TYPE OF BATTERY

Thankyou to those who replied about my battery query.  Did the test suggested by Peter and the charge kept up, so assume battery is OK. Perhaps we are using too much during an evening for a 100Amph. But we are conservative users of power. Had several suggestions by battery experts who say we should have a deep cycle battery as opposed to a crank.  But I can't identify the current battery.  What do other AS members have or think of that?  This is why I am trying to identify the type of battery I have now.

It would be simpler to follow if you could keep this conversation on one thread rather than the three going at the moment.

If you list what you use and for how long on a typical night then we can calculate how much is being used and from that the recharge time needed to replenish the battery.

Peter

It would be a lot easier if you just replied to your own thread rather than keep posting new ones, as we can see all the previous stuff you've said about your battery in one place.

My own personal experience - as someone who uses 12V electrics fairly sparingly - is that normal vehicle starter batteries work well and last a long time provided you monitor them and never flatten them. Once they have been badly flattened they never seem to recover fully.

If you find you are using too much battery power there are steps you can take to cut it back - for example halogen lights are very wasteful, and just replacing these with LEDs can make significant power savings.

It occurs to me that it might be a faulty diode in your solar system.

there is diode there to stop the battery discharging into the panel during the hours of darkness when the panel isnt charging, the losses cause by either not having a diode or having one which is defective are small but might be enough to tip your system over the edge especially now the nights are getting longer and so the period of discharge is also lengthening.

Personally I wouldnt worry too much about the "type" of battery a starter battery will work just as well as a leisure battery - it just mightnt do it for as long!

Tikiti's profile has him located in New Zealand where it is spring - I think.

Peter

Tikiti's profile has him located in New Zealand

Ooops!
I still think its worth considering taking a look at the diode