Solomongrundy Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 A couple of months ago I bought two new Banner batteries, to replace the one manufacturers battery, and they worked okay when in France off hook up over the New Year holiday. They are in their own plastic boxes, strapped down, under a side bench and are not very easy to access. I've thought about wiring a couple of small digital voltmeters, see picture, to check how each battery was performing over the short and long term and without the hassle of scrabbling around under the seat every time. The Schaudt panel shows the Leisure battery voltage as a combined total and not each separate battery. I wondered if it's worth checking the battery performances to see if both work as a unit and that one of them is not better or worse than the other. The voltmeters would be put in a position to be easily seen, but not obtrusive, when I wanted to check them. For the price of a couple of voltmeters at a pound or so each, and a bit of cable, is there any point in doing the wiring to check them or not? I'm thinking more of a cold winter evening in darkest France, LED lights and Truma heater have been on for hours and the batteries voltage must be going down – just a quick glance at the voltmeters to see the batteries haven't gone down too far would be reassuring. We have an 80w Solar panel but that shouldn't affect the readings at night – should it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Based on the principal of keeping it simple I use one of these, which I can also use for the engine battery, but they do of course only work when the batteries are switched on which is good enough for me! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/111576289385?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Solomongrundy - 2015-01-24 4:01 PM A couple of months ago I bought two new Banner batteries, to replace the one manufacturers battery, and they worked okay when in France off hook up over the New Year holiday. They are in their own plastic boxes, strapped down, under a side bench and are not very easy to access. I've thought about wiring a couple of small digital voltmeters, see picture, to check how each battery was performing over the short and long term and without the hassle of scrabbling around under the seat every time. The Schaudt panel shows the Leisure battery voltage as a combined total and not each separate battery. I wondered if it's worth checking the battery performances to see if both work as a unit and that one of them is not better or worse than the other. The voltmeters would be put in a position to be easily seen, but not obtrusive, when I wanted to check them. For the price of a couple of voltmeters at a pound or so each, and a bit of cable, is there any point in doing the wiring to check them or not? I'm thinking more of a cold winter evening in darkest France, LED lights and Truma heater have been on for hours and the batteries voltage must be going down – just a quick glance at the voltmeters to see the batteries haven't gone down too far would be reassuring. We have an 80w Solar panel but that shouldn't affect the readings at night – should it? Your two leisure batteries are connected together, so any voltmeter will show the combined voltage exactly the same as your panel so would achieve nothing that you've not already got, and of course the solar panel has no impact if it is dark at night. Worth stating that any reading when using current will look less than the standing voltage of batteries at rest after a little recovery time. With two new batteries and a 80 watt panel I'd say you're sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 As the batteries are wired in parallel you would have to disconnect one battery from the the other before measuring the voltage. You could do it by fitting a battery isolator switch to one battery, but one battery would still be under load from the van's electrics and have a small load on it (assuming everything turned of in the van), however results would be good enough. Another suggestion is to fit an isolator switch to the negative of each battery, then you could switch each battery out of circuit an see the voltage of the in circuit battery on the control panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallii Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 What you need is an amp hour meter, then, if starting with a known fully charged battery , you would be able to simply work out how many amp hours you have used and how much is left before the batteries reach 11.5v. Or you could fit one of these and it does most of it for you http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-90V-75A-Combo-Meter-Voltage-Amp-Power-Ah-Hour-Programmable-Limit-Protection-/181573144893?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item2a469a513d Personally I wouldn't bother, you soon know when an individual battery is duff, the pair don't last as long and the voltage drops about twice as fast. It's worth dragging them out once a year and doing a proper load test on each. H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solomongrundy Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Many thanks for the replies. I'll take your advice and not bother fitting a voltmeter/s at the moment - but I might put the Combo device on my birthday list later this year and fit that! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 If you do decide to fit a meter , the one Geoff gave a link to will only measure current in one direction, if you want to measure charging current as well as discharge you need this one , I fitted one of these it works a treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 lennyhb - 2015-01-27 10:27 AM If you do decide to fit a meter , the one Geoff gave a link to will only measure current in one direction, if you want to measure charging current as well as discharge you need this one , I fitted one of these it works a treat. The one and only time I bought something from the states I was hit with a fairly substantial customs, VAT and handling charges bill, so factor that in, would be handy if Lenny could give an indication of those additional costs as it looks a handy bit of kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 It's made in China posted from Hong Kong., comes in the post usually come through without any additional charges mine did. If if did get picked up by customs worse case worse case would be 10% import duty + VAT. It's when you order large items you can get stung if they send via a shipping company such as DHL etc. they often put on a handling charge of £25. The limit for duty free used to be £18 I think it is now £15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 lennyhb - 2015-01-27 11:53 AM It's made in China posted from Hong Kong., comes in the post usually come through without any additional charges mine did. If if did get picked up by customs worse case worse case would be 10% import duty + VAT. It's when you order large items you can get stung if they send via a shipping company such as DHL etc. they often put on a handling charge of £25. The limit for duty free used to be £18 I think it is now £15. Cheers Lenny, seeing listed in Dollars threw me............. :-S must pay more attention. ;-) Yes it is £15 from China, just this morning received a bit of tat from there ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 My one installed, I brought some cut to size anodised aluminum sheet from eBay to make a bezel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Solomongrundy - 2015-01-24 4:01 PM. We have an 80w Solar panel but that shouldn't affect the readings at night – should it? If you install a decent solar panel regulator, such as a Steca, this will give you all the readings that you need (both charge and discharge). It will also let you charge the batteries according to a 30 day cycle of charge / equalizing charge / maintenance charge and this should help prolong their active life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 spospe - 2015-01-27 12:21 PM Solomongrundy - 2015-01-24 4:01 PM. We have an 80w Solar panel but that shouldn't affect the readings at night – should it? If you install a decent solar panel regulator, such as a Steca, this will give you all the readings that you need (both charge and discharge). It will also let you charge the batteries according to a 30 day cycle of charge / equalizing charge / maintenance charge and this should help prolong their active life. The OP has an Elektroblock so so he will have a Schaudt solar regulator, can cause problems with the Elektroblock if you don't use their regulator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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