Battery discharge prevention

defike

Hi done a home build last year and just have one question.
I wired it up for 2 leisure batteries haven't bought them yet just using two old car batteries to see how things work.
So my question,with say the coolbox plugged in how do you prevent the leisure batteries from discharging completely as I think this is bad for the battery.
I have a Brocott unit between the leisure batteries and the van battery so the van battery is protected.This is just a light charging cable so it fits ok the power cables from the leisure batteries are large and I dont want to shrink them to fit the brocott unit.

Buford T Justice

Is the brocott just the split charge unit?

I'd need to think for a while about this, but off the top of my head its doable. Most inverters have a built in protection into them so when they battery falls below a certain voltage it disconnects.... Same principle here, just needs some lateral thinking.

In saying that, whats the harm in running down the leisure batteries in a van?

paddyp

cheapest off the shelf thing I've come accross is those cheapie solar charge controllers they disconnect the load when battery bank voltage falls they get expensive over 100w-200w but you could switch a relay with the output to get as many amps as you like

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-24V-144-200W-Solar-Panel-Charge-Regulator-Controller-/270803844870?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item3f0d2abf06

I'd be interested to see what the standby current on these is.

Buford T Justice wrote: »

In saying that, whats the harm in running down the leisure batteries in a van?

Lead acid battery last much longer when they are not too deeply discharged, even gel, agm an so called leisure batteries.

wanr yig

Can also use this one
http://www.dhgate.com/solar-panel-charger-controller-regulator/p-ff808081259b57640125adc0fbf939a7.html

defike

I have a solar panel connected through a Solar controller but how it works is you set it to work for how ever many hours you want and it does switch off at a certain preset voltage.Problem is the work hours starts when the panel stops i.e. darkness has fallen.You can set it to be outputting all the time (day & night)but then the protection is lost.ie it will output until the battery fails.
Also the connections are just for charging size cables not discharging.
OK looking at the above controller its different to mine and it looks like its not programmable and it does output all the time.
Will look at my cables to see if they will fit. Thanks lads.

annddy

Problem solved?

defike

Yes bought brocott battery protector on ebay.

annddy

Congratulations!

defike

Keno battery protector.