If the battery accepts a lot of amps, it is not fully charged When a flooded 100AH battery acepts only ~1 amp at 14.5v, it is very close to fully charged, but taking 10 amps at 14 volts, means that battery is somewhere around 85% charged and that last 15% isgoing to take about 3 hours at 14 volts, on a healthy battery, Unhealthy batteries take even longer to fully charge. How many amps flow into ad epleted battery at a certain voltage can reveal a lot. Like by plugging in and using a battery charger, or using solar.Ī voltmeter on your dashboard whose voltage sense lines are on house battery terminals will go a long way at showing you how fast the battery is being charged, but an Ammeter and a voltmeter would be much much better. So I would not get a pricey battery until you have a way of actually fully charging it regularly. Not much gassing will occur once the vehicles voltage regulator says 13.6v is all you need, also charging amps are about 1/3 at 13.6 compared to if the voltage regulator were seeking 14.7v.īe aware that the alternator, when cold and spinning fast has the potential to make a LOT of amperage, but if it is only allowed to make enough juice to seek and hold 13.6v by the voltage regulator,m which controls the output of the alternator, that potential is severly limited.Īnd 80% charged to 100% charged pretty much cannot be accomplished in under 3 hours, and those 3 hours are at ideal voltages, which your vehicle will not allow for those 3 hours. That circuit breaker is resistance and will cause some voltage drop, perhaps much more than it really should, like my cheapo circuitbreaker does. Go for Bussman brandĪs far as offgassing when driving, well that is dependent on the voltage the vehicle allows and how much voltage drip is on your circuit. I have another cheapo circuit breaker, Absolut brand, rated at 140 amps on my alternator feed.Īfter a few minutes of 65 to 90 amps it tripped at ~110 amps and I was lucky to not blow the diodes in my alternator as I only have one battery.ĭon't cheap out on fuses or circuit breakers. I can measure voltage drop across it, and it gets noticeably warmer than surrounding area when solar is making 7+ amps. I have a similar circuit breaker, but a 30 amp one, inbetween my solar controller and battery. The most gas will be produced while i'm driving anyway, and i always drive with windows cracked or rolled down. as for venting of gases, i'm hoping that cracked windows and being separated from it by a blackout curtain will guide the most of it out of the van that way. i'm keeping it in a plastic box in the driver area. Not that I plan on running the laptop unless i'm on shore power somewhere! This is pretty much just to get started. I can even plug the laptop in too and run it all at once and the inverter can take it. I have a 6.5w light, a few flashlight batteries to charge, a cell phone and a little bluetooth speaker box, that's about it! I have a 100w little pwm inverter that it all plugs into. This is definitely not a permanent situation! I'm going with the strategy of minimal electricity use. My aux battery at the moment is a 45$ walmart fla battery of the same type that's under the hood. Hopefully the breakers arrive today and I will get started tonight making the wires. I just need to grab some small gauge wire and terminals and i will have all the materials together. I have also 25ft of 4awg battery wire and some copper terminals. i got the 100amp breaker - the relay is rated up to 200 amps, but that's never ever gonna happen unless my van gets lightning struck or something! lol They look just like inline fuses, fit from 0awg and smaller.
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