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Old 06-04-2017, 10:31 AM   #33
CMS
Senior Member


 
City: Casco Bay
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 308
Quote:
Originally Posted by JDCAVE View Post
CMS: a great post and worth rereading! The Mods should mark this one with a "sticky". Thanks for putting a lot of effort into this!

So how does solar charging factor into the equation? Sometimes the voltage doesn't get as high as might be desirable. Does this result in sulphation, or is it better to continue to take advantage of the solar charging regardless?

Jim
Solar is never going to hurt anything and can only help. What will help more is if you can pause loads long enough to allow your solar to charge the bank to 100% SOC, and do so more than once per week. Partial state of charge cycles for more than a week really cut into cycle life.

The more frequently you can get back to 100% SOC the better off you are. If you can't get to absorption voltage daily, and hold it there, you really only have a few choices;

#1 Buy batteries more often
#2 Reduce your loads/consumption and be more efficient
#3 Increase the size of the PV array
#4 Extend your morning engine run/dino fuels charging duration

If you ever want to get back to 100%, even if it is just every third day, your sun up PV energy output needs to exceed day time loads, plus used loads overnight by the amount you need to restore + charge inefficiency....
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