Solar Panels!

yardeyar

Hello, we have a tv and a sat receiver/dish in our camper, we normally get about 45 minutes out of the leisure battery before it runs out of power, looking for advice on what size/watt etc to buy for longer use from leisure battery. Thanks. YEAH!

Aidan_M_M

It's a better leisure battery , or even a 2nd one you need , not a solar panel . I've fitted dozens of them , and even with big ones , the most you'll get from them in typical Irish sunlight is about 3.5-4 amps .

killalanerr

Aidan_M_M wrote: »

It's a better leisure battery , or even a 2nd one you need , not a solar panel . I've fitted dozens of them , and even with big ones , the most you'll get from them in typical Irish sunlight is about 3.5-4 amps .

have to agree i have 2 leisure battery in the swift and i can run the TV for about 2 nights (approx 7 hours) no problems

yardeyar

Hi thanks for the replies, if I fit a second leisure battery will I have to do anything to the alternator. Will I just sit the second battery beside the existing leisure battery and run a lead from postive to postive and then negitive to negitive? Thanks. YEAH!

Aidan_M_M

depends on the vehicle . if its a Ducato or similar , with a healthy alternator and a good fan belt it should be fine . On connecting the leads , you're spot on . Use good heavy cable .

yardeyar

Hi, yes its a 2007 Fiat 3.0 T/D. YEAH!

yardeyar

Any brand name or code of battery recommended? YEAH!

Aidan_M_M

yardeyar wrote: »

Hi, yes its a 2007 Fiat 3.0 T/D. YEAH!

Should be 100 %.

yardeyar wrote: »

Any brand name or code of battery recommended? YEAH!

Stay away from Exide , I replace Exide Gel's every week... Try Varta or similar . And I'd stay away fromDry Cell Gel , leisure batteries.. in my experience , the high output from modern alternators seems to cook them . They are supposed to have a long , slow , steady low amp charge , not the 20-30 amps a modern alternator wwould easilygive them when they're low.

2 stroke

Get existing battery tested. no point connecting a good battery to a poor one.

yardeyar

Hello and thank you for all your replies, I did firstly checked the original leisure battery and its fully charged and holding a charge, I have a large 12v battery from a vintage car that never looses its charge so I'll just hook it up to see does it make a difference before I buy a new battery. Thanks again. YEAH!

KoNiT

was told when hooking batteries together, they need to be same type..

i think mixing batteries of varying Ah & charging them parallel is a bad idea... could cause fire...



tbh, 45 mins isn't great for leisure battery... you must have a few lights on too?

niloc1951

An example of what you can get from a good set-up.
I have two Varta semi-traction 95ah batteries (now over four years in use) plus a Stirling Battery-to-Battery charger.
Last December we were parked up in the Aire in La Rochelle for over forty hours in freezing weather. The heating was on permanently (Truma blown air), lighting and TV were on both nights. Voltage was 12.1v at the end when we were leaving. Five hours later when we arrived in Mayenne the B2B charger had charged the batteries back up to 13.2v.
I don't think you will find better than the Varta semi-traction batteries, expect to pay about €130 each.

Macspower

Since my recent upgrade adding 2 more leisure batteries I have never had a problem of running out.

Running on it are 12v tv, 12v sky box, loas of lights, truma heating (blower part) and a 600w inverter (going to have to find a way to get rid of this)

Unfortunately my laptop requires an inverter as it runs at 20v and none of the converters would run it as it draws some serious power.

This week I am "working" (more like fishing) in Leitrim and have had everything running every night with no loss in power at all.. tv runs for several hours as well as inverter