Battery Charging with Solar Panel
Our new AS Broadway has a solar panel and Sargent charger with all the usual electronics. I have noticed that during daytime without mains the control panel shows the leisure battery at a higher voltage than the vehicle battery. I am wondering if it is set
to charge the leisure battery only and what to do when it is stored over winter. We will take it for a run every 4 - 6 weeks and it needs to start!
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Our new AS Broadway has a solar panel and Sargent charger with all the usual electronics. I have noticed that during daytime without mains the control panel shows the leisure battery at a higher voltage than the vehicle battery. I am wondering if it is set to charge the leisure battery only and what to do when it is stored over winter. We will take it for a run every 4 - 6 weeks and it needs to start!
Why do you want to store it. We use ours all the year round. It's really good out in the winter. We spent a week round Padstow in late November and South Coast in March. It really does not do them alot of good being stored.
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Our new AS Broadway has a solar panel and Sargent charger with all the usual electronics. I have noticed that during daytime without mains the control panel shows the leisure battery at a higher voltage than the vehicle battery. I am wondering if it is set
to charge the leisure battery only and what to do when it is stored over winter. We will take it for a run every 4 - 6 weeks and it needs to start!Why do you want to store it. We use ours all the year round. It's really good out in the winter. We spent a week round Padstow in late November and South Coast in March. It really does not do them alot of good being stored.
We are fair weather travellers and don't generally do UK. Hotels/cruises in the winter, motorhome in the summer but I do understand that it's a wasted asset. Basically Oct. to May it will be stored or on the drive nearly all the time.
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Ensure the EC480 panel is set to SMART. This favours the leisure batteries off EHU, but should charge the lowest voltage battery including the vehicle battery from the solar panels. Our Auto Trail vehicle battery was going flat after a couple of weeks in
the dark winter months and it turned out to be a dead leasure battery which the system was continuously trying to charge at the expence of the vehicle battery. That said, the Phantom Tracker does drain the vehicle battery when there is little sunlight, so
I still have to give the vehicle a good run every month December to February. Only other option is to isolate all the electrics, but this turns the tracker off. If I could keep the vehicle at home, plugging it into the mains EHU would be the best outcome.0 -
Thanks for the responses.
It will be stored for several months and no doubt the solar panel (80 watts) will have a much reduced output.
I think it's the EC500 but there are no controls on the unit, it's all done through the electronic panel by the door. There does seem to be a changeover option for leisure/vehicle battery but it is not clear which is which.
I can see the logic of charging the leisure battery first because it has a Thatcham alarm (no Tracker) which will consume battery.
Actually I checked this morning and for the first time both batteries were showing 13.7 volts which is fine. Usually the vehicle is 13.2 volts.
I will see how it goes in the winter but at the moment I am inclined to trust that the unit is set up correctly. So far (touch wood) my long snag list on the Auto-sleepers has turned out to be user error! Who would have thought that there is a power switch
at the back of the wardrobe where you can't see it! Impressed with the overall quality of the Motorhome.0 -
You have a good system and I would expect it to have come to you set in the default mode i.e. to charge the leisure battery first then the vehicle battery.
The EC500 was developed for use with an 80w SP which you have. Roughly if you have good sun and a low(ish) leisure battery you should expect to the charge to build up to about 14.7v. It will then drop back to about 13.8v and hold it there for a while then
drop to about 13.3v and begin charging the van battery. If you want details have a look at the information available to you on the sargent website: https://sargentltd.co.uk/tech-support . I'm sure you
batteries will be fine but I would still plug in if you can.Thaks. Helpful link.
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the Sargent 'manual' describes the user input to the ECU....
the charging regimes for 'solar' or 'ehu' can be varied...
when set to 'leisure' it will favour the hab battery over the cab one, and vice versa for the 'vehicle' setting.
similarly, there is an algorithm for the way the 'smart' setting works, which uses the levels of each battery to determine where to charge....hence, even on 'smart' you might see one battery with a higher voltage than the other...this could easily be the
reading from the panel as it services that particular battery.i think my current (non Sargent) van is set 80/20 towards leisure, but is also subject to other 'parameters' to stop the lesser charged battery going too low at the expense of the other.....ie, i dont want a flat cab battery, ever!
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