BATTERY’S

After coming from a very efficient Oliver into a much larger fifth wheel trailer, our energy needs are quite modest. Because of that, we opted to use less expensive and more readily available, off of the shelf battery’s.

This morning I went back through the newly installed solar system and soldered the crimp type connectors while the terminals and copper wire ends are fresh. Past experience has it that unless they are soldered, sooner or later the connection will become a high resistance connection that will reduce the efficiency of the solar charging system.

Here is a look.

The battery cables are #6 AWG size, so my hand held soldering gun wouldn’t even come close to applying enough heat to get the job done.

I used a propane torch for the heat source, being careful to keep the flame away from the actual solder joint, heating the connection by conduction. Propane will cause poor connections sometimes if applied directly. Those very old pliers were used to steady and hold the hot part . ( Betty’s Stepdad’s pliers, They are kind of a cool keepsake that we choose to keep using around the house. We imagine that somehow he would like that. )

We are parked under the large oaks and the charge controller is only reading the voltage of the battery bank. All the time I was working in the battery compartment the display was flip flopping between 13.3 and 13.4 volts DC. It made me wonder just what the periodic load may have been.

As time is short before we depart for our workamper  job in Colorado, i’ll just think on that one for awhile and see if I can resolve it later on down the road.

Battery box covers in place, vent system back on, ready to close the battery compartment lid.