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Covid-19 has stopped us from our annual Overseas winter holiday so with spare coin we decided to go lithium. One month ago we had 2x 12v 125ah(actually 135ah) lithium house batteries installed. We were pretty pleased with ourselves more overall amp/hrs, faster charging, greater DoD and a massive reduction in weight. In the first week we were keen to see how well the batteries recharge and it didn’t seem to live up to the claims. We had 400watt of solar so thought we shouldn’t have to much of a problem recharging. But it just didn’t seem to be working as expected.we never manage to get the batteries up to 100% SoC unless plugged into power or running the generator for exceptionally long periods. On contacting the agents that we purchased the batteries from they were quite surprised to our claim, asked if we were able to call in when passing through which we were the following week. On checking our system over they found that when Auckland Motorhomes upgraded our solar panels from 100w to 200w and the we up graded to 400w they connected all the panel correctly but to go from the solar panels to the batteries, they passed through the Sargent system which meant all the thick solar panel cables were all bottle neck into the very thin light weight wiring of the Sargent back out through the same sized wire into the thick battery leads to charge the batteries. The resistance was so great that the small wiring head heat discolouration and it was lucky our Moho never went up in flames. They bypassed the Sargent with proper thickness cables and I just couldn’t believe how much of a difference it made. Thanks to Enertec Marine for the amazing job fixing the problem and up you Auckland Motorhomes or whoever you are called now. By the way each battery has a Battery Management System (BMS) which bluetooths to our smart devices giving us amps -/+, SoC % battery temp and battery voltage.
Adding to the efficiency of the solar capability is the addition of a portable folding 130w mono-crystalline solar panel. Suggested to us by Enertec Marine to boost the recharging of batteries during the winter shorter days. Can only say wow what a difference when pointing the panel towards the sun. With the main 400 watts of solar panels on the roof lying flat on the roof of our moho, they are not that efficient in the winter with the sun lower in the sky and shorter days, the 130w solar panel maybe smaller a wattage, but it is highly efficient in the winter.
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