This is important because the monitor gives different readings for each bank. Doing so will impact the meters accuracy.Īlso, the monitor has dedicated terminals for connection of the engine starter battery and house battery bank. The meters positive and negative sense wires must be connected directly to the posts on the batteries being monitored, not remote buss bars or terminals.
Multiple battery installation wiring configuration is critical as well.įor example, battery banks must share a common ground point and cannot share a common positive connection. Compared to some of the other monitors, you have to pay closer attention to the initial calibration that is required to ensure the monitors accuracy. That said, if the electrical connections are easier, the trickier part is the setup. This unit gathers all its data directly from sensor wires connected to the positive and negative terminals of the batteries it is monitoring. Since there is no shunt required for amperage measurements with the Balmar Smartgauge an entire step in the installation process is eliminated. Without a doubt, the Balmar unit is the simplest of all the units we have tested when it comes to installation. What is interesting about the Balmar Smartgauge is that it relies on smart algorithms that don’t require either a temperature gauge or operator calibration to be accurate. Why is calibration so important? As your batteries age, a re-adjustment of the charging parameters is really quite necessary in order to maximize the accuracy of your monitor. In the case of battery monitors that essentially present a voltage reading, monitoring temperature in real time can more accurately depict voltage, and therefore, state of charge. We know from Ohms Law that as resistance changes (mathematically) both voltage and current will change. As batteries heat and cool due to both ambient temperature variations and electro-chemical reactions in each cell of the battery, their internal electrical resistances also vary. There is a direct correlation between temperature, current (amperage), and voltage. Why does temperature matter? Monitoring battery temperature and building that data into a micro-processor that is sending out a voltage reading is useful for those seeking extreme accuracy. Some of the vendors did not offer any guidance for calibration, presumably because calibration is limited, if at all possible. Victron, for example, offers an optional temperature sender to provide that data input to their monitors. Several of the vendors in our group have given these matters considerable attention and make recommendations to periodically synchronize or calibrate the monitor with the batteries being monitored. (See accompanying How We Tested on right for details on the testing.)īattery chemistry and internal construction, age, temperature, and rate of discharge and recharge efficiency all play into the degree of accuracy we can expect from a battery monitor. This is something our testers had to take into account as well when they established a protocol. But when it comes to determining state of charge or hours of use remaining, there are many factors that can introduce some margin of error. These devices are quite good at monitoring amperage and voltage and keeping track of these values down to 0.1 volts in either case. Its important for readers to understand the limitations of any battery monitoring system. From what we could determine, the other vendors have not really tested their products with lithium ion battery chemistry in mind. Of all our test units, the Victron monitors were the only ones to even mention lithium iron technology and make a recommendation for adjusting the units profiling to fit lithium technology and discharge/recharge regimens. At the high end was very sophisticated monitor from Victron that can work well with lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery technologies.
#12v battery meter marine generator
At the low end was a simple, red warning-light voltage monitor from Scad that automatically shuts down heavy electrical loads or turns on a generator before the battery goes dead. Thanks to our readers input we got our hands on one of these recently and ran it through the same test regimen we applied to the other eight monitors.Ī brief recap of where we stand: For this report, Practical Sailor studied and compared monitoring systems from five different suppliers: Blue Sea Systems, CruzPro, Scad Technologies, Victron Energy, and Xantrex. Unfortunately, we overlooked the Smartgauge made by Balmar.
Back in our October 2016 issue we looked at eight battery monitors and compared features, installation needs and overall usability.
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