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Old 03-18-2021, 02:23 PM   #1
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Question about solar charger on chassis battery, possibly charging house batteries?

I just set up a little 10 watt solar panel to keep my chassis battery charged. I put some rubber feet on the back of it and set it up on the hood. It gets good Sun exposure for most of the day, because the motorhome is parked in my backyard facing south. It also has a foldable stand, and I can set on the ground next to the front tire.

It's working very well, just within a few hours it went from 12.6 volts up to 13.3 volts, then I began to wonder since I have a BIRD, would this eventually charge my house batteries too? It has a controller so when the chassis battery is charged up, it will go into float mode.

But I wondered if the BIRD might kick in and charge the house batteries as well, if I keep the salesman switch on. By the way I just have two Trojan T105s in series as house batteries.
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Old 03-18-2021, 03:00 PM   #2
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The BIRD device is driven solely by battery voltages and doesn't care what device is charging the battery. Generally speaking, if one battery bank is at or above its charge threshold (13.1v for a BIRD) and the other is not, the Bird will close the relay that lets some of that energy bleed over to the other battery bank. It works in either direction, so which ever battery bank is "high" can drive the process.


Whether that tiny panel ever gets the battery voltage high enough is another question.
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Old 03-18-2021, 03:12 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer View Post
The BIRD device is driven solely by battery voltages and doesn't care what device is charging the battery. Generally speaking, if one battery bank is at or above its charge threshold (13.1v for a BIRD) and the other is not, the Bird will close the relay that lets some of that energy bleed over to the other battery bank. It works in either direction, so which ever battery bank is "high" can drive the process.


Whether that tiny panel ever gets the battery voltage high enough is another question.
Thanks for the response Gary, I thought it worked that way. You may be a right, this panel may be too small. I only got it as a way to keep the chassis battery up, but then I was thinking "maybe"... I'll let it go for a few days and see what happens. In any case it looks like it will keep the chassis battery up. I have a few minor parasitic draws, and an ultrasonic/LED pest deterrent under the hood, hooked up to the chassis battery.
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Old 03-18-2021, 04:47 PM   #4
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The battery disconnect switch being on or off will have no effect on the BIRD system.

The battery disconnect carries the house loads, but not the loads of boost starting engines. The BIRD controlled solenoid is directly connected to both battery banks, for that purpose.

As far as the BIRD working the way you want, I'm not sure it will. Its possable that the ignition signal needs to be on for chassis to house battery charging. It may work, I don't know.

It should work if hooking it to the house batteries and the panel can output enough.
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Old 03-18-2021, 05:06 PM   #5
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The battery disconnect switch being on or off will have no effect on the BIRD system.

The battery disconnect carries the house loads, but not the loads of boost starting engines. The BIRD controlled solenoid is directly connected to both battery banks, for that purpose.

As far as the BIRD working the way you want, I'm not sure it will. Its possable that the ignition signal needs to be on for chassis to house battery charging. It may work, I don't know.

It should work if hooking it to the house batteries and the panel can output enough.
Thank you for the response. You may be right about the ignition switch having to be on. I put ring terminal wires on the chassis battery to go to the controller, but I also have a set of wires with battery clamps on them that I can use on the house batteries separately when I'm out camping. So that's probably how I'll have to charge the house batteries, if I don't want to run the generator while out. In fact I may put ring terminals on those to, and just have the pigtail hanging out where I can easily plug in

By the way the chassis battery is up 13.6 now, so it's working pretty well.
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Old 03-18-2021, 08:19 PM   #6
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Another question: this is the first time I've used a solar charger. I mounted the little controller under the hood in a safe spot with velcro, but should I disconnect the controller from the battery before I start the engine, or is it safe to just leave it plugged in? The manual that came with it doesn't say anything about that. I probably will unplug it completely, was just curious.
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Old 03-20-2021, 05:43 PM   #7
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I think by the time you pull in both solenoids and expose to all parasitic draws you will lose more amps than you put in with the small solar panel. Just leave disconnected and charge once a month or so.
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Old 03-20-2021, 07:05 PM   #8
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Another question: this is the first time I've used a solar charger. I mounted the little controller under the hood in a safe spot with velcro, but should I disconnect the controller from the battery before I start the engine, or is it safe to just leave it plugged in? The manual that came with it doesn't say anything about that. I probably will unplug it completely, was just curious.
You can leave it connected.
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Old 03-21-2021, 09:26 AM   #9
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You can leave it connected.
I appreciate the reply. I questioned the manufacturer and they never got back to me, but I suspect the controller has built-in circuitry to protect itself if I start the engine.
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Old 03-21-2021, 09:41 AM   #10
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I think by the time you pull in both solenoids and expose to all parasitic draws you will lose more amps than you put in with the small solar panel. Just leave disconnected and charge once a month or so.
When I first got the motorhome I didn't know what the heated mirror switch on the A-pillar was, in fact the dealer told me it turned on the power windows. So I would leave that on and my battery was constantly going down, because it's powered even when the ignition is off.

Once I discovered that, I found that the remaining parasitic draw on the chassis battery is actually pretty low. Even with the ultrasonic pest device I put under the hood, I can leave it for a couple weeks and it will still start up. So far this little solar panel seems to be keeping it right at 12.6 volts after the Sun goes down. So I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm going to leave it hooked up.

By the way it is not causing the BIRD to open up and charge the house batteries. It's only charging the chassis battery. My house batteries actually stay charged pretty well on their own in storage, as long as I keep the salesman switch off

When I'm camping in a no-hookup area where I can't run generators or watch TV, I listen to SiriusXM on my dashboard radio. By having this solar panel hooked up that should help stop it from running down the battery. We'll see.
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Old 03-21-2021, 11:42 AM   #11
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Heat

The solar controller may not like the heat from the running engine. Controller specs should specify max temperature. What will the temperature under the hood be?
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Old 03-21-2021, 12:37 PM   #12
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The solar controller may not like the heat from the running engine. Controller specs should specify max temperature. What will the temperature under the hood be?
That's a good question, and one reason I put it up on that shelf. I thought that would be the coolest place in the engine compartment. In front of the radiator and somewhat insulated from the rest of the compartment when the hood is closed. According to the specs the working environment can go up to 55 degrees C, 135 Fahrenheit, and it says storage ambient temperature up to 75 C, 167 Fahrenheit. Out of curiosity I put a thermometer under the hood next to it and I'll see how hot it gets, then I'll run the engine for a while.

Edit: the thermometer just read the ambient air temperature today, which is about 72. Then I ran the engine for 15 minutes up to operating temperature, and it read 74. Shouldn't be an issue.
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