Deep Cycle Battery brands, types, systems & installations

Removed as requested RR.

my 100W polycrystalline solar panel I have mounted on my roofrack cost me about $130 middle of last year. I measured this panel's open circuit output at 23V in full sun mid December.
In researching monocrystalline vs polycrystalline, a bit of info I dug up indicated that mono generally has a higher efficiency overall, but the gap is closing with poly now getting closer in efficiency (manufacturer quality obviously has a big bearing on that but). Poly panels are cheaper to produce & an interesting fact is that apparently the poly maintains its efficiency better at elevated temperatures. Handy in WA in the summer when it gets the most use.
Today around midday it was (still is) fully overcast & on/off drizzling rain, & with everything turned off but the DC-DC/Solar charger running, I was watching the voltmeter on the solar panel input. It was fluctuating from just over 7V to just over 15V & occasionally hitting 18V
In 4hrs the Aux battery has risen from 12.9V to 13.2V so im pretty happy with its performance

just watching my solar panel voltage in full sun today while the fridge was running.
running around 18-19V most of the time & dropping to around 9-10V with occasional cloud passing over.
went up to 20V a fair bit of the time. Hit a high of 20.9V a couple of times. (bottom voltmeter)
After a bit the battery (top voltmeter) was floating at 13.7V as set by the BMS

Hey is there anyway you could contact me DED?

jessicaaa said:

Hey is there anyway you could contact me DED?

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Yep the same way you can contact DD just use the email tab :Y: other than that you'll need to get busy to rack up your 10 post's and the members section will open up. Then you'll have the PM (private message) function active and you'll be able to send / receive pm's.
Welcome to PA Jessicaaa.

Does anyone run dual panels wired in series, if so do you run them through a MPPT or other devices?

probably not much point Nightjar. series doubles the voltage, & then it just gets regulated back to the appropriate battery charge voltage, but keep in mind most (talking car 12V systems) MPPT DC-DC charge controllers have a max input voltage of around 20-23V so it wouldnt like your 40V or so coming in & would shut off.
When in parallel the voltage stays much the same with double current available. Downside is heavier wires required for higher current flow, but you're stuck with it due the reason above (max voltage in)

DED

condor22 said:

Yup, ask any RAAF Instrument Fitter how they terminate wires in pins n sockets. We just drive ours down the road at 100kph, their wiring travels a "little" faster a "little" higher and "little" more temperature variation

Amazing what can be learned standing behind one of those guys......

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Mate can you let me know when you are back on line coz I got a bit of an issue.

thanks mate.

john.

paralleling is ideal for big amps , i run a 100/30 victron mppt now and it handles things with ease ower:
the old 75/15 is great for my pair 100 watt blanket's, they make 6.5amps each in good solar sun :sunny:

here is my hard panel paralleled with some of my mats :sunny:



dual paralleled is ideal if you have a 24v system/inverter as 24 to 240 is much less effort than 12 to 240 :Y:

and good mppt's such as victron are auto detect for the 12-24 volts

ctxkid said:

paralleling is ideal for big amps , i run a 100/30 victron mppt now and it handles things with ease ower:
the old 75/15 is great for my pair 100 watt blanket's, they make 6.5amps each in good solar sun :sunny:

here is my hard panel paralleled with some of my mats :sunny:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/12410/1552515294_p1120577.jpg

dual paralleled is ideal if you have a 24v system/inverter as 24 to 240 is much less effort than 12 to 240 :Y:

and good mppt's such as victron are auto detect for the 12-24 volts

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Yep that's the best way, My local solar shop told me not to put them in series out in the bush because when the sun moves If a tree or bush casts a shadow on the edge or where ever on the panel it will cut your power in a big way, In series works better when it is out in the open.

series might be good for a domestic installation where you could be running a 48V battery bank, but in a car 12V situation the charge controller has input limits.
This is a snapshot of my Projecta IDC45 DC-DC charge controller. It can be seen that it has a MAX Input Voltage of 32Vdc (alternator/generator),
& a MAX Solar Input of 28Vdc ... so 2 panels in series delivering around 40V exceeds its limit. It will either clip voltage & waste power, or shut off. I havent tried it to find out, & probably wont

i dont use my idc as a charge controller , rather use the 30amp built into the inverter

but now Victron has appeared in my life , a bluetooth mppt has taken the job over :sunny: ower: erfect:

and by the above chart the idc has a low peak pv voltage of 17.5 :8 where as the panel will go north of 20v

I got screwed when buying a couple of deep cycle batteries this week, I ordered another 115A/H - 1000cca and they sent a 100A/h which is about 35 bucks cheaper so I complained about it and they said they would send another 115/1000 out right away, I tested it with my computer gizmo and the CCA was right down @ 833 So I tested it again and it come up the same, I also ordered an 85A/H as my main Starter Battery that was meant to be 900cca I hooked it up to my tester and sure enough it was reading Low, I did the maths and it turns out that the 115/1000 is actually a 798.81/800cca and the 85/900 works out to be 718.93 /720cca, So it appears that they have changed the US scale of MCA/CA which is "Marine Cranking Amps to CCA on the 115/1000 and on the 85/900 they put CCA when in fact it is CA which is Cranking Amps, MCA and CA are the same Scales but they left the figures the same and gave em different Names, And now the new 115/1000 does not match my original 110/1000.

And The delivery guy never took the 110A/H away with him when he came, so now I got a new 24kg door stop, LOL. They better not charge me for it or It will on their case because I still don't have any batteries that match. ] oop: oop:

PS and I got a new jump starter Pack and a new Charger So if I flatten the batteries I have the Starter Pack as backup. :Y: erfect:

J.

Ridge Runner said:

I got screwed when buying a couple of deep cycle batteries this week, I ordered another 115A/H - 1000cca and they sent a 100A/h which is about 35 bucks cheaper so I complained about it and they said they would send another 115/1000 out right away, I tested it with my computer gizmo and the CCA was right down @ 833 So I tested it again and it come up the same, I also ordered an 85A/H as my main Starter Battery that was meant to be 900cca I hooked it up to my tester and sure enough it was reading Low, I did the maths and it turns out that the 115/1000 is actually a 798.81/800cca and the 85/900 works out to be 718.93 /720cca, So it appears that they have changed the US scale of MCA/CA which is "Marine Cranking Amps to CCA on the 115/1000 and on the 85/900 they put CCA when in fact it is CA which is Cranking Amps, MCA and CA are the same Scales but they left the figures the same and gave em different Names, And now the new 115/1000 does not match my original 110/1000.

And The delivery guy never took the 110A/H away with him when he came, so now I got a new 24kg door stop, LOL. They better not charge me for it or It will on their case because I still don't have any batteries that match. ] oop: oop:

J.

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a true deep cycle agm will not rate a cca reading :Y:

dual purpose deep cycles have not got the same ability to last under load :Y:

ctxkid said:

Ridge Runner said:

I got screwed when buying a couple of deep cycle batteries this week, I ordered another 115A/H - 1000cca and they sent a 100A/h which is about 35 bucks cheaper so I complained about it and they said they would send another 115/1000 out right away, I tested it with my computer gizmo and the CCA was right down @ 833 So I tested it again and it come up the same, I also ordered an 85A/H as my main Starter Battery that was meant to be 900cca I hooked it up to my tester and sure enough it was reading Low, I did the maths and it turns out that the 115/1000 is actually a 798.81/800cca and the 85/900 works out to be 718.93 /720cca, So it appears that they have changed the US scale of MCA/CA which is "Marine Cranking Amps to CCA on the 115/1000 and on the 85/900 they put CCA when in fact it is CA which is Cranking Amps, MCA and CA are the same Scales but they left the figures the same and gave em different Names, And now the new 115/1000 does not match my original 110/1000.

And The delivery guy never took the 110A/H away with him when he came, so now I got a new 24kg door stop, LOL. They better not charge me for it or It will on their case because I still don't have any batteries that match. ] oop: oop:

J.

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a true deep cycle agm will not rate a cca reading :Y:

dual purpose deep cycles have not got the same ability to last under load :Y:

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Yeah I was going to get AGM's but I need them with the + on the left and the - on the right so I had no choice but to get LA deep cycle batteries,

hey CTXKid, that 17.5V does have me a little perplexed, as Ive monitored both the solar output/charger input, & the voltage being delivered across the battery. & it seems to be working as expected.
Ive taken that 'Solar MPPT Voltage' as meaning the MPPT runs to an upper limit of 17.5V then clips anything above that, but thats an assumption.
i think I will put a couple of voltmeters across various points one day & see exactly whats going on there, as my panel regularly rises above 20v without any problems.

MPPT voltage is and never should be a fixed number.

It stands for maximum power point tracking.

IE it will constantly test itself to see if there can be a maximum gain in watts delivered by varying the dc voltage coming in.

A proper MPPT will vary all over the place according to weather conditions.

I have seen some crap controllers that have a "target mppt voltage" that they are set to, but they don't actually track anything.

MPPT means it tracks the fluctuating voltage coming from the solar panel.
on the principle of Watts=Volts x Amps if the charger is in a state of output of say 13.7V to the battery (just an example), it will invert a higher incoming voltage down to the 13.7 & deliver more amps (Wattage power in = power out).
If the incoming voltage is lower than 13.7V it will invert upwards to reach 13.7 at a lower amps (except if the incoming voltage is below the 'dropout' voltage
ie, It tracks the incoming voltage to determine what it needs to do

My friend from the East who put me onto series solar & MPPT controllers sent me this Youtube, a layman's version where the finer technicalities that the majority of us do not require are excluded.
Having been using this set up for years and the present 110AH Deepcycle is into it's 4th year?
Am very interested in constructive comments, this video runs for 7 minutes.

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zXwPWRlsRo[/video]

Nightjar said:

My friend from the East who put me onto series solar & MPPT controllers sent me this Youtube, a layman's version where the finer technicalities that the majority of us do not require are excluded.
Having been using this set up for years and the present 110AH Deepcycle is into it's 4th year?
Am very interested in constructive comments, this video runs for 7 minutes.

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Yeah NJ that's what my Solar guy told me, like I said the only down side is when a shadow is cast on one of the panels, but he also said that MPPT is way better for all out Power Recovery, I think I might add both types of comtrollers then If I am in a place where I get full Sun "Over here that ain't gonna happen" LOL. then I can use the MPPT and if I am not out in the open then I can use the PWM,

Thanks NJ for posting that, very comforting to get the full SP, :Y:

I have been charging these new Deep Cycle Batteries, One has been on charge for 25 hours and now it has been in maintenance mode since yesterday On my New NOCO G15000 "15Amp" Charger and then my new Noco G26000 "26" Charger turned up so I hooked it up to one of the other new batteries and it has been on charge for 13 hours,

Side by side Testing Using my favourite Normal Old style charger on Wheels work shop type charger Puts out up to 35 Amp on high and 310 Amp on start and the New NOCO G15000 "15A" Charger with Both put on charge at the same time using Two 115 DC 800cca / 1000mca Batteries In less that 4 hours the NOCO was Done and My Normal 35Amp charger was about to over supply its battery so I had to stop the test and then put it's battery on the NOCO G15000 to Charge it properly and recover the battery, Because the Normal Charger had started to Kill Off the Cranking Amps of the Battery at this point the Battery only had 416 CCA available and when you consider it should have been reading over 800, IE the other 2 Batteries read at 861 and 880, being at 416cca is a heck of a lot to loose that's almost half it's grunt,

Bottom Line, These NOCO Chargers are awesome and will eat any charger on the planet, The 15A one made my big Truck charger look stupid and in a 1/3 of the time But they can Charge Any type of battery out there and the bigger G26000 can even Charge them new 16v Lithium Racing Batteries and it can charge 12v 16v and 24v and rated for batteries up to 500Amps but it can be left on any battery forever with ZERO damage which means no more dead batteries,

I also bought A NOCO Booster The GB150 and it is meant for 10 Litre Trucks and bigger I have seen it start a 14.8L/15L Detroit Diesel in a Peterbuilt, But then there is this Bad Boy which is the next model up, LOL. I might get it Yet :inlove: :inlove: :inlove: :inlove: :inlove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3kpIIbGV38