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Good battery monitor to pair with a Victron 150/85 MC4?

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  • Good battery monitor to pair with a Victron 150/85 MC4?

    Hey folks,
    Putting 3 Sunpower 327W panels on the roof of my sprinter to feed a 12V battery bank. Thinking 440 or 660AH of Crown 6V AGMs. Unless someone knows of a more economical choice.

    So, I'm looking at the aforementioned Victron controller, and there are a ton of monitors they make, and it's unclear to me which does which. Any recommendations?

  • #2
    The BMV 700 is all you need , and then some. I cant think of a good reason to go with a different brand if you have a Victron charge controller.
    2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

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    • #3
      Battery monitors are a waste of money and just added profit. They are not capable of telling you anything other than your batteries are dead. However here is a picture of a Battery Monitor that does works and works great. It will tell you everything you need to know. In fact no off-grid solar system should be caught dead without one.

      Last edited by Sunking; 03-21-2018, 11:07 AM.
      MSEE, PE

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      • #4
        This would be true, except I'm using sealed AGMs.

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        • #5
          Then take what you learned from your flooded bank, and apply it to the expensive AGM batteries. You must learn to monitor them from your usage and recharge, while staying withing the very tight factory voltage limits. You need to do a bulk charge in the morning 6am - 9am and then let solar finish them off with absorb and float
          Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
          || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
          || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

          solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
          gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Withalligators View Post
            This would be true, except I'm using sealed AGMs.
            OK makes no difference, a battery monitor will only tell you when the batteries are dead. The only way to see what is going on inside an AGM battery is with a Conductance Meter and a conductance meter tells you nothing about State of Charge. A good Conductance Meter wil sit you back a thousand dollars.

            MSEE, PE

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