Updated on
4/28/15
John Drake Services, Inc.
1427 E. 68th Street
Long Beach, CA 90805
voice line
(562) 423-4879
electricity from the sun by John Drake II | home
About Us | About this website. | Getting Started | Solar Panels / Photovoltaic Modules - Read Before You Buy | Make A Plan | PV System Layout and Parts | Start with the loads you are going to operate | Battery Types and Sizing | Battery Safety | Battery Charging Voltages and Temperature | Battery Trouble Shooting | Charging Batteries - You can't have everything. | Battery State of Charge and Measurement | Safety Devices Fuses and Circuit Breakers | Series & Parallel Wiring | Wiring and Power Distribution Connections | Photovolatic Module Specifications - Real or a Pipe Dream | Photovoltaic module solar panel location and positioning | Photovoltaic Module and Solar Panel Information | Charge Controller Types | Wire and Cable Types | Wiring - Doing it Right | Connections for Wiring | Voltage Drop - Wire Loss, What are they? | Outdoor Connections | Wire loss - Voltage drop charts | D.C. to A.C. Inverters | Low Voltage D.C. Lighting & Color Temperature of Light | Battery System Monitoring | Dont fool yourself - Spending your money wisely. | Solar Converters GS-1AC | Linear Current Boosters for Water Pumping | Utility Grid Intertie Systems | Solar Insolation Chart | More Information | Alternative Energy Expectations | Power Needs Worksheet | Reference Sources | Contact Us
Battery System Monitoring
A battery system monitor that tells you what your system is doing is essential
in an rv, boat or off-grid application.
First off, batteries are expensive to replace as well as heavy to lug around.
We have over two tons of Trojan T-105 batteries here - did I get your attention.
They weigh about sixty-five pounds each, which is the most I can carry.
The last ones we purchased cost around $ 110.00 each with sales tax.
I can not afford to play fast and loose with the welfare of our batteries - my
wallet and back won't allow it.
There are a number of systems available but I can only speak of the TriMetrics
made by Bogart Engineering, Inc. here in California.
We have been selling and using these for several years.
These are the older TM-2020 models over my desk.
A shunt is required to allow the monitor to count the amps and direction of current flow.
This type of monitoring system does something that battery voltage and specific gravity can not do.
It tells you the current state of charge of your batteries moment by moment as well as how many amps
and their direction (charge or dis-charge) in your system.
to be continued