Leisure Battery Life In This Hot Weather ??

Screen shot from Victron app (partly cloudy day and 160W panel).

upload_2018-8-1_16-50-35-png.26278
 
we got this coming . . . .


https://uk.renogy.com/files/file-download/2017/11/20171115_125217_100w_suitcase_wadv30_manual.pdf


hopefully it will be a good start/entry level introduction into Solar.

yes its mobile and only 100W, but the idea is to use it mobile for camping and keep the beer fridge leisure batteries topped up.

Warm beer is never good at any time!




on a side note, its summer and very sunny so Solar is the hot topic . . . . .

But . . . .

whats it like in winter? ie low sun levels and short days?

totally useless or some help? does any of your setups work at all in autumn or winter?


The plan is to use it to top up these beer fridge batteries . . . .

35.jpg

which are currently charged up with this NOCO charger . . . .

36.jpg

Because it seems like the Euro6 smart alternator system just doesn't charge up the batteries properly....(leisure battery connected in parallel with the main starter battery with jump leads)>

with our old T5.1 all we done was connect a set of jump leads and let the old van run on tick over for half an hour . . . . . 13.8v and all was well.

It doesnt work like that with the T6, and also had the same thing with me dads Mazda SUV, he had the batteries connected together and run the car for 45mins . . . . . basically it put no charge back into the leisure battery. =[
 
Sweet,

whats you solar setup? so we can look into it. And a few pics maybe?

ie what wattage/panels?
what controller PWM/MPPT/Make?
where are the panels? mobile/fitted?
how are they cabled?
any ideas what power your generating on a nice sunny day like we have now?

looking into it a 100W decent panel with a decent MPPT controller should provide about 4Ah - 5Ah ish , , , , which would be be enough to power a small cooler/frisge.

so 200W/300W panel should provide 8-12Ah which should power the kit and have enough headroom to start recharging the battery bank too.


I've started this myself, i have the leisure batteries and a new Victron MPPT 75/115 controller, . . . . now just waiting for the Renology 100W solar suitcase (mobile unit) to arrive to start testing. (ill swap out the cheap PWM controller for the better Victron one)
Some pics and details in this thread - How've You Installed Your Solar Panel?we
 
Its finally arrived........

20180807_161911.jpg

the renology 100w suitcase . . . . .

20180807_164527.jpg

It comes with a fairly decent looking PWM charge controller. . . . . . .

20180807_164553.jpg

2x panels . . . . 100w total

20180807_164604.jpg



just had to plug it right into one of the leisure batteries for a test . . . .


Seems its generating 0.9A with the sun behind some clouds . . . . . and was at 1.7A just before with a small bit of sun.

Free Energy . . . . . =]

The start of my Solar adventure has begun . . . . .


Edit- Sun has gone in now so its a grey over cast day . . . . . . . But the charge controller is still showing battery charging at a rate of 0.3A.. so still generating power. only 300mA but thats better than nothing right.
 
Last edited:
During the recent spell of hot weather what sort of leisure battery life are people getting , I've a Dometic cx50 fridge set at medium and struggling to get more than a couple of days with using some lights at night and odd phone charge here and there , is this about right ? Battery is a Yuasa 115A

Ta for any thoughts/experience shared
Ant
Just come back from France and my son has converted a crafter with the same fridge and getting about the same amount of days as you. Plus with this heat the fridge did really struggle as it was 35, the butter was more like soft spread
 
Back
Top