thebishbus Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Hi. One for the battery men. I am in the process of connecting my starter battery, with my leisure batteries, to charge from my solar panel. Not with the normal two position fuse method though, but with my own circuit , an inline 5amp fuse, a double pole on/off switch and a flashing LED, to warn me when the switch is in the on (dual charge) position. I have just had a thought though,I will be connecting my GEL leisure batteries with my WET starter battery, and wonder if this will cause a problem.? Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 can't answer the batery type question, but on our last van ran a 'starter' cable between the two batteries and a heavy duty isolator. You can get dual solar charge controlers that can be set to charge the two different types of batteries on base and caravan side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Gel & wet batteries require a different charging regime, with a wet cell once terminal voltage of about 14.2 - 14.5 volts is reached needs to be held there for an hour to achieve a full charge, with a Gel needs to be maintained for about 8 hours for a full charge. It is not wise to connect them together a regulator set for Gel could cook a wet battery, and with it set for Wet the Gel battery will never get fully charged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keninpalamos Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Gel & Wet batteries do have different charge rates. but all things being equal a wet battery will always out perform a gel battery as far as charging goes and the reasons are quite simple. A wet battery will except a higher rate of charge because it can breath and is open to the atmosphere and therefore will not over heat. What this means is that it is able to take a higher voltage and in turn will re-charge quicker than it's gel counterpart. The down side is that you have to top them up with water. Dam! there's always something. A gel battery cannot breath because the acid is held in a gel which does not evaporate but instead heats up if charged at the same rate as a wet cell battery. this will destroy the lead plates. So a gel battery takes a lower voltage when being charged and there fore takes much long to fully re-charge . A big advantage of a gel battery is you can use them upside down but they are much more expensive than a wet sell battery and the life span is much shorter. So great if you have plenty of money and drive your van upside down or your battery is in a position that is difficult to get too, and if it is then you could always move it. Split chargers are relativly cheap and if you want cheap thats fine. If you want to stay away from hook-ups and generators I would recomend a Sterling battery to battery charger with 2 6v traction batteries at about 250ah. Simplicity would be a good decription. I could be wrong as I'm not an expert. but then even experts get it wrong sometimes ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Thank you for the replies. Reading between the lines, I think the way that I intend to use the link will work alright. I only intend to use the link if we are parked up for a long time without a hook up, and then only if I notice the starter battery loosing its charge. It will be very convenient just to throw the switch to boost the starter battery if required. Using my Fox battery display unit, and the Hymer control control panel, I can monitor the state of the batteries quite easily. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 As you have a Hymer that means you must have an Elektroblock if you use the Schaudt solar charger once the leisure battery is charged it will trickle charge the engine battery. Depending on the version on Elektroblock you have using an ordinary solar charger can stop the charger working on mains & completely screw up the control panel readings, it is always best with Elektroblock's to use the Schaudt sola charger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted July 9, 2012 Author Share Posted July 9, 2012 Hi Lenny. My Hymer came with the solar system already installed,using the Sun Saver 10 controller and Fox display unit. They work very well, and I have no problems with them, or the Hymer control panel. Its just that I wanted a simple cheap way of connecting the panel to the starter battery if ever I needed to, although I never needed to with my old starter battery, which I have just replaced after 11 years ! ! ! If I went down the auto select route I would have to buy the Schaudt controller and adapter kit to fit my Elektroblock EBL 99 at about £74 , a price that I could not justify for the advantage gained. Thank you for your interest though. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Just checked with an EBL 99 you are OK with a standard solar charger and you should be able to wire it via the Elektroblock to charge both batteries. Take a look at the info here also email Schaudt they are very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Hi Lenny. Thanks for the link. I presumed that I would have to use the Schaudt controller with the Elektroblock. Even after reading the link I am still not certain that I can use my SunSaver 10. The schaudt controller,and I presume some others, have two battery outputs, one for the leisure batteries and one for the starter battery. My SunSaver controller only has one battery output, and you have to select with a link for which type of battery on the controller itself. If I was to connect it to the 3 pin solar socket on the EBL 99, (block 6 ), I believe that it would only charge the leisure batteries, with no spare connection on the controller for the starter battery. We are off to France for a month at the weekend, when we return I will check with Schaudt. Slightly off topic, part of our month away, we will join some of our club mates,( Solihull CC ), and up to 15000 other cyclist for the 74th" Semaine Federal " cycle touring week, from the 5th of August. This year it is at Niort, in the Vendee. I would advise anyone driving around there that week to keep to main roads, as some minor roads will be clogged up with cyclists. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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