Mike Stroobandt wrote:
A question on the comment about the battery?being only at ~85% SOC following a day of driving.? The alternator output at $13.4V is equivalent to the float charge voltage provided by either the 120VAC charger or solar charger and the purpose of float cycle is to keep a constant voltage on the battery to maintain full charge w/o overcharging.? My thinking was/is that the battery?would maintain it level of charge while driving if fully charged.? Can you help me understand why the SOC would drop tp 85% when driving?
There are significant voltage drops in the wiring. The alternator could be outputting 13.4v while driving, but only 13.0v of that gets to the battery.
Voltage is actually a rather poor indicator of state-of-charge for a lead-acid battery. Voltage is affect not only by state-of-carge, but also by current flow in/out of the battery, temperature, type and age of the battery, and other factors. But with a sealed battery, that's about all we've got.
A meter that measures amp-hours in/out is more accurate, but also more expensive. The best one I've found is the Xantrex Link-10 family (which used to be the Heart Interface Link-10, which used to be the Cruising Equipment E-Meter). They measure not only battery voltage, but also battery temperature, current, and count amphours in/out to provide a better estimate of state-of-charge.
Lee Hart
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Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
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