Deep Cycle Battery Charging
Submitted: Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 11:33
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CAS471
Hi, can anyone please help. I have just purchased a second hand Jayco camper which included a 100amp/hr deep cycle battery (near new) and a 13 watt portable solar penal charger (believe from Kmart). I already have a 850w generator (from Aldi) which has a build in 8amp 12v battery charger. So the question is if I use 20amp of power from the battery each night and I connect the solar penal each day getting around 5amp of charge, how long should I need to run the generator for to top up the battery. Should I run the genny first thing for a hour or so then correct the solar panel?
Reply By: Redback - Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 11:50
Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 11:50
Depends on what your running off the battery.
Also no way you'll get 5amps of charge from a 13watt solar panel, 0.8amp would be the max i reckon.
(I have a 20watt panel)
If your only running lights and the water pump in the camper, then, the solar panel should keep the battery topped up, ours does.
I'm assuming the Jayco has a 3 way in it, so no 12v fridge too run.
We have a 3 way in the camper and a 12v in the car.
Baz.
AnswerID:
296350
Follow Up By: CAS471 - Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 12:00
Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 12:00
Thanks Baz,
I'm new to this deep cycle battery thing (or any type). In general I only plan on running a 1 x 13w fluorescent and the 10w light in the camper x 2 hours nightly and a radio for the same time. I have a 60w TV I plan taking on long trips say 2 hr per night. The fridge is 3 way run on LPG. I would like to know how to work out the salor panel power supply if possible.
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Reply By: Robin Miller - Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 12:51
Thursday, Apr 03, 2008 at 12:51
Hi Caz
You should not charge from the generators 12v output except if really desperate because the rough nature of the output will cause harm to your battery over the long term unless carefully monitored.
If you wish to charge from Gennie then get a 240v charger and plug it into gennie.
The size of your battery would mean you should get one with an output of from 5 to 15amp (money limited) to properly top
up your battery in an hour or two.
Its better though to have a simple charge setup from the car battery, many supply these.
40w solar panels are probably the minimum you should have.
AnswerID:
296361
Reply By: Redback - Friday, Apr 04, 2008 at 08:50
Friday, Apr 04, 2008 at 08:50
Cas, this is my setup, it's simple, easy to use and setup and i don't have or need a generator.
I have a 75AH deepcycle battery in the camper, that is charged via the car when moving, through an Anderson plug that runs an Arrid smart charger connected to the battery.
I use my 20 watt panel during the day when camped to top up the camper battery, i have 3 lights in the camper and the water pump and a 3 way running on gas when camped, so not alot of power used, the lights only use 1AH max.
If it's overcast, i top up the camper battery using an inverter to run a 240 volt battery charger and run it overnight off the second battery in the car, (YOU MUST HAVE A DUAL BATTERY SYSTEM FOR THIS)this isn't the most efficant way to do it but it works and i go for a short drive in the morning to re-charge my second battery.
My system;
1 20Watt solar panel
1 300watt inverter
1 Arlec 8 amp 240 watt charger
SC40 Traxide Tronics dual battery controller & Fullriver 60AH deepcycle batt (in the car)
This works for us and has done for 4 years now, 2 years in our current vehicle, we can
camp in the one place for 9 days (longest we have camped at one place) so we could probably go for longer.
If like other you are running a 12v fridge in the camper then you will need a better system and probably the gennie would need to be there as a backup, the TV maybe the thing that uses the most power, but as we don't have one i can't tell you how much.
Hope this helps, try to keep it simple and you'll have no problems.
Baz.
Baz.
1 Arrid Smart charger & 75AH deepcycle battery (in the camper)
AnswerID:
296567
Follow Up By: CAS471 - Friday, Apr 04, 2008 at 09:06
Friday, Apr 04, 2008 at 09:06
Thanks Baz,
I'll sit down over the weekend and do some sums and ringing around.
CAS
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