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
Quote:
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.
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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