General Mains when not in use?

[mfuller]

Hi All,

Just purchased our first camper. A 2006 (mk2) Ducato.

It has an EBL 263-5 electrical system/charger. All seems to work well, but I have a question...

When parked on the drive and not being used, is it best to keep it connect to the mains to keep the batteries topped up?

Someone also has fitted a solar panel at some point. This is charging both batteries as well but over the winter months I imagine not much will be generated.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[theoneandonly]

If you dont charge a Ducato the SB will be flat in about 3 weeks.

Any idea as to size of panel and is it a mppt or pwm charger.
If 100w or over and mppt you should be ok. If lots of parasitic draw ie additional alarm, tracker, Radio (a classic pain in the charge) etc more may be prefferable.

If you can monitor voltage or preferably current see what happens after 10 days. IF you can, check the parasitic current. How is the lesuire battery charged, a battery master or dual solar charger.

Dont leave on charge (ehu) all the time, it will cook the batteries.

 

[Anthony489]

Hi mfuller

In theory, with a proper 3 stage mains charger you can leave the mains on all the time and it will keep the battery properly charged. However, my own experience is that this shortens the life of the battery. I now compromise by running via a timeswitch so the mains only comes on for one hour a day. For the other 23 hours, there are a variety of low current loads which slightly discharge the battery, so at least it is being given some "work" to do in between charges. For whatever reasons, batteries seem to prefer this regime.


If you have mains available, I would recommend turning off the solar panels when in storage.

 

[Communicator]

I think that a lot depends on the make of the MH charger. My 2006 PVC is fitted with a CBE CB516 charger. The EHU and charger are on 24/7.
The original nondescript habitation batteries lasted a good 8 years, and I changed the starter battery at 11 years as a precaution. This battery was relegated to static duties in my garage, at a constant float voltage of 13.8V. It expired last month at over 15 years.

 

[theoneandonly]

toss the coin will it land on heads, tails or the side

 

[mfuller]

The solar charger is a Kemo M174. I don't know much about it (no instructions at all).

Solar panel.. no clue. It's large, but has no writing on it that I can see.

The controller appears to be connected to the Leisure battery and the starter battery.

 

[Ocwobio]

My Burstner has a Reich eBox 1, and is in store without hookup. I get a good reliable start even if not touched or charged for at least 4 months. Battery is maybe 3 yrs. old, I have now started to take the hab batts home and put them (2 off) on Optimate for a few weeks alternately. One is new, the other is at least 8 yrs. old, and no problems. I personally wouldn't keep hookup on, a timesitch is a good idea as stated, maybe 1 day in 7, for 12-24 hrs. a stretch. EDIT- I don't have solar either.

 

[theoneandonly]

I personally wouldn't keep hookup on, a timesitch is a good idea as stated, maybe 1 day in 7, for 12-24 hrs. a stretch.

I agree this is probably best solution for OP.
Amazing how simular set ups can yield different results. I have a CBE516 which didn't help 2 banners (FLA) fried in 2 years. I had a battery on My Bongo for 5 years (before selling age unknown) with only 100W solar in winter. Now i rely on trickle charge for SB from a votronics with 220W. LB is Lithium so disconected for winterization.

 

[lancepar]

mfuller,
Mines a similar set up to yours with a dual battery controller for the solar.
In the winter months when not in use I connect to the house mains via a timer set to come on for four hours every night which means the batteries get a little charge from the solar during the day and a helping boost overnight.
On my MoHo control panel I enable the "Power on" and "Battery select" options when doing this.

Works for me.

 

[Communicator]

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I have a CBE516 which didn't help 2 banners (FLA) fried in 2 years.

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I cuurently have two Banner FLA batteries in the habitation role.

Banner FLA batteries are notoriously thirsty. Did you keep them topped up?

 

[Ocwobio]

Just to add, I am going to, as ever, leave the starter battery on the vehicle over winter, it cannot get a supply to charge it where it is now stored, so I'm going to try the 2 LB's in parallel via an inverter and my optimate on site to give maybe 1 or 2 boosts over winter. If I can find my invertor! Only got it last year, used it once (to do what I said, at home) and now can't find it! It did seem to work as expected though.

 

[mfuller]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am going to get a timer and set the hook up for about 10 hours a week and see how I get on. I'll monitor the battery levels and see how they react. In fact, I need to make another thread about battery monitoring....

 

[Crossingkeeper]

It's interesting to read of other folks setups so I'll throw my hat into the ring

For several years & over two vans I've used a CSB2 (made by CBE)

This is wired to both the starter and leisure batteries and when the voltage on the latter reaches 13.7V or above, connects the starter battery into the charging circuit, whatever source that might be, solar or EHU. This means in practice that, if charging via EHU, it will operate straight away or if via solar then the leisure batteries effectively need to be fully charged before the starter battery get the leftovers.

I never needed to charge via EHU, even in winter, apart from an unfortunate incident when the solar controller malfunctioned, which is an issue for another thread.