Battery going flat

sue ellen said:
Thanks so much for replies. The van is 13 years old. It's a citroen relay . I really dont want to disengage the battery as I need the alarm on. im not sure what an OBD is ? can i check the radio in any way ? thanks again...any other ideas ? also how effective is the solar panel and how is it linked in to van eg is it though the cigar lighter?
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I think this is a really common thing. Same thing happened when my van first joined the family... the engine battery regularly went flat after standing on the drive for a couple of weeks. Being new to the game, we thought it was a fault but it seems it's a feature. We solved it when we got solar and had a gizmo fitted to divert power to the engine battery whenever it got low. My first gizmo, years ago, was a 'battery master' but now I've got a Victron Cyrix Battery Combiner. These had to be wired into the system to join both engine and leisure batteries to the solar controller.

There is a simple solution if you still have power to your cigarette socket when the engine is switch off. You can buy a little trickle charge solar panel that sits in your windscreen and plugs into the lighter socket. They're really cheap and simple. As my van doesn't have any power to the socket when the engine is off, I couldn't go down this route, so can't vouch for efficiency. Hope someone more 'techy' can come up with a solution for you. Good luck and happy camping! :giggle:

Here's an example...

Solar Car Battery Charger â 12V Trickle Chargers For Your Car, Van, Bike

No more flat batteries. Solar trickle chargers to keep your car (bike, jet-ski, quad-bike) battery topped up. With suction cups for fixing to windows.
www.selectsolar.co.uk www.selectsolar.co.uk
 
Minisorella said:
I think this is a really common thing. Same thing happened when my van first joined the family... the engine battery regularly went flat after standing on the drive for a couple of weeks. Being new to the game, we thought it was a fault but it seems it's a feature. We solved it when we got solar and had a gizmo fitted to divert power to the engine battery whenever it got low. My first gizmo, years ago, was a 'battery master' but now I've got a Victron Cyrix Battery Combiner. These had to be wired into the system to join both engine and leisure batteries to the solar controller.

There is a simple solution if you still have power to your cigarette socket when the engine is switch off. You can buy a little trickle charge solar panel that sits in your windscreen and plugs into the lighter socket. They're really cheap and simple. As my van doesn't have any power to the socket when the engine is off, I couldn't go down this route, so can't vouch for efficiency. Hope someone more 'techy' can come up with a solution for you. Good luck and happy camping! :giggle:

Here's an example...

Solar Car Battery Charger â 12V Trickle Chargers For Your Car, Van, Bike

No more flat batteries. Solar trickle chargers to keep your car (bike, jet-ski, quad-bike) battery topped up. With suction cups for fixing to windows.
www.selectsolar.co.uk www.selectsolar.co.uk
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No regulator with that unit, waste of money.
 
Not a big job to run the panels positive wire with a fuse to the starter battery, but that panel is very small only gives 0.625amps and that would be in full sun.
 
Just had a stray though on this, what if you had a cheapo PWM controller for the starter battery, and wired that into a 100w roof panel, but left the MPPT or whatever still linked to the leisure battery?

Would it work? what would happen
 
Pudsey Bear said:
Not a big job to run the panels positive wire with a fuse to the starter battery, but that panel is very small only gives 0.625amps and that would be in full sun.
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I totally agree about the wired up version being far, far better and I'm chuffed to bits with my Cyrix but if you're someone who doesn't understand electrickery and don't have lovely friends who help you with this stuff, then a good version of the cheapy plug-in panel might help?
 
Minisorella said:
I totally agree about the wired up version being far, far better and I'm chuffed to bits with my Cyrix but if you're someone who doesn't understand electrickery and don't have lovely friends who help you with this stuff, then a good version of the cheapy plug-in panel might help?
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Most small panels without a regulator are useless, rewire the solar through a votronic unit, it gives 1 amp to starter and the rest to van hab batts.vetronic.png
 
Minisorella said:
I totally agree about the wired up version being far, far better and I'm chuffed to bits with my Cyrix but if you're someone who doesn't understand electrickery and don't have lovely friends who help you with this stuff, then a good version of the cheapy plug-in panel might help?
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I agree but you said not having an ign off ciggy socket, and as said that tiny panel will do more harm than good as it doesn't have the output, so you think you're okay and leave it, and end up buying a new battery. I know, I bought one and it did virtually nothing, it would even light the ign lights after 6 weeks.

another method is from Clive Mott.


and a different more complex version I've only just found so not checked it out yet.

1673010127047.png
 
Lovely bit of kit.
 
Burge said:
Got it with the Black Fri deal think it was £30 cheaper than normal from Amazon.
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Mines the 5amp and it was cheaper too, I think I saved £15 or so on the Amazon listed price, I had to buy the cable extension too as it was too short, Halfords was the best price.
 
Not a link is it though, its easier than posting a picture
 
Minisorella said:
I totally agree about the wired up version being far, far better and I'm chuffed to bits with my Cyrix but if you're someone who doesn't understand electrickery and don't have lovely friends who help you with this stuff, then a good version of the cheapy plug-in panel might help?
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Same here. Got my Cyrix with an Amazon voucher won in a Wildcamping raffle so cost me nowt. Even through winter the solar takes care of both batteries. Usually about 12.8v on the leisure battery and slightly less on the engine battery. Always started first time whenever required since I fitted it.

Cheers

H
 
Pudsey Bear said:
It's not for me, just a wondering, like ya do.

Like how many watts in a 110ah x 12v battery? the sums = 1320w but obviously not usable, so wondered how much you could use.

Say 12.6v is fully charged, & 12v is flat, you only have 0.6v to play with which is only 66w, but that can't be right.

So talking ballcocks, but some more clevery type peeps would be able to figure it out
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A battery rated at 110Ah is unlikely to be charged past 90% full and you won't want to ever discharge it past 25% full, so the effective usable capacity is 65% of 110Ah, which is 71.5Ah or about 890wh.

Personally, I'd prefer not to drop a lead acid battery below 45% full, so the usable capacity is 35% of 110, which is about 38.5Ah or 480wh.
 
sue ellen said:
Hi.can anyone help me please? I own a campervan. I recently purchased a new vehicle battery but it keeps draining to empty. Could it be the alarm is draining it as this is the only thing constantly running ? But this seems like a hell of an inconvenience to have to keep topping it up/jumpstarting it. Any ideas anyone? thanks
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The first thing to do is find out how fast the power is leaking away. That you can measure with a £10 multimeter.

Simply connect it in ammeter mode, between a battery terminal and the battery cable, then disconnect the cable from the battery, so all the current goes through the meter. Connect the cable again before disconnecting the meter.

Next, find where the power is leaking from. It may be the alarm, or it may be something else. The way to do that is to disconnect things in turn and do the leak measurement again.

If it's the alarm, perhaps you might be better running the alarm off the hab battery? Or finding a less power-hungry alarm? Or no alarm at all?
 
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