testing the house AGM -- who can do it? (Central TX)

[daveb]

Originally Posted by GreyDawg

Morning update:

Both readings (12V outlet in van dashboard, and 12V outlet on the AGM battery) have dropped to 12.5V. The solar panel has been covered for about 18 hours.

Is it weird for the two batteries to be dropping in sync? (The van battery is about 1 year old, very heavy duty.)

I'll talk with Jim @ Lifeline later today. The new solar system from AM Solar has the ability to equalize batteries, so that might be worth a try on a sunny day as a the next step.

Thanks,
Meredith

It's possible the separator is stuck closed but I doubt it. If you pull the ground on the separator, start the engine and then check voltgae like before, you should see the starting battery voltage jump to 14+ with the house staying at 12.5v. Starting batteries hold different resting voltages many times. Depends on the type battery. One thing about equalizing, you shouldn't let the solar do it unless you open the tie between the start and house system (unless the starting battery needs to be equalized). What I find strange is I also called Lifeline and talked with their tech section and they warned me NOT to equalize their 4-D battery. It could be he thought I meant to do it constantly or more often than they suggest...don't know. Now that you truely know where you stand you might want to call Concorde and ask again. Your battery isn't shot left so depending whether or not you're satisfied with the prefornance might factor in if you should try it or not.

Good luck.

[GreyDawg]

Hi --

A couple of folks have PM'd me that they are following this thread, so I'll continue.

First, data: the van and house batteries continue to sit at 12.5V with the solar covered. I'll check again in 24 hours.

Now a tangent (is it possible to hijack one's own thread?):

I just read the very helpful "Battery Isolators,Separators, and Switches?" thread started by Scalf77 http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/vie...hp?f=14&t=8842. About halfway down I found the following from Rockbender

As a sidenote, I'll add my two cents on something to think about if considering / deciding between the Surepower 1314 and 1315 (uni-directional vs. omnidirectional):

If you have a SP1315 and solar setup, the unit will detect the increase in voltage from your solar panels and connect the house and van batteries. This is a problem for two reasons:
1. While your solar panels are putting out 3-8 amps (depending on panel size, sun exposure, etc), you are using 1.5A of that power to close the solenoid on the separator!
2. While the separator is closed (due to detection of increased voltage from the solar panels), your van batteries and house batteries are trying to equalize with each other effectively draining your van battery.

If a SP1314 is used, you could manually connect the van and house batteries when you wanted to (ie when plugged in to shore power) by wiring in a switch for the 'jump start' mode.

SMB-TX installed a SP1315 in 2009, and now I've added a solar setup. Does this mean that I should consider replacing the SP1315?

At first I thought the SP1315 might explain why the van battery and the house battery are dropping in sync, but in this experiment the solar panel is covered -- and if I read the above correctly, the SP1315 will only close the separator when the solar is working, right?

And, does this mean that when the solar is uncovered and working, I will always see on the solar battery monitor a draw of -1.5A even when nothing is running on the 12V system? Or will this only be the case when the solar setup is generating more than some minimum amount (like 3A?)

Still trying to understand this all....

Cheers,
Meredith

[Scalf77]

With the 1315, when you have enough output from solar to keep the battery above (13.4) it will turn on and will be drawing current to keep continuous duty solenoid closed.

It is also possible that the batteries staying in sync are a byproduct of the separator. First, it depends on where you are reading the voltage and what drop you may have between measured point and what is actually being seen at the separator input. Secondly, I have seen various values for the disconnect voltage, anywhere between 12.5 to 12.8 with a % of tolerance. Pulling the ground (to the surepower 1315) would ensure that it was not connected.


-greg

[GreyDawg]

Thanks. I crawled under the van today to look at the separator and to locate the ground. It turns out that there is an easily accessed 10A fuse a nifty little rubber case on the separator wiring, so if I pull that, will that have the same effect as unscrewing the ground wire (which is in an awkward place)?

Sorry to be so naive -- and thanks so much for the help!

--Meredith

[Scalf77]

Yes, that will work just fine.

-greg