Vehicle battery charging

Will the vehicle battery be changed when on ehu?
Ours goes flat ?I thought this wasn't possible. Any help please

If you have a Sargent panel you will probably have to switch manually to the vehicle battery setting.

Before we had a solar panel and Battery Master I always left it charging the vehicle battery, but switched to the habitation battery for a day or two once per fortnight. If the vehicle battery goes flat you are in trouble, so I gave that priority.

Hope this helps, but I don't know your van at all. Check your panel - you will soon see if there's a separate setting for each battery.

If you do not have it, you can download all the Sargent instructions from:

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I have a 2014 Duo and I can indeed charge either the starter, or the leisure battery by switching as required on the EC 51 control panel by the side door (the EC 155 is the power unit I have fitted). I am not 100% certain what unit you have as A-S changed the unit fitted at some stage.

If all else fails try a phone call to either A-S and / or Sargent and enquire from them.

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PeteJ

Same as Spospe I have, on the Kemerton, the Sargent EC 155 power unit with a EC 51 control panel. When charging on EHU with the control panel ON I find both the L & V batteries are charging. I occasionally press the L & V display buttons to check if both the batteries are charging. The display automatically turns off after about 5 seconds. Clearly if only one battery was charging eg. the L battery when the L display button is pressed on, I would eventually need to switch to the V button to charge V battery, but this I have never had to do. Incidentally, I cannot find any section in the Sargent instructions for the EC 51 which specifies that you should select only the V display button if you want to charge the V battery and vis-avis the L button for the L battery. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Mel

Hi Machloop, I give my apologies if I have misunderstood your enquiry. Are your awning light and step operational or are you  just curious with regard to the 'dealer configuration' aspect? There is a thread some time ago whereby roli entered the menue on advice from another member to reconfigure the operation of his step.

PLOUGHLIN wrote:The instructions appear clear to me. Which ever battery is selected on the control panel, is the battery which supplies the Hab electrics and is the battery receiving the charge from the PSU. The amount of charge varies depending on the Hab usage load, up to a max of 12 amp (155W). Page 2 of the EC155 explains.

As far as I know all Sargent PSUs work similarly.

That seems to be true of all of the "lesser" Sargent power control systems - as far as I can tell it's true of all up to the EC328. But above that it gets more complicated, because most of them have an intelligent charge system which covers ~both~ batteries. But it only operates with the control panel turned on - unlike the similar power distribution for the solar side of the system - which operates even with the control panel turned off.

Here's the wording for an EC600 (the wording seems to be similar in the manuals for all of the higher-spec controllers):

The EC651 PSU (Motorhome) incorporates a smart charge feature, which monitors both leisure and
vehicle batteries and automatically adjusts and directs the charger power (and solar power if a solar
panel is installed) to maintain the leisure and vehicle batteries at an optimal level.

Complicated, innit? The EC600 manual is also not that great because it doesn't (unlike the manuals for the other higher-spec PSUs) tell you what the charger does when the controller is in "Isolated" mode - for example when in storage. I strongly suspect that it only charges the leisure battery, but that's just a guess...

Hi Mojo & Peter thank you for solving my query. I did assume the Sargent power unit on my vehicle had an intelligent charging system that monitored the required voltage input for both batteries when the control panel is turned on, but still required your expertise and confirmation on the matter.
Mel

My request and The response I received from Sargent.

The EC51 does need to be on to charge the battery. However without being manually switched over, the charge will only operate on one battery. Having a heater in the van on 230v should not impact on the charger.

Kind Regards
Tim Sanderson
Technical Specialist

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: 06 January 2017 20:49
To: Support <[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk>
Subject: EC155/EC50 battery charging

Hello

I have a Autosleeper Kemerton 2012 fitted with your EC155/EC51 unit.

Can you confirm that I need to have the EC51 turned on and either leisure or vehicle battery selected to enable selected battery to be charged whilst on  electric hook up. I assume it does not charge either battery whilst the EC51 is turned off.

I intend to alternate between leisure and vehicle battery charging every few days to keep both charged

I also intend to have have a 500w oil filled heater connected to one of the internal 240v sockets to maintain a temperature above freezing during winter storage. Hopefully this is OK and does not effect battery charging.

Why did the vehicle battery go flat? The likely culprit would be the radio which runs off it. Might be worth running a lead from the leisure battery to power the radio if that is the case. Failing that one of those battery master devices which take power from the habitation battery to boost the vehicle battery.

Hi Biker
This is a puzzle. As I previously stated, I am confident that BOTH batteries charge when the EC51 control power is switched on, without requiring any manual switching operation. The operating system, at least in my case, must incorporate an intelligent charge system which covers both batteries.
Mel

Hi,
As I understand it, on my 2013 Kemerton, the default setting for the EC51 unit is when switched off and on EHU it will only charge the leisure battery. To charge the vehicle battery you have to switch the unit on and switch to the vehicle battery setting.
I have since installed a Battery Master from VanBitz which charges both batteries with the EC51 unit switched off.
Frank

Hi Frank, thank you. I accept your observations with regards to the EC51 unit, which are confirmed with my multimeter voltage readings of the respective batteries when on EHU charge, i.e. ‘to charge the vehicle battery you have to switch the unit on and switch to the vehicle battery setting’.
Mel