I am starting to really dislike my camper solar

Stayed in ABQ plugged in at Bosque Bill's house til yesterday morning. Drove a couplea hours and camped around 3pm north of Taos.

7:30pm Victron reading: 90% full
12.54v
-5.1a
-64w

This morning 7am-ish (forgot to write down exact time, but it was light out :) )
92% full
12.64v
-0.2a
-2w

8:08am:
12.93v
1.3a
17w

9:32am: 100%
13.3v
4.1a
55w

Camped on a canyon rim (not right on it!) With no shade on solar panel.
I'm gonna stay here for a couplea days, without turning on truck, and keep monitoring and see how it goes

Oh, fridge currently at 40F front and back, set at level 5
 
That's great area to camp Dawn! We spend a fair amount of time in spring and early summer in Santa Fe. We do short camping trips up into northern NM and southern CO.

Still not sure why you have to set your fridge setting to 5. Just seems like a very high setting compared to what we need using the same fridge. Our internal temp varies between 35-38F.

Good that you can now accurately track your stored energy. Strongly consider shutting down the electrical system at 50%. Unless you absolutely need the energy. Doing so will preserve and enhance battery life.
 
Sounds like you charged 8% in 2.5 hours or so. That's awesome! The panels will easily keep up with the fridge & fan during the day in this case.

Advmoto's advice is good too, but you should rarely get that low now.
 
I had thr fridge at 4.5, but it was creeping up into the mid 40s, so I moved it to setting 5. Now 12:20 and fridge reads 37 in back, 41 in door.

Victron reads now:
100% still
13.82v
3.5a
49w
 
Oh yah, I know that about battery care, especially the deep cell ones! I do appreciate the reminder tho! Y'all are awesome. I love this forum.
 
As mentioned way back in the posting, I have my 130 liter model set at 5.5 that gets me around 35 degrees.

Looks like amps are going into the battery with the solar. Enjoy your travels.
 
Not the exact numbers I'd want to see but its sure an improvement. Actually it looks like those numbers are with the fridge running. Pretty close then. I assume without the fridge running you'd see about 14.3?
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]Damn..I love you folks but all this obsession with measurements is frying my brain...either you have enough electricity to run what you want to run or you do not....do you run out of power or do you not....are your devices working or are they not...fix what is broken and don't worry about the rest...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]A friend calls this "like looking for fly specks in pepper".... the equation is simple if input exceeds output you are in tall clover; if you use more than you have you run out...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Glad Dawn found out that her truck was not contributing to the charging of the camper battery and my understanding is that the 'separator' has two functions..allow amps from truck alternator to charge battery when motor is running and to stop the flow of current from the truck battery to the camper batteries when the motor is not running..starting the truck is always #1. I would not count on the truck for the primary charging of the batteries; backup only.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]OK...I admit that my sensibilities are those of a luddite ..I believe in preventative maintenance and preparedness but try my damnest to not get bogged down in minutia while worrying everything into place and constantly “monitoring” and evaluating meters on a camping expedition for me detracts from the experience…dumb me gets along fine on the idiot lights.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]Definitely not espousing this approach or mindset for anyone else…so for those techies that dig detailing the flow of current and predicting the end game, go for it and enjoy! I am just an old fart that is still analog…if that! :D[/SIZE]


Stay safe and I could be wrong.....

Phil
 
Ha! Hi Phil! Normally I'm not the type to pay this kind of focus on details and normally am more of the "its either working or not" kinda person. But my goal right now is to make sure I can boondock for days without power issues so I'm checking every while to see how my numbers are. Once I do this for a few days boondocking now, I'll be done and will be content that everything is doing it's job properly. :)

On that note 5:30pm
100%
12.74v
Current: -2.3a
Power: -29w

Hoping this isnt just happy batteries cuz of just being plugged in yesterday. I had this same false sense of "yay working!" when I got these new batteries in Montana....
 
Hope you see this tonight, might even give you an amp or two. Our camper is mad at us for having to enjoy the moon from the driveway.
IMG_1452.JPG
 
I understand Phil. We probably have more than our share of techies on this board. I certainly lean that way myself.

Now I also thought it was pretty simple. Did the math, my 100w panel should supply the current necessary to maintain my battery. It didn't. I listened to all the people suffering through the same things (remember, solar is relatively new for our campers, when fwc finally came out with a system I think it was over $900 for what we now consider an inadequate system). You don't have to have a battery monitor once your system is setup properly. But stuff happens. Trying to diagnose whats going on with just a volt meter is an exercise in frustration. Wires break, fuses blow, components fail even on a good system.

One thing I"ve learned is overbuild. One panel might be okay under perfect conditions. Two lets you get away with conditions we actually experience. Same with batteries. 75ah may be plenty when your'e recharging every day, when its cloudy, shady etc, and all the other stuff that happens its better to just double that amount. Too many amp hours? No such thing. Worst thing is it hits you in the pocket book.

The battery monitor lets you know whats normal. I see 100% S.O.C. I know everything is hunky dory. 95% means its sat overnight. 85% means I had to run the heater a lot. Anything else and I need to investigate.

I wish it were easier. I wish the battery people would say "use these settings on your victron, these settings on your trimetric etc. Thats not going to happen. It is a bit of work trying to figure out just what settings to use. I'm sure I'm not 100% perfect but when your batteries hold a good charge over a long period of time you must be close. Unfortunately default setting often aren't the right ones.

The IOTA with smart charger has a pretty good charge pattern but is not quite as dialed in as I can get on the trimetric. Good enough for occasional use though.

Okay enough rambling on about charging. I need to go out and replace my summer bag with my winter bag now. If nothing else works it will :)
 
Excellent review and thanks Craig....one point that still puzzles me is why folks are going to 6 volt batteries..I understand the 'golf cart' type batteries will 'take more abuse'....but will not two quality 12 volt AGM batteries be adequate? Also don't understand using only one battery; unless the camper has very limited electrical needs.

Again thanks for the summation and details...appreciated.

Phil
 
Wallowa said:
Excellent review and thanks Craig....one point that still puzzles me is why folks are going to 6 volt batteries..I understand the 'golf cart' type batteries will 'take more abuse'....but will not two quality 12 volt AGM batteries be adequate? Also don't understand using only one battery; unless the camper has very limited electrical needs.

Again thanks for the summation and details...appreciated.

Phil
Click to expand...
I too have learned a lot from the fine folks here who have taken their time to help those of us who need it.
However, in my case my mental SOC is still only about 20% so I still have a lot to learn ;-)

To answer you questions about battery type it is my understanding that the 6 volt golf cart batteries can take more abuse than the typical 12 volt AGM. This is what I currently have but due to misuse by me (inadvertently had the fridge set way too low while camping in the shade for a long time before I realized it) I am in the market for new batteries. Given what I have been able to learn and the fact that the battery compartment is not accessable unless the camper is off I am leaning to get one Battle Born Lithium battery and hopefully be done with it for the foreseeable future....
 
The Battle Born batts look pretty good.

Renogy has a sale on their LifePo4 and it's a good price but I think you need a LifePo4 charger for those including solar.... That would add to the cost as Battle Born is supposedly a drop in replacement.

I will be interested to see what you get as I am on the LifePo4 trail I think.....

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-12-volt-100ah/
 
If you are thinking of going LiFePo, you are moving towards more technical knowledge required, not less. Craig's point is right on though... once installed and working, the technical bits fade into the background.

The Victron controllers are LiFePo compatible. Battleborn sells them for their batteries
https://battlebornbatteries.com/product-category/lifepo4-solar-charge-controllers/

FYI, this is the manual for that BattleBorn batteries:
https://www.renogy.com/template/files/Manuals/RNG-LFP_Manual_V1.0.pdf

And the specific cells used are these:
http://liionbms.com/pdf/valence/IFR26650.pdf
 
I went through this LiFePo issue earlier this year and am happy with the results. I ended up with a Stark Power 100ah battery that has worked well so far. Even though it's only 100ah it's usable to 20% SOC so 80ah is available and it recharges faster. The thing I like best about this battery is the the battery management system has a Bluetooth connection that shows the SOC, voltage, current, cycles and cell balance.
 
Well, I'm starting to think that my system is doing what it did before- after I got off a nice respite of shore power it acted fab...for a number of days...then started slacking off again.

Today:
Morning before popping down:
91%
12.5v
-1.1a
-14w

After driving for abt 55 miles and popping up @ 2:10pm
100%
13.17v
-1.4a
-19w

6:14pm
99%
12.67v
-4.1a
-52w (!)

At this rate, I'll be around 12.1v in the morning. Boo.
 
Those numbers look great! Ignore the voltage number (the 13.17V is a surface charge) and look at the %, that is the whole reason for installing the battery monitor! In 4 hours this afternoon you used 1% of your battery capacity, which I assumes means you had at least some solar. The interesting number will be what % you are at in the morning.
 
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