- Thread starter winchman
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Barking Mat
Cuddler of hedgehogs.
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How cold is it at night ?
Any current draw on the battery ?
Any current draw on the battery ?
winchman
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It was about 8 degrees last night no current draw at all when parked as everything connected to it is off
Barking Mat
Cuddler of hedgehogs.
- Messages
- 13,487
- Location
- France, Brittany.
Batteries are crapper when it's cold, could explain it ? And obviously don't solar charge overnight.
How olds the battery ?
That's all I can think of.
How olds the battery ?
That's all I can think of.
winchman
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Battery is 18 months old
Barking Mat
Cuddler of hedgehogs.
- Messages
- 13,487
- Location
- France, Brittany.
Have you put an ampimetric clamp on the cables, to make sure there's no draw on the battery ?
Failing that, I really don't know.
GG1
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If there's no draw coming from the load side, perhaps there is a problem (eg faulty diode) in the controller and the panel is drawing power at night.
If you don't have the kit handy to test the current just disconnect the panel and see if battery drops overnight.
If you don't have the kit handy to test the current just disconnect the panel and see if battery drops overnight.
What's the battery voltage first thing in the morning? The voltage will have dropped quite a bit from being at the "fully charged" voltage of 13.8-14.2V, and more likely to be around the 12.5-12.8V mark. It will still be fully charged, but the controller's capacity calculation will use this lower voltage as its basis. The charge state value should rise rapidly, once the sun gets on the panel. A better way to get a real measure the charge state, would be to measure Ahr in and Ahr out (Amp hours, that is) and resetting the figure every time the battery reaches 100%, or to measure the battery voltage after putting in a net charging current, limited to about 1-2 A (depending on battery capacity), for maybe 10 minutes, or so.
in the early days of single 20W panels and leisure batteries, in remote places where we needed 12V supply we would have no controller (they were all rubbish then), just a shottky diode in series with the panel. Lasted a lot longer than ones with controllers on.
Funniest story, up near Carmarthen golf club, 1st tee, is a reservoir, needing one such supply. The guy I worked with then(30 plus yrs ago) decided one of those newfangled furlomatic wind turbines was the answer, allong with charge controller etc. It worked fine for a year or so, then one day nothing. So up we went to have a look - the turbine was howling round in the considerable wind - I mean frightening speed. Anyway, workmate said "we'll just have to lower is down" . Now his heath robinson idea of a mast was not my idea of engineering - "on your own mate" And I was off.
Next time we went up te blades were off, it was dead, or rather it was after he'd attempted a bearing and blade change..
Funniest story, up near Carmarthen golf club, 1st tee, is a reservoir, needing one such supply. The guy I worked with then(30 plus yrs ago) decided one of those newfangled furlomatic wind turbines was the answer, allong with charge controller etc. It worked fine for a year or so, then one day nothing. So up we went to have a look - the turbine was howling round in the considerable wind - I mean frightening speed. Anyway, workmate said "we'll just have to lower is down" . Now his heath robinson idea of a mast was not my idea of engineering - "on your own mate" And I was off.
Next time we went up te blades were off, it was dead, or rather it was after he'd attempted a bearing and blade change..
winchman
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I will try to get some figures this week
