My 2008 SMB Ford E350 V10 van has one Kyocera KC130GT 130W solar panel, a Blue Sky Power Boost 2000e solar power controller, a Surepower 1315-200 battery separator, and two Lifeline GPL-27T 100Ahr AGM house batteries. The van starter battery is pretty much kaput.
I am currently in the process of upgrading the system and have just finished reading this thread all the way through.
Excellent thread! Thanks especially to Greg and Dave for all their knowledgeable insights and to others who have shed light on this area which, up until now, was fuzzy to me. I also read Greg's newer updated thread with the same title, but that one seems to have drifted/expanded off into "Lithium chemistry land," so I will post my questions here.
The Blue Sky 2000i solar power controller has gone bad, (intermittent connection at the terminal block,) which resulted in the deadening of the main van battery and weakening of the house batteries (all three of which were replaced 18 months ago.) I have ordered a new drop-in replacement solar controller, the Blue Sky Solar Boost 3000i.
In the meantime, I pulled the 2000e panel from the wall and have it positioned so that the charging circuit is active (the wires have to be pulling on the terminal block just-so to make the proper contacts.) After three days of solar charging under clear blue skies, the two house batteries are now fully charged and are holding 12.8V (measured in the morning.) Yesterday, I removed the bench seat and started poking around all of the electronics that are mounted in there.
I located the Surepower 1315-200 separator and discovered that it was quite HOT, (measured 180°F using a laser temp gun.) I'm guessing that with 13.8V coming from the 2000e on the house side and 0V coming from the van side, (the van battery is disconnected,) the 1315 has decided to activate the solenoid. From this, I assume that the 1315 does NOT have a low voltage disconnect logic state like the 7622 has. I've read that the 1315 draws 1.5A when activated, so 1.5 X 13.8 ~= 21 Watts of heat is being dissipated (and wasted) by the 1315. That's a lot and having a 20 watt heater under the seat in the summer, (yesterday it was 103°F outside,) is not good practice!
My current plan is to ditch the separator and replace it with a simple, rarely, if ever used, "Emergency Jump Start" switch, (i.e. option #1 in Greg's first post on this thread.) Both systems would normally remain isolated, and the van starter battery would be maintained by the "Auxiliary 2A Charge Circuit" feature of the new Blue Sky 3000i controller. This Aux charger circuit kicks in once the main house batteries are charged and the controller drops out of bulk charge mode and has some excess power available. The 3000i will also display the voltage of the van starter AUX battery.
But I *do* like gadgets and I really like the design of the Blue Sea 7622 and would like an excuse to install one of those. So, long story long, here is my first question...
Q:
Does the Blue Sea 7620/7622 ever get warm/hot?
I'm guessing not since it only draws significant current while it briefly switches ON or OFF.
Thanks again for this great thread! I've learned a LOT!
Jeff Roberson
Central Utah
Additional: Regarding usage, the van has few 12V house loads, the largest being a refrigerator. The single solar panel can provide all the necessary power when camping in the boonies. It also has 110VAC hookup and InteliPower 9100 charger, but this has never been used. Sadly, the van mostly just sits outside all the time (and gets plenty of sunshine.) I am planning on selling this once I bring it back to 100% (there are some other non-electrical issues that need to be addressed.)
And finally, in the words of Blaise Pascal:
"I apologize for the long post, I didn't have time to make it shorter!"