How You Maintain Check Your Solar Panel Battery
Using a hydrometer to check the battery state of charge is simple if you follow these steps after making sure that the battery is fully charged.
How you maintain check your solar panel battery. Undertaking regular maintenance will ensure your solar panel system is operating safely correctly and efficiently. Distilled water should be added into the cells so that no metal lead surfaces are visible. Check to ensure that you are measuring at a level that is higher than the volts the solar panel is rated for. Never add any fluid to a battery except distilled water deionized water or very clean rainwater collected in plastic containers.
Use a hydrometer to assess the electrolyte levels in your battery cells. The plates of every cell in your battery bank must be submerged at all times. It is important that regular maintenance is carried out on your solar panel system. Open your battery cap and look inside.
If you get an alert from your solar panel system that a battery is low or your solar panels aren t working right your batteries may need to be refilled. How to check the fluid level you only do this for unsealed batteries fla these are the flooded lead acid batteries. How do we tell if the solar panel is charging the batteries on our 2002 motorhome. By doing this you can be confident that you will get an accurate reading.
If you have a large bank of batteries rotate the batteries within the bank periodically. Simply touch the solar panel leads with the multi meter probes matching their corresponding polarity red to red black to black. Gary bunzer aka the rv doctor re. Most batteries require addition of water every 6 to 12 months.
Limit your bank to 16 batteries or less if you can. Over time dust and debris will build up on your solar panels which may compromise the performance of your solar panel system. 1 make sure you are in a properly ventilated area and that you are equipped with safety equipment such as gloves and eye protection. The more batteries equal more connections each connection increases resistance and resistance can cause uneven charging.
For example if your panel is rated for 20 volts your multimeter will need to be set to read higher. 2 use a high quality battery hydrometer. Open circuit voltage can vary depending on your solar panel but the readings we are usually looking for are in the range of 15 to 23v. Some exceptions may apply based on panel type.
If the panels seem to need a little more cleaning than the hose offers a soft spongy squeegee on a long pole like the ones used to wash tall windows can be used along with some soapy water. The first and easiest way is to rinse of dust with a standard garden hose. Deb from gilbert ariz wants to know.