Nov 8, 2013 12:27 pm
Re: trimetric meter.
Hello Billy,
It is important to remember that the benefit of having the Trimetric is that it looks at amps and voltage. Reading a state of charge on voltage alone is not always accurate. The voltage of a battery bank will vary based on loads running and charge going in. That being said, looking at a chart for flooded lead acid batteries it is showing that a 100% charged battery that has been sitting for 6 or so hours with no charge or discharge would be sitting at 12.7 VDC . A battery at 80% charge would be at 12.5 VDC. So 12.6 seems to be right for a 90% state of charge, if it has been sitting with no charge or discharge. If you have a load on the system and are reading the voltage, a fully charged battery could be sitting at 11.5 - 12.7 depending on how heavy the load is. If a charge is being put into the battery, a fully charged battery could be sitting at 14.4 - 15 VDC. So reading the current, as the Trimetric does, is more accurate as long as it has been calibrated correctly when the batteries were fully charged. I will not get on the high voltage band wagon as you requested, but i will say that 10 parallel strings will result in an uneven charge and shorten the life of your batteries. It is better to have higher amp hour batteries with a lower voltage that are in series than it is to have many parallel strings.