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I'm pretty confident this is right, BUT no harm in asking and getting second opinion..
My van has only 1 very crude needle meter that is used to show both indication for the state of battery and water level.
Red / yellow / Green areas.
With my solar panel now fitted I would like to just see how well it's producing charge and also have a better indication of how the leisure batteries are voltage wise.. Seen this on ebay..
Here's my thoughts..
Take feed off leisure battery and meter will give me the voltage. Splice the +ve cable off the solar panel and feed (via shunt?) into the meter. This will now give me amps produced by the solar panel..
Does that all sound right and simple ???
OR... If I take the amp reading feed from between output of the regulator and the battery terminal, will this give me a positive reading when I am getting charge off panel AND also show a negative when I am using a load and draining the batteries ???
Is a 30amp meter / shunt big enough ?? Cant see that I will ever drain that amount and charge rate going in be that high..
All advise appreciated......
______________________________________________________________ Steve Tonks...
The voltage bit looks fine.
Make sure you are on the battery side of the regulator with the ammeter.
You can get clamp-on ammeters which make life easier.
30 amps would be enough for around 350 watts of solar panel.
Patrick
Just wanted to add my comments: prompted by mudturtles post above I invested in one of those yesterday and it arrived this morning in the post.
Within an hour it was fitted into my system and I spent a happy 15 minutes watching the panel power, voltage and current fluctuating up and down as the sun came in and out.
I was considering seperate volt and current meters but this way better - it's self powered, backlit, small and very inexpensive (mine was £23 delivered next day).
There are two types: Hall effect which are more expensive but work on either and inductance which only work on AC Inductance are usually more sensitive
i do not sell them or anything i have used these for years they are perfect and they take 60 volts and 130 amps
You sir , are a superstar !
Not only does this give "rolling" volts and amps which is what people usually relate to, it also gives the "rolling" watts the solar pannel is giving ....AND
of far more interest, it also gives the accumulated Amp Hours the battery has recieved since it was connected up.... Add a simple disconection switch and you can reset that every morning and see how many AHours the battery has recieved on a daily basis....
If you want to get really geeky you could fit a second one connected the other way around and see the same readings for what is being taken out of the battery...A simple calculation would then give out verses in amp hours ....
For me though, it highlighted a 1 amp current drain when the gas tank valve was opperated when the heating was on, meaning on dull days it consumed any benefit from the solar pannel... A bit of quick thinking and i added a wire from the heating side of things so when the thermostat clicked on it put the gas valve on thus saving the 1 amp during "off" periods of the thermostat.......
I can only add , this product is fantastic and allows me to size my solar system for my needs....
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