RVing With Simple Upgrades
Here is the "fuel gauge" we use in our GMC, for our electrical system. There are others but I have this one, like it, and am most familiar with it. This is a Trimeteric 2020. To the best of my memory I paid 135.00 for this new. I think they retail for about 20 dollars more than that. If you want a solar system you need this, or one that will do what it does. At present it shows the actual voltage on our 4 house batteries. We don't plug the GMC in while it is sitting in our driveway, where it has been for the last 3 months. The meter beside it is not necessary. That is a remote meter for our 60 amp charge controller. It will tell you the voltage and amps at the panels, not very useful. Also will let you know the "mode" the solar charger is in. You can look at the charger if you want to save 115 bux. I do like to look at the panel amperage and compare it to the amperage of charge at the batteries. Normally there is only 1/2 amp loss. That is because of the number 6 welding cable that I ran.
Here is the actual charge at the batteries. They are full, which the next picture will show. If they were "down" you would see a lot of charge going on.
Percentage of discharge. I rarely look at this. It just says batteries are full. In all of our drycamping I have never seen this read below the low 70% range. The instructions show you how to program this meter so that it is relatively accurate.
Now, fuzzy as this picture is, it is showing the "high voltage" that has been present at the batteries since my last "reset". I have the charger set a little high but I like to get those batteries charged as fast as I can. The charger is actually set on 15 volts. This is reading a "spike". You can set your charge controller where you want. I will not argue the point. I do keep a close check on my fluid level. We do adjust the set points depending on our use and need to lower it a bit while we are not using it. Probably back to 14.5 volts.
Another feature is the "low voltage" that has been at the batteries. For some reason this is not always accurate on my meter. It drops to 11.8 volts every night which is not true. Never have figured out, or been concerned, as to why it reads incorrectly. I have monitored the "low voltage" and never seen it drop like that. Not something I want to discuss here, just showing you some of the functions. Once the sun drops the voltage will read 12.8, no charge from solar.If I could have focused the camera you could read the writing. It lists the functions that I did not. One of the functions is "days since last equalized". My main concerns are: How much fuel is in my batteries and how much do they need to be full. This meter tells me that plus more.
I can flip it to amperage and see what each appliance is drawing. I know, from this meter, that the vacuum draws 22amps. The two air pumps, running together, draw 17 amps. Before changing over to solar lighting I knew what each fluorescent bulb was drawing. This meter helped me understand that I can light our entire coach with 1/2 the amperage draw that one 18 inch fluorescent fixture was using.
When I first installed this thing I sat around at night watching it. Now, the display is normally turned off. I look at it when I go to bed. I will also take a look at about sunset, to see if the batteries are fully charged. Makes life simple. Solar is great. Install it right and let it work, but you "need" a good meter before you spend money on solar panels and a decent charger.
My intentions are to describe things as simple as I can. There was nothing available to me when I was doing the solar work on our coach. I dug around all over the internet and spent money on books. Everything available was technical and hard to understand. Therefore, I wasted money on stuff I did not need or on parts that were cheap and would not do what I needed. Someone needs to write a book that lets people in on the "secret". This is simple to do yourself.
Hope this helps at least one person to save a few bucks. This meter will pay for itself, trust me.
Thanks for checking in on me. Teri is still with her dad in Portland. The plan was to geocache today but just too cool for me to enjoy it, maybe tomorrow.
Dan
posted by Dan & Teri Gregg @ 2:23 PM
1 Comments:
I like my new Trimetric 2025 meter. I think I have it programed right, but I'll have to have you check it next time I see you.
Next step is more LEDs, then solar.
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