Battery status voltage/ capacity error?

Egronnes · Oct 11, 2018

How is this possible? It’s about 1.05 in the morning and the solar panels hasn’t done anything in hours. Still the battery shows 12.9 volts and look at the bars! When I double checked with the regulator, it says I’m down even more, at 50%. I kept the Webasto and fridge on for hours, so the battery is definitely resting. It’s an Exide ES1600 gel battery.

WelshGas · Oct 11, 2018

Egronnes said:
View attachment 38841 How is this possible? It’s about 1.05 in the morning and the solar panels hasn’t done anything in hours. Still the battery shows 12.9 volts and look at the bars! When I double checked with the regulator, it says I’m down even more, at 50%. I kept the Webasto and fridge on for hours, so the battery is definitely resting. It’s an Exide ES1600 gel battery.

When was the last time you Actually switched the Control Panel OFF and then switched ON with the VW start-up Logo.
The Voltage and calculations of battery capacity can be a little off and not that accurate, especially over time.

Egronnes · Oct 11, 2018

It’s a T4. There’s no on/off there. The batteries has been replaced recently, so everything is reset that way.

mrcheesbrough · Oct 11, 2018

Egronnes said:
View attachment 38841 How is this possible? It’s about 1.05 in the morning and the solar panels hasn’t done anything in hours. Still the battery shows 12.9 volts and look at the bars! When I double checked with the regulator, it says I’m down even more, at 50%. I kept the Webasto and fridge on for hours, so the battery is definitely resting. It’s an Exide ES1600 gel battery.

Not entirely sure I understand the problem. What's the 'regulator' you refer to?

Egronnes · Oct 11, 2018

mrcheesbrough said:
Not entirely sure I understand the problem. What's the 'regulator' you refer to?

The solar panel regulator. My understanding is that a full battery reads about 12.7 to 13.3-ish (depending on resting time since charging) So 12.9 is way above what the bars are telling me. The voltage should be around 12.5-12.6v at that battery level (bars).

WelshGas · Oct 11, 2018

Egronnes said:
It’s a T4. There’s no on/off there. The batteries has been replaced recently, so everything is reset that way.

If there is no On/Off then what is the switch on the top row 2nd from R.?

mrcheesbrough · Oct 11, 2018

WelshGas said:
If there is no On/Off then what is the switch on the top row 2nd from R.?

That's the button you press in combination with another button to turn various accessories on. i.e Snowflake + On/Off turns the fridge on.

mrcheesbrough · Oct 11, 2018

Egronnes said:
The solar panel regulator. My understanding is that a full battery reads about 12.7 to 13.3-ish (depending on resting time since charging) So 12.9 is way above what the bars are telling me. The voltage should be around 12.5-12.6v at that battery level (bars).

Ah okay. I don't have solar but my understanding of the battery readout is that the bars simply represent the percentage capacity the battery has remaining at the voltage it currently reads, in this case about 70% capacity. I think 12.9V is a good healthy battery, especially if you've been running your heater and fridge for a while. The voltage becomes an issue when you've got a reading below 12V as switching on the heater or fridge could cause it to dip and cause a low voltage lock out.