Leisure Battery

[sarran1955]

Hello John,

Thank you for that very interesting and enlightening post..

You know my van.. and how important it is to me to keep the weight down..

To be able to wild camp the night at the ski slopes , I have an Eberspacher project..

A diesel heater.. that I propose to run off a garden tractor 35 AH battery..

I'm looking at 2 amps for 8 hours....

Bearing in mind your post..

and..

I would like to fit (semi) permanently one of the 100 watt flexi solar panels now available..

I prefer to ski in sunny weather....

Your advice would be appreciated..

Best,

Cordialement,

[ghost123uk]

you will need a solar panel regulator which prevents overcharging on hot clear days, not at all expensive on Ebay. A couple of folk on here have found some of these units that also have a low voltage disconnect built in. Even that version is suspiciously cheap. I have not had my hands on one yet but iirc they have a fixed low voltage cut off which (again iirc) is too low.

Here is one = Ebay link It says the cut off voltage = 10.8V which I think is too low. You could fool it by sticking a 10A diode in series with the load feed, that would up it to 11.4V and the loads won't notice the .6V drop.

[Negativegravity]

Any idea if this little gadget is suitable as an alternative?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Solid-State-L ... 565eb3f562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Avoids hang to wire it up myself then!

Cheers

[ghost123uk]

Any idea if this little gadget is suitable as an alternative?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Solid-State-L ... 565eb3f562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Avoids hang to wire it up myself then!

Cheers

Looks just fine and the audible alarm to warn it is going to disconnect is something the "other one" is missing

E D I T = So good I might get one and flog my REUK one
EDIT2 = But the power in / out "studs" are not enclosed and being "live" would need careful "covering" to make them safe

[discipleofsketch]

I was looking into a new leisure battery last night, as mine is knackered - checked out the info on the wiki page (https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ca ... s_that_fit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and eventually found myself looking at this:-

http://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/brands ... e-battery/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But i'm also pondering a low voltage disconnect, and also some kind of fuse/ terminal block, as the positive terminal on mine is like a spaghetti junction with stuff forked off it.

[ghost123uk]

Yes, I have a fuse box / distribution unit very similar to THIS ONE. A good idea and not expensive

Get yourself an LVD - you know you won't regret it (it pays for itself the very first time it operates )

[Negativegravity]

Any idea if this little gadget is suitable as an alternative?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Solid-State-L ... 565eb3f562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Avoids hang to wire it up myself then!

Cheers

Looks just fine and the audible alarm to warn it is going to disconnect is something the "other one" is missing

E D I T = So good I might get one and flog my REUK one
EDIT2 = But the power in / out "studs" are not enclosed and being "live" would need careful "covering" to make them safe

Can confirm that this works really well! Easy enough to wire in and the buzzer is pretty handy!