Solar Panels

[Dave Wickham]

Hello all. I have a query and I know Welsh Gas will probably know the answer - he knows most things about Cali's. I recently had a single 100 Watt solar panel fitted by Roger Donahue (very good job) to my T6 Ocean. He also fitted an Epever MPPT charger. When off grid in nice sunshine the charger does not show the same voltage or amps as the Cali control unit. Its not hugely different but the charger may show 13.3V and the control unit 12.8V. The icon indicating battery health shows 5 horizontal bars, so I assume 5 shown means 100%, 4 bars 80% etc. But on the Cali control unit the battery may show 60, 70, 80%.....
I seem to remember being told (before the solar was fitted) that you should not allow the leisure batteries to drop below 50% and so ever since I have had the van I have plugged into mains at home for 36 hrs at least every 4 weeks when the van is not being used. Roger told me not to worry too much about the cali display as the Epever is 'telling the truth'. So having the solar panel should mean I need never plug into mains when not in use to keep the leisure batteries 'healthy'. Any guidance on this query very appreciated.

 

[wildslammer22]

Hello all. I have a query and I know Welsh Gas will probably know the answer - he knows most things about Cali's. I recently had a single 100 Watt solar panel fitted by Roger Donahue (very good job) to my T6 Ocean. He also fitted an Epever MPPT charger. When off grid in nice sunshine the charger does not show the same voltage or amps as the Cali control unit. Its not hugely different but the charger may show 13.3V and the control unit 12.8V. The icon indicating battery health shows 5 horizontal bars, so I assume 5 shown means 100%, 4 bars 80% etc. But on the Cali control unit the battery may show 60, 70, 80%.....
I seem to remember being told (before the solar was fitted) that you should not allow the leisure batteries to drop below 50% and so ever since I have had the van I have plugged into mains at home for 36 hrs at least every 4 weeks when the van is not being used. Roger told me not to worry too much about the cali display as the Epever is 'telling the truth'. So having the solar panel should mean I need never plug into mains when not in use to keep the leisure batteries 'healthy'. Any guidance on this query very appreciated.

Anything over 12.8v is effectively fully charged so the differences between the two reading you are getting isn’t a problem. I think the key metric is to not let the AGM battery voltage drop below 12.1v, 12.2v ideally to maintain battery health. Solar will probably enough to keep them healthy in the summer, you should probably be more vigilant in the winter especially if not using the van regularly.

 

[Dave Wickham]

Anything over 12.8v is effectively fully charged so the differences between the two reading you are getting isn’t a problem. I think the key metric is to not let the AGM battery voltage drop below 12.1v, 12.2v ideally to maintain battery health. Solar will probably enough to keep them healthy in the summer, you should probably be more vigilant in the winter especially if not using the van regularly.

Thanks for your advice.