Interesting Battery Meters

[mohavewolfpup]

Was digging through a box of stuff to sell here, and found this in a old firehouse magazine from 2003. Incidentally, I also have a ton of old sales brochures for spartans, la france fire engines, etc. I'll show a photo of a ceramic based system to cut the diesel idle on a fire truck... Also have a brochure for ford ambulances from 1983....

Anyway...

http://www.kussmaul.com/bar graphs and indicators.html

These look pretty cool. Bet they are over kill for our trucks, but I wonder if it's feasible to rig one up and monitor our battery life in a more accurate way?

 

[G. Mann]

Been using something like that for years in motor homes with the off grid battery systems on them.

Also, I have one in use [not that brand, but same function] for the solar system at my ranch. Lets me see the current status of charge for the battery bank. Very helpful and useful.

It does not however load test the batteries, just reads current state of charge, so in multi battery bank systems it will not tell you which battery is dying, just that the total charge is "down".

A cheap volt meter from Harbor Freight will tell you the same thing if you use a chart that reads volts on one column and percent in the other.. ie.. 100% charge = 13.4 volts... and down from there. BTW, a battery at 70% of charge is actually at zero charge, to weak to do work and from that point, further discharge does physical damage to the plates.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Been using something like that for years in motor homes with the off grid battery systems on them.

Also, I have one in use [not that brand, but same function] for the solar system at my ranch. Lets me see the current status of charge for the battery bank. Very helpful and useful.

It does not however load test the batteries, just reads current state of charge, so in multi battery bank systems it will not tell you which battery is dying, just that the total charge is "down".

A cheap volt meter from Harbor Freight will tell you the same thing if you use a chart that reads volts on one column and percent in the other.. ie.. 100% charge = 13.4 volts... and down from there. BTW, a battery at 70% of charge is actually at zero charge, to weak to do work and from that point, further discharge does physical damage to the plates.

Nifty. do you have a write up kicking around somewhere for the solar system you have? I'm tasked with having a old storage shed in the back of my families property able to support some electrical goodies (small recording studio and air conditioner)

 

[OLDBULL8]

Here is a cheap meter to monitor battery voltage, small enough to mount in a truck. Bought one on the second Jan. free ship.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008KY5ULW/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1