I was wondering if anyone has experienced something that has (maybe) recently cropped up.
I'm currently running about 200W of panels via a mppt controller, with a flooded lead acid aux battery (under the hood) and my fridge is the main load.
Since the start of the year, the whole system has been chugging along and no known issues. My fridge is on 24/7.
I went camping for the first time this year, and in the middle of the night noticed my fridge was going into low voltage alarm. I monitored the voltage and when the fridge was off it was sitting at about 12.5V, and when the compressor kicked off it was dropping to 11.5V.
Firstly that voltage sounded low. I was a bit surprised by that as I was driving 3hrs out to camp. The afternoon was pretty overcast, and I was parked in the forrest so I could forgive the battery not being fully charged, but I surely a 100Ah battery should be able to manage a fridge for 24hrs.
And then I was very surprised to see such a big voltage drop on fridge start up. Is that normal? Or does it point towards a possible issue with my battery?
I have been lazy and not been monitoring my battery acid levels, and it was looking low, but the plates were still flooded. So I gave it a drink.
The little dot thingy was saying that the battery needs charging, but after a day of charging it hasn't changed. I figured that its probably not a reliable indicator, so is it worth getting one of those turkey baster testers?
I've also read around the traps that it could also be a dead cell in my battery. Is there a simple way I can test that?
What I do want to test is pick up a tong test and measure the amps off the panel, to make sure the controller is still charging the battery properly when the fridge is running.
Or was it just a matter that its too cold at 2degC that evening?
I'm currently running about 200W of panels via a mppt controller, with a flooded lead acid aux battery (under the hood) and my fridge is the main load.
Since the start of the year, the whole system has been chugging along and no known issues. My fridge is on 24/7.
I went camping for the first time this year, and in the middle of the night noticed my fridge was going into low voltage alarm. I monitored the voltage and when the fridge was off it was sitting at about 12.5V, and when the compressor kicked off it was dropping to 11.5V.
Firstly that voltage sounded low. I was a bit surprised by that as I was driving 3hrs out to camp. The afternoon was pretty overcast, and I was parked in the forrest so I could forgive the battery not being fully charged, but I surely a 100Ah battery should be able to manage a fridge for 24hrs.
And then I was very surprised to see such a big voltage drop on fridge start up. Is that normal? Or does it point towards a possible issue with my battery?
I have been lazy and not been monitoring my battery acid levels, and it was looking low, but the plates were still flooded. So I gave it a drink.
The little dot thingy was saying that the battery needs charging, but after a day of charging it hasn't changed. I figured that its probably not a reliable indicator, so is it worth getting one of those turkey baster testers?
I've also read around the traps that it could also be a dead cell in my battery. Is there a simple way I can test that?
What I do want to test is pick up a tong test and measure the amps off the panel, to make sure the controller is still charging the battery properly when the fridge is running.
Or was it just a matter that its too cold at 2degC that evening?