Kingham vehicle battery flat

UWent to use van today after being stood for three weeks,  vehicle battery was flat, leisure battery fully charged. The solar panel system is switched to smart charge on controller, nothing was switched on, the only draw on the battery was the auto watch alarm system, surely the solar panel should have maintained the vehicle battery?

Defo  didn’t have sat nav plugged in? Only ask cos I’ve been experiencing a a little drain too on V Battery......unplugged sat nav and dash cam from 12 V sockets and it’s made a difference!

Mel C wrote:UWent to use van today after being stood for three weeks,  vehicle battery was flat, leisure battery fully charged. The solar panel system is switched to smart charge on controller, nothing was switched on, the only draw on the battery was the auto watch alarm system, surely the solar panel should have maintained the vehicle battery?

Was the power supply switched off completely on the unit itself and just on the control panel?

Did you have the EC500
a) switched off
or
b) shutdown (the black button out at top left on EC500)
or
c) switched on ?

If EC500 is shutdown then the solar only charges the leisure (chap 3.6 page 8 EC500 manual).

Thanks for your responses, satnav was plugged in to l/hand socket on dash, but that goes dead when vehicle off? The EC480 (500?) was turned off on top l/hand button, I thought on smart charge it still carried out its duty in that position.

Mel C wrote:The EC480 (500?) was turned off on top l/hand button

Unfortunately it is still not clear if you don't know which is the EC480 and which is EC500 because the top left of EC480 is power and top left of EC500 is shutdown, power on EC500 is 2nd top left.

EC480 is the panel (above side door on a Warwick). EC500 is at floor level (under sofa by back door on a Warwick).
There is a power button on both EC480 and EC500 (these are linked).
There is a further shutdown button on the EC500.
So the system can be in one of 3 states, either on, off and shutdown.

If the shutdown button (EC500) is out then the system is shutdown (not just off) and then the solar charges the leisure only regardless of whether it is configured to smart charge or V or L. If your still unclear then a further test is that the EC480 cannot turn the system on when it's shutdown so no buttons on the EC480 do anything.

If you want to solar charge the Vehicle battery then the EC500 needs to be on or off but not shutdown.

Do you think your issue could be the EC500 being shutdown?

HTH Don

Sorry for my confusion over EC500 and EC480.
The EC500 I leave on all the time, the EC480 over the door I have been switching off when parking van up out of use.

So we are getting to the time of year when the output from the solar panel is not enough to both power the EC500 and provide a charge for the batteries. The only way to stop the batteries discharging when the van is not in use and not on hookup is to switch off the EC500 and disconnect the Vehicle battery (as Peugeot advise) Your van is probably new enough to have a battery isolation position on the ignition key.


The issues associated with this scenario have been thrashed out in several other threads on this forum last winter.

Problem is for people with alarms and tracker's powered by vehicle battery, other wise I'd just isolate the vehicle battery as said from the ignition switch

woodlice wrote:Problem is for people with alarms and tracker's powered by vehicle battery, other wise I'd just isolate the vehicle battery as said from the ignition switch

The alarm and tracker don't work with a flat battery either. At least you can start then engine when you reconnect the battery after its been disconnected in storage.

Problem is you may not be insured

If I recall last winter's threads correctly, the best solution seemed to be to completely switch off the EC500 and to use a Battery Master (or similar, there are quite a lot of copies available now) to feed excess solar power from the leisure battery when it is fully charged to the vehicle battery. You don't have to suffer the excessive power consumption of the EC500, and the remaining solar panel output should be able to keep up with the greediest of alarm systems, provided you have 80W or more of solar panel and it's parked up somewhere where it can get winter sunlight for a few hours a day.

It's been said before: I suspect that the reason for the excessive consumption by the EC500 is due to some misunderstanding between A/S and Sargent, because I refuse to believe that Sargent would be so incompetent as to design a motorhome power controller that is so power-hungry. That seems to be borne out by the fact that some EC500 owners don't have the problem.

If I had to guess, it's probably a circuit in the EC500 that is supposed to go into a power-saving "sleep" mode, but cannot because of the way that A/S have wired it. But that's pure guesswork - I don't own an EC500 so I have no way of testing the theory!

I think it's not only the ec500 power use but Peugeot's design of always on electronics my vehicle battery in the morning is normally at the same voltage as my leisure battery even though I've used the leisure battery for some lighting, showers, running of fridge and Truma for hot water and recharging phones etc

Mine is a 2011 Peugeot Boxer, Warwick Duo
I installed 150w solar panel, dual solar controller and hard wired direct from it via 10A inline fuses direct to both batteries, although not necessary, I also did the negative lines. I also have a remote display to see what's happening!
The dual solar controller has inbuilt diodes so no issues with batt charging on the very rare occasions we are on EHU
System work perfectly 24/7/365.
I may also add that each morning the leisure battery is more or less full, but the vehicle battery is taking most of the charge, hence, the vehicle battery is constantly discharging to feed the immobiliser, alarms etc etc. By 10am, even in reasonable winter both are full, IMHO, a solar panel is essential on any modern motorhome, especially for those who have to store away from home.

I'm glad it works for you but it's a shame when you already have a controller plus panel installed from new that it is inadequate. My Peugeot manual says before going on holiday to isolate the vehicle battery via the ignition switch to prevent a flat battery! Trouble is A. S. Have wired the tracker to the vehicle battery.

as above, many systems are fitted to vans without relying on a unit like the ec500 to do the solar management....
simple dual channel regulator/controllers are not resource hungry and any panel of (say) 80w and above should have no problem in maintaining a vehicle and leisure battery all year round.
many users also 'manage' on sites without EHU for days on end with similar configurations.
yes, a Battery Master as suggested above) would probably do the job as well, but why route the wiring via this unit at all if not necessary?
I keep my vehicle on the drive at home, but I don't want an electric cable traipsing all over the place, nor do I wish to 'isolate the vehicle battery' as any part of my vanning 'routine'....
I get in it, I turn the key, I expect it to start...the SP acheives these aims and allows us weeks of off grid cap ing at C&CC temporary holiday sites without EHU .....

Just to make the point, my power unit is EC155 and the switch panel is a Sargent EC51.
As both I and Bolero have said, an 80w minimum solar panel is far and away the best solution. My system, 150w weighs a total of 6kg, and parts came from Photonic Universe

I agree with what's been said but I don't think It's all sargents fault, every vehicle I've had would start after a 2 week holiday but the x290 Peugeots manual states the battery should be isolated to prevent a flat battery. My vehicle battery goes down at approximately .1 of a volt per a 24hr period

It's not Sargents fault, necessarily. Forget motorhome, think white van man van.
The core vehicle has the same immobilisers, alarms as you have, all take power from the battery.
A fully charged lead acid battery, which you have, is full at 12.7 volts, it is only 20% full at 12.0v and flat at 11.8v.
If, as you say, your battery goes down by 0.1v per day, then you can expect it to be at 20% (and therefore of very little use) in 7 days and totally flat in 9 days.
This is why, IMHO, a solar panel is more or less vital on a motorhome which is not used daily, or, at least, every few days

That's my opinion as well, I need to drive south for winter about Gibraltar should do it

IanH wrote:It's not Sargents fault, necessarily. Forget motorhome, think white van man van.
The core vehicle has the same immobilisers, alarms as you have, all take power from the battery.
A fully charged lead acid battery, which you have, is full at 12.7 volts, it is only 20% full at 12.0v and flat at 11.8v.
If, as you say, your battery goes down by 0.1v per day, then you can expect it to be at 20% (and therefore of very little use) in 7 days and totally flat in 9 days.
This is why, IMHO, a solar panel is more or less vital on a motorhome which is not used daily, or, at least, every few days

Firstly thank you to all the information in this thread very useful especially the bit about the '2 week rule' re isolating the battery which I was not aware of but not able to do due to equipment fitted. We normally use the vehicle at least once weekly but on this occasion we haven't done hence my post  

Last used the King on the 7th of November and got the key yesterday morning, pointed it at the King and nothing! Ummmm flat battery! Thankfully I have access to another form of transport to get me to work especially after an unexpected lie in (e.g. fell back to sleep). 

Checked vehicle today and nothing left plugged in? Went EHU this afternoon at home after all that rain and leisure battery over 14v but alarm warning 'vehicle battery low voltage' and nothing from the vehicle indications so unable to turn King over (Not literally although the wife does try every now and again). 80w solar panel fitted. New vehicle and leisure batteries within the last 10 months. Checked through the e480 advanced settings and it is on SMART. It is also showing that the 'V' is being charged at 0.1amp (Extremely cloudy with not much light but parked in an area where it will get the winter sun) and possibly too late in the day to get much more. 

Any thoughts or am I just unlucky by leaving it so long?

others (AS folk) will be along to help for sure but IMHO you need to establish a few things....

1. is the battery truly sound? this can be checked by charging it fully (seperate charger?), checking voltage to ensure its full, leaving disconnected for 24hrs and check again. should remain at 12.6/12.7v

2. is the solar panel really sending a charge to the vehicle battery? this can be checked by putting voltmeter across the battery with the panel in sunlight...the charge voltage should be over 14v.

3. do you have any other form of draw on the battery which is larger than just the immobiliser/alarm? this can be checked by measuring the vehicle battery draw with an ammeter or clamp meter. according to a motoring website, this should be a maximum of 25-50 milliamps. anything more and you may have a rogue parasitic draw which you may need help to identify.
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A quick update. Under warranty they sent an auto electrician to fault find the issues I have been having with both my batteries. The EC500 was the issue and a new unit is being fitted today FOC. Touch wood!!