Batteries Overcharging Badly

[davidbrady]

(09-11-2013 20:26)mhughes01 Wrote:  I'll let you guy know when I fling a part number for the signal switch. Wont likely get to it until October when we get home.

David, that shunt setting on the Xantrex remotes. Do you think it's likely my 1999 has a shunt? If so should both remotes be set to "shunt on"?

Hi Mike,

I don't think the 1999 has an external shunt. I believe this was a Xantrex feature that came later in the LXi evolution, closer to the '01/'02 model year and at around the time when Xantrex offered an AGM battery choice, but as always with Wanderlodges, there can be exceptions.

An external shunt allows you to get accurate battery fuel gauge information. On the RC7 that controls the inverter that's connected to the external shunt you configure: External Shunt 'This Inverter'. You then configure the other inverter to: External Shunt 'Other Inverter'. This means only the inverter connected to the external shunt will provide accurate battery fuel gauge readout.

The external shunt, and there is only one, is mounted to the basement bay wall next to the stack of inverters. Xantrex provides the shunt kit and the wiring harness. The external shunt will be connected to just one inverter, and that inverter will monitor charge going into and out of your entire house battery bank, all six batteries. This will be the inverter that will give you accurate State of Charge information at it's respective RC7 panel.

I believe your inverters each have internal shunts on the ground terminal, but in the absence of the external shunt, each inverter will report only what it consumes; i.e., only it's local view of the world. I'm not sure how useful this will be as an overall battery fuel gauge for your 6 4D battery house bank. I think the reading might tend to be misleading. I can see how they might display conflicting data, but I have no real experience with these setups; maybe someone else can comment.

To get things like:

1) % charge remaining,
2) time remaining at current amperage draw (moving average), or
3) amperage currently being drawn out of, or put into, the battery bank,

you can add something like the Xantrex Linkpro. Lot's of wanderlodge owners use this product and love it.