Solar system when stored

by andrewlowe Sun Aug 20, 2017 11:53 pm

Hello AS guru's,
I may have an opportunity to store my Winchcombe in Spain over Winter....As there should be more sunshine in Spain,I am considering not hitting the SUTDOWN button,but instead keeping the Leisure system ON,(pump,light's OFF) so that the Sargent control system can still monitor both batteries,& the Solar can keep both batteries charged?......any advise / previous experience would be appreciated?
Regards Andrew

by -mojo- Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:01 am

You don't say how big a panel you have, but provided it's stored somewhere out of the shade I would expect an 80 or 100W panel would be no problem at all. If it's somewhere that's partially shaded with the sun lower in the sky you might find a 30W panel marginal - but it also depends which Sargent controller you have. Some of the higher-end ones can be quite power-hungry, while the simpler ones (e.g. EC325/328) do not seem to take much power at all when on.

by Greyhound Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:01 pm

I leave mine on when stored between trips and it works really well.

Like you say, just have everything else off and it will monitor both batteries and switch over as needed. I was checking a few things this weekend and had a look at the status and both batteries were a really healthy condition.

by Eltel Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:51 pm

Likewise I never turn mine off

Terry

by Peter Brown Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:43 am

Greyhound wrote:I leave mine on when stored between trips and it works really well.

Like you say, just have everything else off and it will monitor both batteries and switch over as needed. I was checking a few things this weekend and had a look at the status and both batteries were a really healthy condition.

Last winter lots of owners had problems with flattening batteries whilst the van was in storage. The problem was that the power consumed by the solar controller in the EC500 psu was greater than that generated by the solar panel. The advice from AS was to switch the psu off, this would prevent the leisure battery from discharging. Unfortunately it also results in the base vehicle electrical systems flattening the starter battery, the way to prevent this is to disconnect the starter battery if the vehicle is going to be stored for more than a couple of weeks (as advised in the base vehicle owners manual).

by mikethebike Sat Aug 26, 2017 6:54 am

I suspect an alarm system would complicate this question.

regards

Micky

Solar system when stored

Solar system when stored

Re: Solar system when stored

Re: Solar system when stored

Re: Solar system when stored

Re: Solar system when stored

Re: Solar system when stored