aircraft's situation, rather than just watching the dials... although you do need to keep track of the information from the instrumentation. To make sense, voltages need context, such as baglo's notes about the solar condition.
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06-03-2016, 03:02 AM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: South Lake Tahoe, California
Trailer: 2017 Escape 17B
Posts: 253
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12.3 volts is somewhere around a 50% to 60% state of charge depending on what kind of batteries you have. Wet-cell deep-cycle batteries can withstand repeated discharge to 20% without damage, but it's better to go no less than 40% for longest life. I don't like to go below 12.2 v.
Your daytime measured voltages with solar panels hooked up will vary with sunlight of course. Those low voltages would indicate cloudy conditions which will barely raise the voltage but would only be a slight trickle charge . With my previous RV and 100W solar, it would charge at 13.X v + pretty efficiently.
Any load on the batteries will lower the measured voltages unless it is being charged, so you don't really know what the % charged state of the battery is unless you disconnect it from all load and solar panels and hook a meter up to it.
Yes, there are a lot of factors to consider, but you get used to it and learn to estimate your battery condition based on available info pretty easily after a while.
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06-03-2016, 06:47 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Southwick, Massachusetts
Trailer: None, sold my 2014 5.0TA
Posts: 7,124
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From what I've seen any electrical load temporarily drops the voltage level. If you want the real voltage of the batteries, turn everything off.
This is the chart I've always used, from "the 12 volt side of life" site.
__________________
Happy Motoring
Bob
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06-03-2016, 08:12 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Galesville, Wisconsin
Trailer: 2017 21 "Blue II" & 2017 Highlander XLE (previously 2010 17B "Blue" & 2008 Tacoma)
Posts: 4,232
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There's also always that "rest" problem with batteries. Immediately after charging, the surface charge will cause voltage to show up higher than it really is, and immediately after any drain it will show up lower than it is until it has had a chance to recover. Combined, they sure make it hard to precisely know the actual charge left in the battery at an exact time.
__________________
Eric (and Mary who is in no way responsible for anything stupid I post)
"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." George Bernard Shaw
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06-03-2016, 08:36 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: ..., New Mexico
Trailer: 2013 Esc19/'14 Silvrado
Posts: 4,193
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I think you should turn the heat back on.
__________________
Myron
"A billion here, a billion there...add it all up and before you know it you're talking real money." Everett Dirkson
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06-03-2016, 10:10 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia
Trailer: 2009 Escape 17B 2020 Toyota Highlander XLE
Posts: 17,136
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Thanks all.
Had a three pound sleeping back zipped to a two pound with a five pound on top and a woman on the side, so not cold at all.
Heat is back on this morning and sun is out.
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
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06-03-2016, 10:27 AM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Ponoka, Alberta
Trailer: 2016 19 classic "outta sight", jeep rubicon unlimited
Posts: 1,645
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Hope you can find your way out.....
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06-03-2016, 02:29 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Trailer: 1979 Boler B1700
Posts: 14,935
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gbaglo
Had a three pound sleeping back zipped to a two pound with a five pound on top and a woman on the side, so not cold at all.
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I think the battery charge thing is an excuse to turn off the furnace...
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