Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 09:49
Ambiguous and non sensicle. (An alternator "driving" a solar regulator??!! Do they mean "common connection" or is there something I am not understanding?)
Collyn Rivers and similar seem to restate normal practice - the regulator (like an alternator) must sense the battery voltage - not some point in between....
Nevertheless, as I wrote above, any voltage drop between the regulator and the battery means the battery is being undercharged (whether relative to available power/voltage, its nominal 14.4V charge voltage, or nominal 13.8V float voltage).
I'm not sure where they get their "less float voltage" for AGM batteries - they are still lead-acid so the normal 14.4V & 13.8V targets/limits apply.
Whilst AGMs may do ok with a lower float voltage (less risk of sulfation), why reduce it from the norm? (Temperature compensation is a different issue, but since our solar regulators rarely have a specific Sense input, they are unlikely to provide remote temperature sensing. Or has that changed?)
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