Advice / Assistance welcome,

[Kenmar1]

I have just come across this web site / Forum by accident when exploring what options I have with my existing RV electrical set up.
Most commercially built motor homes appear to have only the most basic equipment designed to get you from one caravan park to the next.
We decided to significantly upgrade our 12v electrics before heading off for an extended trip. We pulled out the two 97amp lead acid batteries, substituted them with 2 120amp Lithium Iron batteries. We then purchased a Schaudt WA 121525 Booster to partner with the existing Schaudt Electroblock EBL 269-3 12v management system.
We brought in a separate feed from the Fiat Ducato alternator to the WA 121525 Booster. This charges our house batteries quite well when driving. The trickle charge component of the main EBL 269-3 controller I believe is minimal requiring many hours of connection either to a 240v mains supply or running a generator!
Now that we are only travelling short distances each day 40-50 klms, we are not putting enough charge back into our Lithium Iron batteries. Is there a way to run a 240v power feed to the Booster charger through a power reduction unit? We need to be able to boost our battery charging capacity. This would make running our generator far more productive.
Looking forward to advice on this problem.

Regards to all.
Kenmar1

 

[Millie Master]

Welcome aboard @Kenmar1, you have come to the right place as there are several members who are right up with the very best when it comes to electrical installations!

So ask away and I am certain that one of them will be replying to you quite soon.

Phil

 

[MarkJ]

My guess would be that a better route might be to get a separate 230V Lithium-compatible mains charger rather than try to step down for the Booster. But you don't mention solar: can you uprate your solar in any way?

But you need a proper expert - those are just my opinions!

 

[Kenmar1]

Following up from my earlier rushed first post, (my laptop battery was nearly flat!) I need to complete the details on the improvements / changes to our 12 v house battery system. Apart from the changes already explained in my first post , we had also installed a 3000w (Kings) inverter which allowed us to briefly use the available 240v through the inverter. This system was working fine until our travel plans changed resulting in us driving shorter distances each day. I struggle a bit with technical details so am relying on the guidance from far more informed members of this web site.
I had also shot off a brief email to the technical people at Schaudt in Germany asking if it was possible to hook up the existing 25amp charge booster that we installed via a 240v power supply using the appropriate power converter?. I received a response from Schaudt .
Dear Customer ,

thank you for your mail.

Please check the setting on the booster. There should be set lithium battery charging without temperature compensation.

The Booster must be mounted in line to the wire starter battery to EBL on the back side of the EBL with the plus wire.

The EBL should be set to gel charging mod, then the charger will charge the battery suitable via mains.

The battery must have a battery management system.

With Best Regards,

I got lost in the way they were responding to my query. It is the 3rd line of their response that appears to indicate that the Schaudt Charge Booster can be wired into a 240v power supply.
If this is possible, this will significantly improve my current battery charging set up where I can only receive a trickle charge through the main control unit whether by a mains connection or a generator.

Looking forward to receiving some advice from Forum members that are above my pay grade.

Regards, Kenmar1.

 

[Kenmar1]

Following up from my earlier rushed first post, (my laptop battery was nearly flat!) I need to complete the details on the improvements / changes to our 12 v house battery system. Apart from the changes already explained in my first post , we had also installed a 3000w (Kings) inverter which allowed us to briefly use the available 240v through the inverter. This system was working fine until our travel plans changed resulting in us driving shorter distances each day. I struggle a bit with technical details so am relying on the guidance from far more informed members of this web site.
I had also shot off a brief email to the technical people at Schaudt in Germany asking if it was possible to hook up the existing 25amp charge booster that we installed via a 240v power supply using the appropriate power converter?. I received a response from Schaudt .
Dear Customer ,

thank you for your mail.

Please check the setting on the booster. There should be set lithium battery charging without temperature compensation.

The Booster must be mounted in line to the wire starter battery to EBL on the back side of the EBL with the plus wire.

The EBL should be set to gel charging mod, then the charger will charge the battery suitable via mains.

The battery must have a battery management system.

With Best Regards,

I got lost in the way they were responding to my query. It is the 3rd line of their response that appears to indicate that the Schaudt Charge Booster can be wired into a 240v power supply.
If this is possible, this will significantly improve my current battery charging set up where I can only receive a trickle charge through the main control unit whether by a mains connection or a generator.

Looking forward to receiving some advice from Forum members that are above my pay grade.

Regards, Kenmar1.

Following on from the response from a member, the existing solar that was originally installed at the point of manufacture had a single 180w le panel which was installed with a minimum sized cable diameter that would not allow an additional panel. There was a basic controller which was not suitable for Lithium Iron batteries but was able to be wired into the system through the booster charger. This resulted in the solar working only when the vehicle engine was running. Unfortunately due to the wrong advice received from Kings, I changed the control unit over to a Kings MPPT 20a solar controller only to find out that this controller was not suitable for Lithium Iron batteries! Very frustrating. I will try to get Kings to stump up a free replacement basic controller that is suitable for our batteries. This is another issue. At the moment we don't have a working solar input.

 

[MarkJ]

It is the 3rd line of their response that appears to indicate that the Schaudt Charge Booster can be wired into a 240v power supply.

I read that differently (assuming I understand what the Booster does - it looks like a B2B charger which charges the leisure batteries from the engine battery). I think what they possibly mean is that the EBL is a mains battery charger and that is what they are recommending you to use for 230V charging. However, I'm not sure that the EBL has a Lithium setting, so don't know how that would work, unless that's what they mean by 'must have a BMS', but even then my scant knowledge of Lithium suggests that's still not a goer. Have you tried it on hook-up?

At the moment we don't have a working solar input.

Not helpful!

You do need someone more expert than me, but I would say:
Priority 1 is to get the solar working properly, and enhance it if you can: it's free energy and will work whether you're driving or not, and might just be enough to solve the problem you have anyway.
Priority 2 would be to sort out the 230v charging you want to do. As things stand, with my limited knowledge, I would say not to use the EBL to charge Lithium, but buy a dedicated 230v charger (e.g. from Ctek) and use that.

Sorry not to be more definitive, but that's my take. Hopefully a grown-up will be along soon....

 

[Kenmar1]

Hi MarkJ,
Thanks for your input. The EBL is Lithium Iron battery compatible. I will be chasing up a compatible solar controller asap as will be a bonus to have the input from the single 180amp solar panel. The EBL charger I have found out puts in 19amps into the house batteries when connected to 240v. This is more than I expected. I am hoping for an answer back from Schaudt in Germany whether it is possible to connect the WA 121525 charge Booster to 240v through a 12vdc to 240vac power converter. if so I will be able to punch in 25amps to the Lithium Iron batteries.

 

[MarkJ]

That's good about the EBL. The only instructions I found online suggested it didn't have a Lithium setting, but that could well have been for an older version.

 

[MarkJ]

t is possible to connect the WA 121525 charge Booster to 240v through a 12vdc to 240vac power converter

I'd be interested to see what they say. It looks like an intelligent bit of kit, able to cope with Euro 6 start/stop vans, so it's expecting the sort of voltage profile they generate. My Victron equivalent uses engine voltage detection to switch on. I reckon if I gave it a steady voltage, such as might come out of a converter, it might not recognise it as an 'engine start' signal and refuse to kick in.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'll may get an argument but I've fitted Solar to 8-9 vans so far and had it fitted to the present one (unfit) and all are panel to MPPT controller to leisure battery, I've never had a problem and it just works, until the stupid price hikes I'd plug into EHU in winter and let solar earn it's keep the rest of the year and I've never needed to buy a new battery, I just do not see the point of complicating something so simple

I may need to buy two for this van but I inherited two old ones when I bought it.

 

[trevskoda]

Should of fitted a votronic regulater which has setting for all types of battery banks, me id rip out all that charging cr-p that comes with any van and go my own way, I have never required any 230v input to charge except in deep winter for a few weeks when the van has been sitting idle on the drive and the sun is not much use to keep sys charged.

 

[MatijaSever]

I'll may get an argument but I've fitted Solar to 8-9 vans so far and had it fitted to the present one (unfit) and all are panel to MPPT controller to leisure battery, I've never had a problem and it just works, until the stupid price hikes I'd plug into EHU in winter and let solar earn it's keep the rest of the year and I've never needed to buy a new battery, I just do not see the point of complicating something so simple

I may need to buy two for this van but I inherited two old ones when I bought it.

That's great that you have been so successful with your solar setup! It's definitely a good way to save money in the long run, and the peace of mind that you don't have to worry about a battery going bad is really nice too. I'm glad you've been able to get so much out of it.