recharging to 100%

[gettinthere]

RC

My revamped battery system is working quite well, thank you!

I haven't, until recently, been sitting off grid at all. Either motoring or at a dock regularly for a full topping up of the battery bank.

But for the last 2 months I've been on a mooring. Solar and wind plus an occasional run of the engine have kept the system at 85 to 95 SOC and voltage is 14.7 on sunny afternoons to 12.6 and usually above 12.8 at night. Occasionally with hi loads it drops to 12.5 but I rectify that ASAP.

I have not been up to 100% in 2 months. How hard is this on the batteries and is my only recourse a trip to the marina for a night or 8 hours of motoring?

Thnx!

Ed

 

[Maine Sail]

RC

My revamped battery system is working quite well, thank you!

I haven't, until recently, been sitting off grid at all. Either motoring or at a dock regularly for a full topping up of the battery bank.

But for the last 2 months I've been on a mooring. Solar and wind plus an occasional run of the engine have kept the system at 85 to 95 SOC and voltage is 14.7 on sunny afternoons to 12.6 and usually above 12.8 at night. Occasionally with hi loads it drops to 12.5 but I rectify that ASAP.

I have not been up to 100% in 2 months. How hard is this on the batteries and is my only recourse a trip to the marina for a night or 8 hours of motoring?

Thnx!

Ed

If you've not done it already, and I think we discussed it, extend your solar absorption time to 4+ hour or all day when off the dock. If your Blue Sky's won't allow for it bump your float to 14.4V to 14.6V...

It should go without saying but if you are not getting to full for two months at a time battery life will be impacted. At teh very least you'll want to increase your EQ schedule..

In advanced programming what is your Balmar reg set for in terms of b1c and a1c?

 

[gettinthere]

I did adjust both controllers to max levels of charge. On a good day the victron claims I'm high 90s.

I'm off the boat now but I did set the Balmar to your recommendations a while back. So with extended motoring I get topped up well. But I'm not motoring now. When I run the engine at hi idle I get 50 to 70 amps for about an hour if I'm under 90%.

So at some point I need to take a motorboat trip.

 

[Maine Sail]

I did adjust both controllers to max levels of charge. On a good day the victron claims I'm high 90s.

Watch voltage and tail current and ignore SOC on the Victron...

Voltage at 14.7V - Check
*Current at less than 1% of Ah capacity - Check

Note: 0.5% is even better than 1% eg: 0.5A at 14.7V for a 100Ah battery = Full

If you use this method you're about as full as you'll get without being tied to the dock. Now reset your Ah counter to 100% SOC every time you're meeting these parameters and your Ah counter will stay much more accurate..

*Be sure your solar can provide more than is being accepted when taking this reading......

 

[gettinthere]

Right...been following that advice.
If I keep at the 80 to 95 percent, how often should I force a full charge?

 

[gettinthere]

Update...1130, full sun. I number is 7.5 into our 750 ah bank. Voltage is 14.77. SOC reads 92.

Ran the engine this morning to put about 50 amps in but the big bonus was running the engine drive refer so we will have no draw from the refer for about 8 hours, leaving the solar to pump up the batteries.

 

[Maine Sail]

Update...1130, full sun. I number is 7.5 into our 750 ah bank. Voltage is 14.77. SOC reads 92.

Ran the engine this morning to put about 50 amps in but the big bonus was running the engine drive refer so we will have no draw from the refer for about 8 hours, leaving the solar to pump up the batteries.

If your solar current is only 7.5A (assuming it can actually do 10A+ if the batteries could take it) at 14.8V your bank is essentially full. Your Ah counter is OFF and out of whack........ You're at 1% acceptance at 14.8V and that my friend is about as FULL as batteries get when cruising.... Bulk early then solar = good!

 

[gettinthere]

YES, I can hit 20 amps in bulk, and that day the load got down to about 4 amps by around 3pm.

I checked specific gravity and all cells are 1275 to around 1285.

My main question is how often do I need to get motoring or plug in for extended charging to make sure I achieve 100% if most of the time I am cycling from 80% to 95% SOC?

 

[NICK1951]

Just a thought, running engine in am when optional, may prematurely set solar to float due to surface charge. I run engine at night before bed time for optimum performace.

Nick