Lately I had some trouble with our batteries. They won't keep the voltage for as long as they should. Despite that there is plenty of sunshine and the solar panels are in working order the meter showed an orange colour most of the time.
Something seemed to bee wrong here. It seemed that somewhere the voltage disappeared.
Good to have neighbours who can check on that. We topped the water on one. We deep-cycled the batch of 8 for some hours.
So, I went to the bonfire first, then used 12 Volt lights only for 2 hours reading and used no TV, no inverter, no internet.
Now, I am hooked back on to the new ones only and all things are working fine. All day green lights on the panel and still voltage in the green come morning. The fridge was working fine too.
I read somewhere that it is no good to have old and new batteries mixed, but I usually don't handle or talk about this matter. That's boys stuff.
Being on my own I just got nosy.
Well, I guess, I have bad news for "hubby".
When Peter returns he has to face that we need to replace those old batteries.
Glad you were able to solve what the problem was. Thanks for sharing how you figured it out. Wishing you a great week!
ReplyDeleteYou did the hard work in getting the correct diagnosis. So when Peter gets home, He can do the "fixing". Good team you two are.
ReplyDelete~Betty and Joe
joeandbetty.blogspot.com
Always nice helpful neighbors there at the Hot Springs, with everybody on solar power there is lots of knowledgeable people around. Now Peter can fix that problem when he returns.
ReplyDeleteIf you are using your solar system to charge the House batteries and the Coach batteries that is also part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteYour coach batteries don't need to be constantly charging because they are not designed for and should not be deep-cycling like the house batteries. Once they are replaced if you reconnect them the same way as before the problem occurred, they will charge easier and faster then the now older house batteries and will burnout before the older batteries.
If you wish to continue to trickle charge the coach batteries using solar, you would be wise to use a small low wattage panel connected only to those batteries. A seperate system by itself.
It's about time.
http://ricknkathyrousseau.blogspot.com/
Those 12 volt electrical issues are difficult to solve-great job:)
ReplyDeleteGreat job in finding the problem, Bea.
ReplyDelete