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Managing the batteries on an Autosleeper Broadway 2019 EB model
Regrettably we had to cut short our first tour away in Bryony
due to the introduction of the second lock down in early November 2020. At that
time, we returned her to her storage site with deep misgivings.
Firstly, how was she going to fair over the four weeks of lock down with regard to the water leak through the roof into the bathroom cupboard? Our dealership had rapidly effected a temporary repair (which you can read about here https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-good-is-your-motorhome-dealership.html but four weeks without inspection? We’d packed the bathroom with little £1.00 dehumidifiers and spent much of November offering up silent prayers that all was well.
Our second misgiving was over the batteries. We were in such a
rush to get her home, cleaned and packed away for her extended stay during lock
down, that we really hadn’t given any thought to what we had to do with the
Sargent EC700 unit. Should we have switched it off at the
black isolation switch? Should we have just left it on and made sure that the
harmony panel was switched off so that the SMART solar panel charger could
continue to charge up both the vehicle and leisure battery at alternating four
hourly intervals?
On the advice of someone at the site who also had a Broadway, we opted for the latter choice, leaving the Sargent panel switched on and the solar panel system charging on the SMART mode. And then, we spent the next four weeks worrying about whether we’d done the right thing.
Our auto-LOCATE app was used twice a day to monitor the battery
levels and we soon discovered that during the day the batteries averaged around
12.2v or 12.3v consistently, before dropping to around 12.1v each towards
evening time, as you would expect. The sun was very weak, low in the sky and
most days were cloudy and/or drizzly during November. Typical autumnal
conditions, not really conducive to solar charging.
But, here now in early December, we are left with a question. Is
a 12.2v consistent charge for each battery a good thing or a bad thing? We don’t know!
On various Autosleepers Owners Forums and Facebook groups, people have
been generous of their time and expertise when we posed this question. But, as
is often the case, such a question doesn’t always elicit a straight forward
response and this can be confusing for newbies with limited motorhoming
knowledge.
The advice we received broadly fell into one of two camps. Camp
one advocated we did the right thing leaving the Sargent panel switched on at the
black switch and allowing the solar charger to operate smart charging between the
two batteries.
Camp two argued we should have switched off the EC700 unit so that
the solar panel just charged the vehicle battery. The leisure battery would
have, apparently, been fine over the month of lock down.
So perhaps, it boils down to no one correct way of leaving the
batteries when putting your motorhome into storage. Or does it?
We got lots of other advice which we weren’t sure what camp it
went into. For example:
“Be aware that read outs on your app aren’t always as accurate as they
should be and it would be best for you to check them with a multimeter”. A good
tip, so long as you can gain access to your storage site (which of course at
that time, we couldn’t).
“12.8v is a full charge with no load. Modern habitation batteries are
always on load from various permanent live electronics so don’t rely on solar
at this time of year, the sun is too low and too weak to meaningfully charge
anything and an 80w solar panel won’t be powerful enough to keep leisure and
vehicle batteries fully charged”.
“The voltage charge needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Some
people have 100% charge on 12.3v”
“Disconnect the batteries and take them home”.
“No, don’t disconnect the batteries. Trackers and alarms will
become inoperable. If you are at home and have access to an electrical hook up (EHU)
point, why not plug in which will use 'smart charging' to maintain your leisure
and vehicle batteries”. (Actually, something we want to avoid doing as
we don’t want to advertise in our neighbourhood that we have a Motorhome).
“Put the Moho on EHU every month and switch off the Sargent power
control system in between charges, the leisure battery should be OK for 3 months
without charge providing it is in good condition and was fully charged at the
start. With the power control system
switched off the only drain on the leisure battery will be self-discharge and a
negligible amount of current to the tracker”.
“If you disconnect the leisure battery it will trigger a tracker
alert/phone call unless you put the tracker into service mode through AS
Monitor. If you leave the leisure
battery disconnected it will force the tracker to use its internal
non-rechargeable battery. Whilst this
will last for some time, it's not a good idea as it will bring forward the day
when the battery needs to be replaced.
For security reasons the less people who know where the tracker is the
better so its best left well alone”.
“The Peugeot/Fiat Boxer/Ducato has a vehicle battery isolation
button on the ignition for storage purposes.
If used, the vehicle battery, like the leisure battery when the
EC500/700 is shutdown, should be fine for 3 months without charge providing it
is fully charged to start with and is in good condition. The downside of isolating the vehicle battery
is that the central locking and any vehicle alarm that is fitted is
disabled. Isolating the vehicle battery
or shutting down the EC500/700 will also disable AS Monitor's vehicle battery
low voltage alert and prevent its voltage been seen on AS Monitor”. (We
couldn’t find the battery isolation switch and we aren’t sure we want to lose
AS monitor app either).
So here we are, having learned a huge amount but still slightly
confused and a little overwhelmed. Are
we any wiser as to the correct shut down procedure for a sustained
period of time? Probably not.
We do understand the thinking behind most of what has been said
though and we were particularly struck by this observation.
“The fitted solar panel can keep up, it's the EC700 that's the
problem. The controller unit drains a
large amount of power when it's on (the main push button switch, rather than
turning off the display) and the 'smart' function switches between the 2
batteries every 4 hours. In winter, you
may only get 4 hours decent sunlight, which means only 1 battery gets a decent
charge on a given day. If that happens
routinely it doesn't take long for the charge to drop”.
Maybe, in the future, when we have a bit of experience under our
belt and have a better understanding of how our motorhome works, we might
investigate this point further.
“Turn off the EC unit to avoid the drain, and the 'smart' function
turns off and only the one battery is charged by the solar, leaving the second
to drop over time. So, the fault is the
controller rather than the solar if you see what I mean and the reason bypassing
it for solar charging is a common mod.
No problem if you're not up on solar electrics though, the storage you
describe should be fine. As long as you
have access to EHU you can top up the batteries every now and again to stop the
problem”.
We are sure that when such a time as this comes, we will not be
alone. The expertise, generosity and curiosity shown on the various forums
reassures us that help will be only a few clicks away.
It would be remiss to leave this blog hanging. Decisions have to be
reached and this is now our current thinking (excuse the pun)?
1.
At this time of year, the 80W solar panel and
its controller don’t produce enough power to the EC700 smart charging system.
We were OK until December 2nd when the month-long lock down was
lifted, despite all that worrying. We immediately took Bryony for a 100-mile
round trip to Exmouth for the day to charge up the batteries. Next time, we
have to shut her down for a long period of time without access to her – we will
shut down the EC700 using the isolator switch on the PSU, so isolating the
leisure battery. All solar charge should be sent to the vehicle battery. In
this way we will have tried both recommended systems and we can then decide
which camp of thought we will follow in the future. Meanwhile, every few weeks,
we will take her for a long run (a ‘grand day out’) to charge up the leisure battery.
2.
We have a better understanding of our AS
Monitor app. Our batteries appear to be
around 12.1v early in the morning, climbing up to around 12.4v max during the autumn/winter
day (depending on the amount of sunshine or cloud) before then falling back
down to 12.1v again as dusk approaches. We are now aware that during the night
there is a constant drain of around 0.2A which partially discharges the leisure
and/or vehicle battery, hence the low readings in the morning. During winter
the following days charge is only replenishing what was lost the night before
in ‘drain’. Thus, the batteries are not really being charged up properly at any
time. In essence all the solar system ‘seems’ to do is replenish the current
drain on the EC700 unit. It makes us wonder how ‘SMART’ the solar charging system
really is, but given neither of us are electricians, we could be rather unfair
in our thinking towards it!
3.
We discovered on the app that the EC700 unit has
a special circuit which sends a text and email warning via AutoLOCATE should the
batteries fall below a certain voltage. We have now set that up correctly. The
system can isolate the batteries as well, thus preventing damage to them. The
cut off voltage for the vehicle battery is 10.9v and this should still allow
the vehicle to start according to the handbook. The cut off voltage for the
leisure battery is 11.1v.
4.
Many people on the forums and owners’ groups
do not appear ‘fully convinced’ as to the efficacy of the solar charging system
used by Sargent. Many seem to be bypassing it with their own set ups. Many kindly
explained to us how to do this. Sadly, they hadn’t appreciated that we have
next to zero electronic understanding or capability whatsoever. It is not
something we are immediately going to rush to do. Let’s wait and see what
happens over this forthcoming winter. And apart from which, we do not want to
invalidate any warranties in any way, shape or form.
Meanwhile, we will keep you posted about our solar charging system
and how things fair over winter.
If you would like to know more about us, then visit our first blog posts at
https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/10/welcome-to-our-blog.html
and
https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/11/who-are-the-main-characters-in-our-blog.html
And remember, stay safe, take care out there, have fun motorhoming
and send us a postcard of your travels (we have a ‘Postcards from’ page which
we regularly update – we always look forward to receiving a picture of you and
your motorhome with a short caption of where you are at).
Steve and Maggie.
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Hi, we always look forward to hearing your comments, tips and thoughts. Drop us a line or two below. Take care now. Steve and Maggie