Solar Power Battery Charger

[Paul and Judy]

I have a Hunter 33.5 and have installed a Solar Charger to maintain the batteries (2) over the winter. The charger came with alagator clips to attach directly to the battery or there is a 12V cigarette lighter style adaptor.

I have elected to use the 12V cig adaptor as there is an outlet near the batteries in the lazerette. I set the battery selector switch to "Both" and plugged in the cig adaptor.

When I later had a look at the control panel at the nav station the red LED light for 12v recepticles was on but the toggle switch was in the off position, when I flicked the toggle switch to the on position the LED remained on also. I set it bact to the off position and the light stayed on. No other switches are on, not even the main 12V DC switch at the top of the panel.

Is the system charging?? Can anyone explain why the light is on ??

Thank you in advance for your comments to this request.
Paul Cyre
s/v The Four C's

 

[Schatzi]

The LED is on because you are back-feeding voltage to the breaker which has the hot lead for the LED attached to it as well as other 12v items normally attached to the breaker. No problem here.
Now the question to if you are charging... If the main breaker is off and/or the 12v breaker (one with lit LED) is off, I would guess and say no. Take the leads off the battery and see if you have voltage at the wires (on a sunny day). Probably only a couple of amps. Check it with the breakers on and off. I think this will answer your question. My guess is that it will work with your breaker on, main breaker on, and battery switch switched to both. The Mfg should be able to provide more assistance.

 

[Bill Roosa]

No charge

Dito what Schatzi said
The solar panel is energising the LED but the breakers are stopping the flow of current to the batteries. You would have to have both the 12 outlets breaker and the DC main breaker ON and the battery 3-way switch set to both to maintain both battery banks.

 

[Paul and Judy]

Thank you for the information. I will check this out as you have suggested and report back. I will not be back to the vessel for at least a month. Hopefully this will not be a problem.
Regards
Paul Cyre

 

[Paul and Judy]

In thinking about the response from Schatzi - i have this question. Once the leads are removed from the battery, would it be acceptable to jump a wire across the leads to see if the LED lights up from the 5 watt solar panel ? or are we checking for amperage ? Regards
Paul Cyre

 

[JoeWhite]

If the question is - " is the solar panel charching the batteries?" - here is how to check this. First without the solar panel connected and using a digital volt meter measure across the batteries and see what the exact voltage is. Then plug in the charger. If the voltage increases - then it is charging.