Abacist
LIFE MEMBER
I am fed up waiting for a buyer for my van so have withdrawn it from sale and will let the current adverts just expire. Having just put a new battery bank, B2B charger and inverter in it I want to enjoy some of the improvements and our month's holiday in Europe had to be cancelled because my wife had a health problem which stopped us going so I am champing at the bit to get away when she gets the all fit again advice. In the meantime having decided not to sell I have decided to add more solar to our van so have 3 100 watt panels coming from Germany and one will feed the original habitation batteries along with its own controller and the other 2 will feed my new battery bank with their own controller, both being Techno's controller of choice, so hopefully these will keep both banks topped up when we are stationery on an aire or stellplatz. The 50 amp B2B will keep the new bank topped up when driving.
I am now thinking that it might be a good idea to have a way of connecting the new battery bank to the old battery bank and have been wondering how to achieve this so that the original battery bank can benefit from the B2B or some of the energy stored in the bigger new battery bank. Techno uses a Sterling Battery maintainer to transfer 3 amps in this way but for me 3 amps is not sufficient as the original bank is 250 amp hours whereas the new one is 360 amp hours but also with better charging facilities.
I see that Sterling advocate a latch relay in such circumstances which would cost about £100. The latch relay is used to prevent the 0.5 amp drain of a standard relay as a magnet holds the latch in place. This relay is used when there is both solar and another charging source and is rated at 80 amps as it needs to be bigger than the charging source. It evidently can be set up in one of four ways but I would use it in one way only and it evidently opens up when he charge exceeds 13+ amps and switches off at less than 13 amps.
Has anyone else used this sort of relay which I think is also known as a split charge relay or is there a better product from a different supplier.
My van is an Auto Trail Savannah 2010 with pretty standard electrics other than the new battery bank, B2B charger and inverter which is currently separate from the original Sargent set up, 2 125 amp hour batteries, single solar panel, charger and mains hookup.
I am now thinking that it might be a good idea to have a way of connecting the new battery bank to the old battery bank and have been wondering how to achieve this so that the original battery bank can benefit from the B2B or some of the energy stored in the bigger new battery bank. Techno uses a Sterling Battery maintainer to transfer 3 amps in this way but for me 3 amps is not sufficient as the original bank is 250 amp hours whereas the new one is 360 amp hours but also with better charging facilities.
I see that Sterling advocate a latch relay in such circumstances which would cost about £100. The latch relay is used to prevent the 0.5 amp drain of a standard relay as a magnet holds the latch in place. This relay is used when there is both solar and another charging source and is rated at 80 amps as it needs to be bigger than the charging source. It evidently can be set up in one of four ways but I would use it in one way only and it evidently opens up when he charge exceeds 13+ amps and switches off at less than 13 amps.
Has anyone else used this sort of relay which I think is also known as a split charge relay or is there a better product from a different supplier.
My van is an Auto Trail Savannah 2010 with pretty standard electrics other than the new battery bank, B2B charger and inverter which is currently separate from the original Sargent set up, 2 125 amp hour batteries, single solar panel, charger and mains hookup.