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Elec. rv solar panel battery charger Gauge Question ?

Question:

rv solar panel battery charge

Whitney sells a panel mount digital voltmeter (2″ diameter, I think) with 0.1V accuracy.  It has a red LED readout, and worked fine for me in my previous MH when wired in series with a toggle switch.  Cost about $45 though. rv solar panel battery charger I have a Coleman Pop-Up and want to know how much juice is still in my battery during a camping trip. Is there a gauge that I can install in the 12v wiring that will tell me this?  Is it something I can mount in the pop-up? What type and approximate price am I looking at? rv solar panel battery charger

Response:

If you want to get a little more fancy check out the West Marine catalog and/or go by a large sail boat or yacht sales place.  The RV folks haven’t got their act together as well as the boaters.       rv solar panel battery charger

Response:

Is there a gauge that I can install in the 12v wiring that will tell me this?  Is it something I can mount in the pop-up? What type and approximate price am I looking at?

If you just want a rough idea, buy a panel mount analog voltage guage like you’d use on your dash board.  A battery is around 13.6 volts fully charged and around 10.6 when it is DEAD.  It doesn’t take very long to develop a feel for how much time you have left on the charge based on the needle position. Since it is a mechanical meter, you would have to put a momentary switch inline with the meter so it won’t drain the battery when you aren’t looking at it.  Personally, I love high tech toys but I think a meter that measures to .01 volt accuarcy is over-kill here.  There are way too many variables to calculating how much life is left for this precision to be useful to you.rv solar panel battery charger

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