I think I was lulled in to thinking 230ah was more than enough. I will be watching more closely both the usage and the battery getting to full capacity. I will probably go to the 100/50 MPPT controller that will kick on even if the battery is in safe mode.
Follow up question, is the on board 110 battery charger that came with the trailer capable of charging at 14.4 +-2v that LifeOp4 batteries like?
John Carter
Some usage info I just had.
I just had a chance to test my usage with the temp falling to freezing the first night and thirty eight or so the second night. 600 watts of solar and 3 100 AH batteries.
I used 75 AH the first night and 60 the second night. Had the temp up a bit higher the first night 68 degrees and turned it down to 64 the second night. Also turned off the water heater the second night as I did hear it kick on a few times the first night. 12 volt refrigerator also.
I ran my generator the third day for a bit since it was rainy and I knew the solar was not going to help much. Batteries were mid 60% at that time so it brought it up to around 75%, did not want the batteries dropping down to the 40% range over night. They again used about 60 AH that night with the temp around 40 degrees, heat set at 64 and water heater off.
I do not have an auto detect converter and just let the solar panels top off my batteries but the way it looks it will take 24 hours to get my batteries back up to a full charge now that I am on shore power. All three were at 50% when I plugged in yesterday about noon.
This is fine by me since I figure when I get to a campsite with power I am going to be there a few days anyway. I do not need all my shore power current going to the batteries and not be able to use my fireplace or microwave. One of the reasons I never ran larger wire to my batteries from the converter. I read that will increase the current due to the better voltage readings the way I understand it. I prefer to keep that current down.
In the middle of Iowa right now so the sun is definitely not at its peak. The day I had full sun maybe a few clouds(second) my solar kept the batteries where they were at or maybe added 5 AH a piece, do not have a screen shot of that afternoon but I was expecting a better pickup of AH's than what I got.
Testing it during the summer I was fine and would replenish during the day until I got five days of severely overcast and rain days. Solar was not enough to keep the batteries replenished and lost a bit each day.
Just the standard Go Power PWM controller that came with the camper.