Battery Problems

[Jocko]

Hi.

I'm currently off grid and running my electric off solar. It's getting a good charge during the day in the beautiful Portuguese sunshine and showing 14 - 14.5 v whilst the sun is out by the end of the afternoon but as soon as the sun goes down the voltage drops and goes down to 12v by the end of the evening whilst only powering a few led lights. It repeats this everyday.

I think I know the answer but does this sound like a dud battery? I have no idea how old it is.

A very helpful neighbour is going to charge the battery for me and load test it in a couple of days so that should give me an answer but any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Also whilst on the subject, does anybody know where to buy a reliable leisure battery in Portugal, particularly in the algarve area.

Many thanks.

 

[berni109]

It does sound from what you have written that your battery has lost its ability to store the input from the solar controller.
The charge and load test will probably confirm this. Wait for that result.

 

[pappajohn]

Why five identical threads on five different forum sections?
It won't get any different info.

 

[Sundowners]

That's why I suggested putting them together

 

[Jocko]

Why five identical threads on five different forum sections?
It won't get any different info.

Hi pappajohn.

I thought that if I put the threads in different categories then I would get more people viewing it but maybe I was wrong.

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[Jocko]

That's why I suggested putting them together

How do you put them together?

 

[Jocko]

Hello everyone. Sorry I've not been in touch sooner. After our friendly neighbour load tested the battery, he said there was nothing wrong. But since then the battery still doesn't seem to be keeping the charge. I put it down to lack of sun or the sun being to low.

Yesterday I popped the bonnet to check all the levels before a long drive and noticed the engine battery is exactly the same as the leisure battery (apart from the engine battery is 80amp and the leisure 110amp) which makes me think that somebody has installed a regular starter battery rather than a leisure. Could this be the answer to my problems?

Apart from a battery stating its a leisure battery, is there any way of knowing if it's a leisure or starter battery?

 

[Jocko]

Here's a couple of pictures of the battery installed now.

 

[Jocko]

No mention of a leisure battery and looks identical to my starter battery

 

[ramsthom]

Because its charging to 14-14.5 volts does not necessarily mean its fully charged. That is the bulk charge. It needs to go to float charge of around 13.4 to 13.8 volts to fully charge the battery. Can you not charge it off EHU or an independent charger.

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[Jocko]

Because its charging to 14-14.5 volts does not necessarily mean its fully charged. That is the bulk charge. It needs to go to float charge of around 13.4 to 13.8 volts to fully charge the battery. Can you not charge it off EHU or an independent charger.

I've had It on hook up for 3 or 4 days at a time on 3 occasions and according to my dial inside the van its fully charged but as soon as I disconnect the ehu it goes down fairly quickly.

Another interesting thing is when I'm just charging on solar the dial goes upto 14.5v ish but as soon as the sun goes without using any electric it's creeps it's way down. It even reacts when clouds cover the sun the dial wobbles around which indicates to me that its not actually showing the charge level of the battery, more the charge rate coming from the solar.

Sorry if that's a lot of random information but it's all a bit new to me..
Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[paddymcc]

Sounds like the battery isn't holding charge so despite what your neighbour says I think that you need to get a new battery. It's worth getting an multimeter to measure the voltage of your batteries for the future. I don't think that the dial can be completely out but a multimeter would be able to confirm that the dial is accurate.

 

[peterc10]

You need a new battery. If you are relying all the time on solar you probably need to double up and have 2 leisure batteries.

 

[laurieash]

When I am in Portugal this time of year I can have the same problem.
I have a 120 on the roof but the sun is not high enough in the sky.
So I have a stand alone suitcase to help until about April.

 

[laurieash]

Two new 110 leasure also fitted.

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[mitzimad]

anything you see over 12.7 is charge going in either from ehu or solar a fully charged battery an hour after removing all charging will show 12.6/7 when you pit a load on it will drop its whether it recovers after the load is removed will tell you if the battery is dud

 

[Lenny HB]

Because its charging to 14-14.5 volts does not necessarily mean its fully charged. That is the bulk charge. It needs to go to float charge of around 13.4 to 13.8 volts to fully charge the battery. Can you not charge it off EHU or an independent charger.

Incorrect it only goes to a float/maintainance charge after the battery is fully charged.

 

[Tombola]

the biltema 8031101 looks like it is a leisure battery so I d say dead (scroll down to see the 8031101 item)

Fritidsbatteri Silver, 12 V, 70 Ah

Batterier som passar till olika fritidsändamål som husvagn m.m. Helt underhållsfria med kalcium/kalcium-teknologi, som innebär lång livslängd samt en speciell typ av ventilation som minimerar risken för läckage av ångor. Inbyggd laddindikator och extra lång batteritid. Tåligt hölje av...

www.biltema.se

<Broken link removed>

 

[Lenny HB]

At this time of year in Portugal you are only going to get around 40-50% of the max output from your solar.
To survive at this time of year you need at least 2 batteries and 300 Watts of solar min.

 

[Raul]

At this time of year in Portugal you are only going to get around 40-50% of the max output from your solar.
To survive at this time of year you need at least 2 batteries and 300 Watts of solar min.

Ironically, this time of year is best for solar. Despite the fact that sun is low and incidence angle is not ideal, the temperatures are below 25Cdeg. In a sunny day I exceed nameplate panel power at 54deg north. In Portugal should beat that with ease. The colder the panel, the bigger the voltage and slight improvement on Amps to. At -20C deg with sun reflecting of the snow (albedo), I had 31,3v panels producing 40v+ and 25% more power than the nameplate. Also my van has 295w x2, 590w total. I had 680w out of it, in the same cold sunny conditions.

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[Lenny HB]

Ironically, this time of year is best for solar. Despite the fact that sun is low and incidence angle is not ideal, the temperatures are below 25Cdeg. In a sunny day I exceed nameplate panel power at 54deg north. In Portugal should beat that with ease. The colder the panel, the bigger the voltage and slight improvement on Amps to. At -20C deg with sun reflecting of the snow (albedo), I had 31,3v panels producing 40v+ and 25% more power than the nameplate. Also my van has 295w x2, 590w total. I had 680w out of it, in the same cold sunny conditions.

Sounds a bit odd my figures based on my experience as we are normally in Spain or Portugal at this time of year.

Edit:
Are we talking like for like, panels horizontal on a van roof?

 

[Raul]

Panels on the house are at 36deg, and have better output, but on the van are flat parallel with the roof. I do have a 3” gap under for air flow and is enough convection to keep them cool.

 

[Raul]

Here is the van roof, and a screen print with the van controller, while cooking on electric.

 

[Helen Ariel]

At this time of year in Portugal you are only going to get around 40-50% of the max output from your solar.
To survive at this time of year you need at least 2 batteries and 300 Watts of solar min.

We're managing fine with 2 batteries and 200w solar. More than enough. Struggled a bit in December/jan when the days were really short and had some bad weather(worst winter in Portugal for 18 years apparently)

 

[Lenny HB]

We're managing fine with 2 batteries and 200w solar. More than enough. Struggled a bit in December/jan when the days were really short and had some bad weather(worst winter in Portugal for 18 years apparently)

Depends on usage, OP only has one battery and doesn't say how much solar, if only one battery probably not much.
Our last van only had 2 batteries and 200 Watts it was OK in Portugal in Feb but you only need a few rainy days and you are

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[Jocko]

I have a 150w solar panel with a 110ah battery and only the one. I visited a few shops to price up batteries and finally found a marine store which sold them at a very reasonable price. They were really helpful and informative. I asked the guy to test mine before I bought a new one. He had a decent battery diagnostic tool and told me there was nothing wrong with mine.

So the conclusion is I don't think with the setup I've got and the sun being sooo low during the winter that I'm just not getting the charge.

Thanks for everybody's advice and tips, it's been very interesting reading everybody's set ups and they're knowledge.

 

[Lenny HB]

He had a decent battery diagnostic tool and told me there was nothing wrong with mine.

He probably used a CCA tester which is for starter batteries. The results mean nothing on a leisure battery the only way to test a leisure battery is the slow discharge method which will take several hours.