Pete-B Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Hi, Perhaps a question for the more knowledgeable amongst us, not being a lecky expert myself. I bought a new Bessie E462 a few months ago and the dealer fitted a 80w solar panel mainly for keeping the batteries topped up (two 100amp leisure and engine battery) whilst the van is in storage during the winter months. The panel feeds into a regulator which monitors both batteries with the leisure batteries having priority. When these are full it then switches all the power to the engine battery After our last trip I left the in the storage yard for a couple of weeks and during which time it was mainly quite sunny. When I went to collect the van the LED which shows the state of the engine battery on the solar regulator was red which means the battery is right down or flat. As luck would have it there was enough left to start the engine. I went back to the dealer who I have to say is brilliant and does all he can for his customers. I explained the problem and he did a series of checks which showed the panel was faulty, he put a meter on it and the output varied quite a bit minute by minute whilst the weather stayed sunny also the LED on the regulator which lights up when it's sunny was unlit. He has to order a new panel so in the meantime he left the old one connected but changed the wiring over on the regulator to make the engine battery priority. He also suggested I call into my local main Fiat dealer and get them to do a full health check on the engine battery which I did, this proved the battery itself was in good condition. I left the van two or three days in storage and when I went to pick it up I checked the LED's on the regulator. The one for the leisure batteries was flashing to show they were fully charged and the engine one was just green showing normal? I would have thought if this had priority this one would be flashing and the leisure ones should be static or am I missing something? I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions because I'm beginning to think is there another problem somewhere as well as the faulty solar panel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artheytrate Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 I would think that the cab battery had charged as priority, and when you checked the leds it was coming to the end of charging the leisure batteries and when full would have gone to Cab battery again. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted September 24, 2015 Share Posted September 24, 2015 Can you supply more info about the Solar setup, like the Regulator make/model, where it is located, etc. Also does the MH have a Tracker, Alarm or aftermarket Stereo as it sounds like there is a higher than usual drain on the Starter battery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted September 24, 2015 Share Posted September 24, 2015 It will not be easy establishing any possible second fault untill the first fault is rectified and cleared and if the solar panel is faulty then you cannot draw any conclusions from any voltage or current readings until that panel is replaced and proven to be fault free. One step at a time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted September 24, 2015 Share Posted September 24, 2015 I think the 'first' fault has been misdiagnosed, as witnessed by the Habitation batteries now being fully charged and the Starter battery being up rather than right down. This proves the Solar Panel must be functioning and putting out charge. All that has changed is giving the Starter battery the first bite of the Apple and it has made a difference, which can only be because more is going in than is being lost. The most likely scenario is that the Solar Panel is working, maybe not fully, but it must be working, so can't be the issue. Even if the Solar Panel was totally dead it would not account for a Starter battery running down so low in 2 weeks. A MH in standard order should give about 6 weeks on a new Starter battery. I suspect that Starter battery drain is higher than average, for whatever reason, and the Solar set-up in Autumn is not enough to keep all 3 batteries charged, because of the drain. 80watts won't give much more than about 2 -3A this time of year in the UK and then only from about 09:00 to 17:00. A guess at around 12Ah - 18Ah average a day? Getting an idea on the Solar set-up helps estimate the power it should be making and a pointer to the number of amps being lost at the Starter Battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete-B Posted September 24, 2015 Author Share Posted September 24, 2015 Thanks for the replies and comments, I'm going back to my dealer in a couple of weeks to have the new solar panel fitted and will pass on your remarks. In the meantime I've been to our local main Fiat commercial dealer and had a health check on the engine battery which proved to be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted September 24, 2015 Share Posted September 24, 2015 Forgive me Peter if I have the wrong end of the stick, but what is being suggested is that something is taking an abnormally large amount of power from your starter battery, not that the battery is defective. If true, replacing solar panels or controller (which seem to be working) would make no difference, as it appears the drain on the battery may exceed the solar panel output at this time of year. It is being suggested that the possibility of higher than normal battery drain needs to be investigated in the first instance, as the solution may be quite straightforward and may not necessitate replacing the solar components at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted September 24, 2015 Share Posted September 24, 2015 Fair comment Brian, but maybe Peter could ask the Fiat dealership that checked his engine battery if they checked the static battery drain, and if so what it was and whether it was within the vehicle's acceptable design parameters? The supplying motorhome dealer has identified a faulty solar panel, at least that is what I assume he means by faulty panel, so as things stand I see little alternative than to let the supplying dealer who, to be fair, does at least seem to be supportive follow proceedure and replace one part at a time - starting with the solar panel. It would appear that the solar panel charges via it's own stand alone regulator with either a free standing or inbuilt B2B or charge splitting abilty rather than through the, presumably Sargent, control panel which should make diagnosis less complicated and easier to resolve. That said as I understand it solar panels and regulators are pretty reliable so maybe their is a wiring fault or bad connection somewhere, although you would have expected the dealer to check all that before declaring the solar panel faulty? Plenty here for Peter to mull over and maybe discuss with both dealers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Just reading Allan's post of 24 Sept, Rich, which seemed to me (as a non solar, non expert) a reasonable analysis from the information given. As he says, two weeks is a very short time to run a starter battery near flat - even if there were no solar panel. Just changing the solar output to prioritize the starter battery (which in any case seems to me the obvious set up, as there should be no drain on the hab batteries in storage) seems to have more or less compensated for the drain on the starter battery. But, needing what sounds like the full output from the solar just to compensate for the parasitic starter battery drain seems to me a bit extreme. We recently had our van in storage for about six weeks with no solar, and the starter battery was only down about (from memory) 25%. Of course, all this is only supposition, based on LEDs on the solar controller - the meaning of which I have not the faintest idea! Some actual voltages would be more help, preferably with the solar disconnected or disabled at the time, so something close to the actual battery states (all batteries) could be estimated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.