Hey Russ How you doing?

[southpennrailroad]

7:45 just checked battery says 11.8 and temps @ 8out and inside reading 53-60. I get a chill behind me but put the blanket up against my back to cover me. Well I have to go get the gen fueled and running. Also hungry for breakfast. Bye!

[S. Heisley]

What Pete42 said.

[southpennrailroad]

Well last night wasn't so good.

I awoke to a furnace not turning on due to battery problems. It seems that the battery was low just b4 going to bed even with the generator running. Good thing I had the gen running and the electric heater running on low.

So this morning I checked things out and found that in one cycle the battery goes from a steady13 volts b4 the furnace begins 11.8 after the cycle begins to climb of 12.2 during the rest of the cycle to when it shuts off. It then once more jumps back up to 13. I figure maybe it needs a full charge. As of now it is holding @ barely under 13 while the gen is running at eco power for now and the furnace off.

[southpennrailroad]

So I am wondering if I should take all loads off the battery and let the generator run until the battery minder says the battery is fully charged?

Right now I am in the library and letting the gen run while sitting here.

[mskobier]

Russ,
I would say that with the light load of the furnace, and the voltage swings you are seeing, your battery is in need of a good charge. I do not know what you are using for the charger for your battery. For it to bulk up and get mostly charged in a reasonable period of time, you need about 6-10 amps going to the battery.

Is the battery minder you are refering to one of the trickle type chargers with the led indicator, or is it actually a battery monitor of the type you would find in a RV?

There is another possible cause of your problem. If the charger you are using is not an automatic type, or is malfunctioning, then you may have "boiled" the electrolyte out of the battery. Have you checked the liquid levels in the batteries? If they are low, then they need to be re-filled with distilled water (from grocery store). It is also possible the battery is just worn out, but not likely.

I would connect a regular automatic charger of at least 6 amps capacity to the batteries, and let it get as close to a full charge as possible. You can still run the furnace or other light loads while it is charging. The battery will act as a filter and regulate the voltage to a safe level.

Another thing you can do to get the battery charged fairly quickly is to connect them one at a time to your vehicle battery via a set of jumper cables. Then start your vehicle and let it run at a fast idle for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Most vehicles have a charging system that will delivers anywhere from 30 amps to 150 amps. The vehicle is designed to bring a battery partially discharged from stating up to full charge in a very short period of time. Then shut off the vehicle engine and disconnect the jumper cables.

Later
Mitch

[southpennrailroad]

Mike

I think your right as it is the first time it hasn't been on house electric this winter. It has always been on trickle charge and connected to the house. Remember I just just got off the parking lot and was always hooked up to the house. I think I will have the battery checked tomorrow where I bought it. If it is ok then I will need to buy a regular battery charger for the occasional charge. I do think also that the trickle battery minder is not that good. although it has maintained itself as long as it is on the generator.

To sum it up if I was to be off grid, it would not last the night. I just bought the battery in November. I feel comfortable as long as I have the generator running.

[mskobier]

Russ,
I thought that might be the issue. Unless the battery is fully charged, the battery test may show it is no good. Best to get it fully charged, then have it tested.

In the short term, the vehicle charging system will bring it back up to mostly full charge pretty quickly.

If you are going to purchase a battery charger, then I would recommend that you get a 20 amp charger if you can afford it. The reason is that all lead acid batteries build up a hard sulfate surface on the soft lead sponge surface of the plates. The high charging current flakes this material off the battery plates, then it fall into the void spaces below the battery plates. If memory serves me, they recomend a C5-C10 charge rate on storage batteries. C10 means battery rated capacity divided by 10. same thing for C5. So for a 100 amp/hr rated battery, that would be approx 10 amps of charge current. For a 150 amp/hr rated battery that would be 15 amps. a little higher rate will not hurt anything. Even though the battery charger is rated at 20 amps, it will only deliver as much current as the battery's internal resistance will allow. That is why a car battery doesn't over charge even though some alternators can put out over 100 amps.

Talk to you a little later
Mitch

[southpennrailroad]

Ok Mike.

What I did was for the first time I connected that white/red striped wire I bought and it is now not going down 13 and stays above 12Before it was going down to just slightly below 11. Much more comfortable with that. Still will keep the gen running through the night. Should I still leave the trickle charger on? I guess it would only help a little. Now I see the real reason for the trickle is not to keep it fully charged if your using it for purposes I am using it for. I mean even earlier in the day while I had it on the gen and ran the furnace it would go down to just below 11 now it stays between 12-13 when the furnace is running.

[southpennrailroad]

Mike I just checked The volts are now registering past 13.2. So the battery charging wire I bought for its intended purpose and connection on the Honda makes a world of difference to charging the battery.

[mskobier]

Russ,
I just did a little research on your Honda EU2000 generator. The spec sheet says it will deliver 7.5-8 amps on the battery charge circuit. That should be plenty to keep up with your DC loads. When the batery finally reachs full charge, with the generator disconnected, it soould not drop more than about .5 volt when the furnace first starts up. Remember, when the motor first starts and the electronic ignitor is lighting the furnace, you are probably seeing a 5-10 amp load for those few seconds. After that, the current load should be about 3.5 amps while the fan motor is running. So the measured voltage should recover pretty quickly.

As for efficiency, as long as you are running other 120v ac items, then then it makes sense to run the generator. I would not run it just to charge the battery.

Is your truck wired to supply power to the trailer when it is being towed? If so, you can also place one of your batteries in the bed of your truck, strap it down some how, make up a pigtail to plug into your vehicle trailer wiring, and hook to the battery. That way, when you are driving to the library or running around town, you can be charging one of your batteries. All of the 7 blade RV trailer plug have a connection for a trailer battery charge circuit. Most that I have seen are set up to deliver about 30 amps to the trailer battery. Since the charge circuit is capable of large currents, you could completely recharge one of your batteries in just a couple of hours. Now, you really will not get 30 amps to the battery. The internal resistance of the wiring will limit it some. But if you are driving anyway, might as well take advantage of it.

Mitch

[southpennrailroad]

So last night was much better as I was totally on battery and it was just fine. Think this morning that I have just enough power to get dressed to get the gen up and running to recharge. Just have to remember to keep the stat at the lowest setting through the night to have it run at the most amount of time. Temps were down to the single digits and didn't turn the furnace on till I was well cold which happened to be at 1:30 in the am. Then after that I had it run on low the rest of the night. The battery will indeed need charged all day to get ready for tonight.

Didn't use the mattress pad but could have helped had I had the extra power. Will get that other battery going for tonight.

Tonight is suppose to be better as the digits are to be in the teens.

Thanks Mitch for helping me understand things.

[southpennrailroad]

It is 12;30 and the temps climbed from 1 to 25 since this morning. Warm spell!

Anyway, I am going to charge up both batteries and let the older one heat the battery pad and the other run the Furnace. That's what I like about my job this time of the year. Things are slow and I am nestled in for a nice long day just thinking of when to pull the battery wire off the furnace battery to put on the mattress battery.

Going to put in a movie to watch now. By the way

WALMART drive in movie is where I am at now.

[southpennrailroad]

No heat on last night as the temps were in the high 20's. Battery is fully charged as it was on the gen and not being used. Looks like tonight is going to be the same.

[southpennrailroad]

Was off work today again. Work a little tomorrow and a little on Saturday. So I had very little floor space and decided to build out of luan a wall cabinet. Got back 4 sq feet at least. I was amazed. Also had dirty laundry on the floor so took one of the bins which was half filled and put that stuff in the wall cabinet and turned the half empty bin into a laundry basket. I will be installing that on the outside back doors and get it out of my standing room area as well.

I notice the heat is getting out and about much better as well. Kitchen cabinet counter is gotten less crowded as well. I am in the company parking lot for this evening. Anyone want to come down and party??

Dinner tonight. Grilled Cheese sandwiches

[Mightydog]

Grilled cheese can be pretty swanky sometimes! My roommate used to put Bake-O's (salad bacon bits) in them. It's kind of disgusting until you taste one.


Good to see that you're staying warm!