Solar power

[Fab&Mon]

Hi all, I was just wondering if someone can help with this. I have 2 solar panels which equals to 180 watts , in the camper I have 2 x 100h batteries, yesterday being a nice sunny day here in Sydney
I decided to plug the panels to the batteries via the Anderson plug installed in the camper . So my question is the electrical display in the camper showed 13.2 v. After plugging the panels at 11 am and disconnecting them at around 3 pm the display only showed 13.7v without anything being used in the camper during this time , that to me does not seem like a lot of charge for 4 hrs of sun , and whats it mean by 13.7 v instead of say 60% or 85% .(confused )

Thanks Fab&Mon

[jw2170]

Not an expert, but it seems that your battery is fully charged at 13.7V.

The panels, if you have a controller fitted, will not try and 'push' more into the battery.

What you may need is a Watt meter to show how much has been fed into the battery during that period.

Rob has a great post on the Watts Up....I will see if I can find it....or Rob will....

http://www.campertrailers.org/watts_up_meter.htm

[Fab&Mon]

Hi Jim and Maree;
Thanks for the reply , that was my thinking but then I remembered when I picked up the trailer they said the batteries were full
and the panel showed (16.something ) I will have a look at the link you sent .
Thank you again
Fab&Mon

[robcaz]

Fab&Mon,

Your battery is full starting with 13.2 volts at rest before you plugged the solar in. When you checked the voltage at the end of the day 13.7 it would still show the surface charge. You need to let the battery settle for at least two hours & then it will show the 13.2 volts again.

The best way to check the batteries state of charge is with a battery monitor http://www.campertrailers.org/enerdrive_elite.htm

[Fab&Mon]

Hi robcaz;
Thank you I think that's the way to go , even I can understand that