New Progressive Dynamics convertor, AGM battery, and Pendant questions
Hi,
I've recently upgraded up electrical system. I bought the AGM G27 size battery, then I went and upgraded by convertor to a INTELI-POWER 9200 SERIES and got the remote pendant with it. Those who have read my posts on these forums before know that I am permanently boondocking and use only a generator for charge and use the battery when I don't want to run the generator.
Now some questions. I got the system all hooked up. Stuck my charge pendant up where I could see it above the fuse box. The LED indicated went from solid to fast blinking, to a very short blip of a blink as I would expect as the battery was charging. Everything seemed to be A OK. I also put in a nice new digital voltmeter which was calibrated for most accuracy right around 12.5 volts.
Now for the weird part. It was a cool night so I went to bed and set the furnace for about 55 degrees. I noticed that even though I had disconnected the trailer from AC the pendant was still on and showing a solid non-blinking LED. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but should the pendant even be on when no AC is going into the convertor? When I went to bed the system voltage was right around 12.6-12.7, so I thought I'd be in great shape. About 4 in the morning I woke up freezing. The furnace had not yet come on so I thought I'd be in great shape with the battery. Just kick it up a notch. I looked at the system voltage and to my horror saw it was just 11.9 or so. I reluctantly went outside and started the gen to run the furnace. The pendant showed solid green until I stopped running the generator at about 9am.
Later, I put an ampmeter between my battery and the rest of the system. With everything turned off there was maybe 20ma of load. I had someone turn on my furnace. To intially kick the blower over it takes somewhere around 10A and then a steady current of 6.8 amps (well within the ranges I've heard here).
So I can't understand why I'd wake up with a discharged battery and second I need someone to explain that pendant to me. Should it show anything with no AC? If you hold the button down to manually go through the modes, how do you make sure it is back in full auto mode?
100% SOC=12.80 volts or greater 75% SOC=12.55 volts 50% SOC=12.20 volts 25% SOC=11.75volts 0% SOC=10.50 volts
This table ( it WAS a table when I copied it!!) shows you the state of charge at certain volts for Lifeline AGM batteries. At 12.6 volts, you are at about 80% capacity. A Lifeline AGM GLP-27 battery should provide you with 655 minutes of constant discharge at an 8 amp draw for 655 minutes FROM A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY.
Most RV components will not function below a certain voltage. It varies with each component, but they vary from 11.0-11.5 volts before they just won't work due to low voltage.
If you assume that you lose 20% on the top end due to an incomplete charge (13.2 volts is more like a full charge, or 2.2 volts/cell), and another 25% on the bottom for the voltage threshold, that leaves you with roughly 50% of battery capacity that's useable, or 325 minutes at 8 amps, or 5 hours. Subtract any parasitic loads and start-up amperages that are there and you'll be down to maybe 3.5 hours.
Depending on the cycle time of your furnace, you could have easily reached this point.
Who is the manufactuor of your battery? Lifeline was mentioned later but I don't see the data in your first post, perhaps you mentioned it on another?
Many AGM's are constant voltage charge only - almost identically to gel batteries with fixed temperature adjusted float only.
There is a special AGM pendant available - it lowers the set points .4 or .5 volts but even that can spell overcharging with gas production that gets vented so you loose water and shorten battery life. The Intellipower non-pendant output level (on paper) is perfect for the AGM batteries I have chosen...
Who is the manufactuor of your battery? Lifeline was mentioned later but I don't see the data in your first post, perhaps you mentioned it on another?
Many AGM's are constant voltage charge only - almost identically to gel batteries with fixed temperature adjusted float only.
There is a special AGM pendant available - it lowers the set points .4 or .5 volts but even that can spell overcharging with gas production that gets vented so you loose water and shorten battery life. The Intellipower non-pendant output level (on paper) is perfect for the AGM batteries I have chosen...
AFAIK, ANY battery will benefit from 3 stage charging. The above referral shows HOW to use 2-stage or single voltage charging, but they maintain the charge better at the float voltage.
The old Univolts used to charge at a single voltage, but they would cook a bettery if left connected after completing the charge cycle.
Gel batteries are much more voltage sensitive, as overcharging will cause the gel to separate from the plates leaving a 'scar' that greatly reduces the capacity. If you check the charging graphs on any modern 3 stage charger that allows you to 'set' the battery type, you will find that gels are at the lowest charge voltages, followed by liquid cells, with AGMs at the highest voltages.
PS: there is no 'water' in an AGM. The electrolyte is 99% absorbed in a glass mat and does not appear anywhere in the battery as a free liquid. This allows AGMs to be air shipped.......the only battery that can.
Note: This Charge Wizard is specially calibrated for Gel type batteries. If you have regular flooded deep cycle or AGM batteries, please select the standard Charge Wizard. The Gel calibrated Charge Wizard incorporates slight lower charging voltages.
Ok so I think I have a correct convertor for this battery. I know this lifeline battery is in good shape (the worst abuse for reasons unknown happened this weekend when it was brought down to 11.9 volts). I still have a question about this charge wizard pendant thing. I know how to cycle it through modes manually but how do you take it out of the manual mode and make sure it is in auto mode?
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