Trying to decide whether solar would be nessasary.

I’m designing a camper van and looking into how to charge the house batteries. I considered setting up a second alternator-a smart alternator with a Multi Stage Voltage Regulator from Defender to charge 2 Odyssey PC 1800-FT batteries.

My question is how fast can you charge these batteries? With this setup is solar even necessary even if I park for a week in the same place? How long would I have to run the truck to recharge? Or would it be cheaper to just add 2 more batteries and let the system charge when I’m driving?
 

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Paging DiploStrat.

Snark! OK, at full speed:

-- For most overland campers, with ever larger electrical draws, you want three charging sources - your vehicle alternator, solar, and shore power. Each has its advantages and place.

-- How fast can you charge a lead acid battery? It takes about four times longer than you expect. And then you have the absorb stage.

-- How long can you camp? How much electricity do you use and how much damage are you willing to accept to your batteries? I rarely exceed a 20% discharge per night and generally drive every two - three days - My expensive AGM's should last for years. Some use less expensive, open lead acid batteries, beat the stuff out of them and replace more often. Your choice.

-- Do you need a sexy secondary regulator/battery to battery charger/etc.? Depends on the voltage of your vehicle and your choice of battery. (HINT: Probably not.)

I don't want to be flip at this festive time of year, but this is a complex subject. Not hard, just complex. Lots and lots and lots of information under "Documents" on my website.

Merry Christmas!
 
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jonyjoe101

Adventurer
thats a total of close to 440 amp hours. If you deplete them all the way down and wanted to fast charge them at about 100 amps (max 50 amps per battery) even with the engine running it might take several days. You can get it to 60 percent in about 4 hours then the absorb phase will take 10 hours are longer. The battery will only accept 100 amps when its empty as it gets full it accept less amps, in other words you can't rush them. But you only have to fully charge them once in a while to keep the agm healthy, the rest of the time just get it as close to full and continue using them.

Solar on the other hand, will never fully charge 440 amp hour batteries. I have a 240 watt panel and a 94 ah lithium battery and fully charge it should read 12.6 volts, in winter it never get up there, mostly 12.1 is the highest I see, it spends all day in absorb mode. With 240 watts and mppt I get 9 amps in winter and 12 amps in summer. Solar is all I use and even in winter I can go several days with cloudy/rainy weather and my lithium battery wont get under 40 percent. In your situation you would need at least 2 large panels with an mppt controller to at least provide you usable power. A 100 watt panel (5 amps) or smaller will only be trickle charging such large batteries, even I wouldnt use something so small to charge my 94 ah battery. Trickle charging is ok if the batteries are already full,but agms like high amps to charge them.

I would definitely recommend solar if you got the room, once fully charged, the solar will keep your batteries topped off and save you gas in the long run. If your power use is minimal, you might never have to run your generator except maybe once a month to give the battery a good high amp charge for battery health purposes. With agm batteries undercharging them constantly will kill them.
 

Mwilliamshs

Explorer
...Solar on the other hand, will never fully charge 440 amp hour batteries. I have a 240 watt panel and a 94 ah lithium battery and fully charge it should read 12.6 volts, in winter it never get up there, mostly 12.1 is the highest I see, it spends all day in absorb mode. With 240 watts and mppt I get 9 amps in winter and 12 amps in summer. Solar is all I use and even in winter I can go several days with cloudy/rainy weather and my lithium battery wont get under 40 percent. In your situation you would need at least 2 large panels with an mppt controller to at least provide you usable power. A 100 watt panel (5 amps) or smaller will only be trickle charging such large batteries, even I wouldnt use something so small to charge my 94 ah battery...

Solar can absolutely charge a 440AH battery bank.

I suspect your charge controller's settings and/or its capabilities are mismatched to your battery if it will not fully charge. Is it temperature compensated? What is your battery balancing schedule?

240 watt panel should be good for about 45 ah per day. That would fully recharge your 94ah battery if it were about 40% discharged. Perhaps you're discharging your battery excessively?
 

Bbasso

Expedition goofball
i'm not sure about the specs given out on this thread, but on a sunny day in winter (N.Florida) I see up to 12-13 amps incoming and summer I see a little over 15 amps from my two 100 renogy panels, eccoworthy CC and two 155AGM batteries.

So that leads me to believe that charging a huge battery bank can be done...
 

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