Wirralian Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 On my Hymer C542 I have a solar panel (85w) which charges the leisure battery only. It is connected to Electroblock EBL99. I would like to charge the vehicle battery as well from the solar panel. Is it a simple case of replacing the solar control with one which has dual charging connections? Or, would I need to trickle charge the vehicle battery with 'battery mate' or the likes John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 If the regulator has been wired to the Electroblock correctly it should charge the engine battery as well. If you have an Electroblock you should only use a Schaudt solar regulator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 ...I'm not sure which regulator you've got, but the Schaudt LR1218 (designed to interface with various Electroblocks, including the EBL99) comes with adapters that allow you to install it to the EBL99, and charge both batteries (though the leisure battery has priority). See the instructions here (and specifically section 5.3). http://www.acpasion.net/foro/archivosadjuntos/obelix/manuales/Schaudt_Regulador_placa_solar_LR1218_manual_instalacion_ingles.pdf I am about to carry out a similar addition to an EBL99, and can confirm the unit as bought comes with all the required connectors for the different means of using it. I suspect if you were to study the diagrams, you could probably rustle up a similar set of wiring connections using MNL blocks for an existing solar regulator, but it would be a risk not knowing if the LR1218 has some internal "logic" as well. The LR1218 is usually best (price) bought from abroad. When I was looking, the best price (delivered) was: http://mvm.eu/epages/a4444514-00f5-4943-a902-999d223c1bb9.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/a4444514-00f5-4943-a902-999d223c1bb9/Products/825059 (around £63 delivered with reasonable delivery time). An alternative, but potentially less elegant solution would, as you say, be to use a regulator with split outputs. A Battery Mate, (or the cheaper CBE CSB2 equivalent if it is still available - it has been difficult to source) would provide a different solution, which would be more valuable if the EBL99 didn't charge the vehicle battery on hook-up, but it does!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 lennyhb - 2015-05-13 3:42 PM If you have an Electroblock you should only use a Schaudt solar regulator. ...whilst I can't find the info at the moment, I'm pretty sure that the EBL99 is one of a small number of EBLs that Schaudt don't "mandate" the use of their solar regulator. I know that they give that advice for most of the higher-end units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Fit the Schaudt LR1218. It is the recommended regulator for the EBL99. It is an easy fit and will keep your van battery charged. I had this setup for 5 years on my last van. The LR1218 is a high quality, efficient PWM regulator. More info here, the Proprietor is a member on here and his prices are very competitive. http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/solar-power.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 For the last 4 years we have been using a 99 and Shault, worked very well until we extended the van shed, now it can only just cope with leisure battery, am going to have to lash up a 20w panel to the vehicle battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 You should not use a 'Battery Master' style device on any German, Italian, Dutch, etc Continental built Motorhome as it will 'short circuit' the functionality already in the Charger/Control device like the EBL. While we would always recommend a LR1218 for all Schaudt Elektroblocks it is only essential on the EBL101, EBL 220 and EBL 264 as these EBL's require the 'data' output signal from the LR1218 as well as the Charging power output. There is a small data cable included in the LR1218 kit to send the volts and amps data of the LR1218 so they can be displayed on the Digital LCD displays used by these EBL units. The LR1218 has true twin battery output charging capability. These are isolated internally within the LR1218 and setup up so that the Starter battery does not get full battery charging if it is not required. Note that some twin battery Regulators will output the same charge to both batteries. Not a good idea when the Habitation Battery may want lots of current, but the Starter no more than a trickle. Some Dual regulators are designed to treat both battery banks with the same charging regime, overcharging a Starter Battery. As stated above, with a LR1218 the Habitation battery gets priority. However, if you have a Tracker which can run down a Starter Battery in days, the LR1218 will provide some decent power to bring the Starter battery back up after a Night of powering a Tracker. When choosing a Solar regulator can we suggest you get a Motorhome specific one. Not necessarily one 'claimed' to be for Motorhomes. Some of those budget ones we have seen, often designed for the 'House Roof' market, are a bit lazy when the Solar Panel goes from shade to bright sun in the blink of an eye. They can be momentarily slow to react, letting through some of the Panels 27v to the Motorhome wiring. 16+volts in the van can cause the Truma heating to go into protection mode and shut down. (Yes that's right the Water/Heating turning off randomly could be your Solar Panel!! That Reich e-box also shutting down randomly : Now Mrs Jones, do you see why it only did it during the day?) 18+volts can cause damage to some sensitive devices. 20+volts cause expensive damage. The Schaudt LR1218 PWM Solar regulator has just been supplemented by a Schaudt MPPT LRM1218. No doubt better in every way than the LR1218 (higher amps, higher input volts, etc), but it is expensive at £150. More important than the regulator itself is the wiring set-up in a Motorhome. A badly planned/installed Solar setup can waste half the available power versus a good set-up. For example we regularly see the Solar regulator installed in the worst possible place, up near the roof. Just like Mr Dennett's today. His Hymer had a Victron Regulator located in a top Cupboard near the roof. From there the 13.2v output went all the way down the wall under the floor to the batteries. By the time it reached the batteries 6 metres away it was about 12.4v. Everyone knows that the higher the voltage the less it loses oomph when it reaches the end of the wire, hence 415,000v being used on Electricity Pylons. That is one of the most basic rules of Electricity. So in a Solar setup the longest cable run should be at the highest voltage, i.e at the almost 26v as it came out of the Panel and the shortest run should be AFTER it is regulated down to 13.8v by the regulator. The only place for a regulator is near the batteries or EBL. That way it won't matter if you lose 0.5v from 27v and 'only' 26.5v reaches the regulator as the output from the regulator will still be 13.8v (or whatever the charge program is). In Mr Dennett's case losing 0.5v from 13.1v when the sun is low/obscured meant only 12.6v at the battery and a no charge situation if the battery was already at 12.6v or higher (remember that to charge a battery the voltage must be higher than that of the battery no matter how many amps are available). The panel might have had 2 amps to give but once the battery got half full it would not get any more charge. If you have a Solar setup with the regulator up near the roof, then the installer did not understand their job, and, in our experience, other things will be wrong. For example : Do you have a fuse between the Solar Panel and the regulator for Electrical safety/Fire prevention if the Solar Regulator should fail? Electrical safety guidelines say that ALL equipment is protected by a fuse. Up to 30v and maybe 20amps and yet we have never seen a fuse between the unlimited power from those 2 x 140w Panels and the first device, the Regulator. Yet there is always one between the battery and the Regulator. We think it's bizarre that the installers realise that they should protect the regulator from the battery, but not the almost unlimitless energy in the Solar Panel!! No wonder there have been fires involving Solar Panels. Is the Cable thickness quite fat to avoid voltage drop, not "thin speaker wire will be a good'un cos its only takin a few imps". etc. It's no secret we think Solar Power is oversold in relation to Motorhomes, but please have a read of the Solar Power web page, there are lots of tips on getting the best from a Solar installation : http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/solar-power.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Kyocera 140 watt solar panel, and a Morningstar Sunsaver controller, all with 10 AWG cabling has been serving me well for over two years now, and apart from the depths of winter absolutely no need to go on a EHU, so in my case at least solar has not been oversold, quite the contrary, it's been a no brainer for living off grid in my motorhome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wirralian Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Many thanks to you all for your response and advice, especially Allan at A and N caravan services with whom I have been in touch. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.