I have a system of security lights around the house turning on every evening for about 6 hrs charged by solar panels. The lights draw about 3 amps so about 18AHper night. Batteries have always been a bit of a problem. I bought a deep cycle battery in January. No name on the battery just Sealed Lead Acid AGM . It was sold as 130 AH. (presumably from China) It was cheap at around 100squid) What did strike me when it arrived is that it is very heavy like 25kg or so it seems. Anyway for a few months it seemed to work seamlessly. To the point where I took it for granted.
Then autumn arrived and some cloudy days. A few days back I woke to find lights quite dim. A check of voltage showed 8.8volts under load. I realised that with some cloudy days charging was probably a bit inadequate. I have fitted a VSR into the load set at around 11volts. I seemed to switch off the lights after about 2 hrs. I am sure I pumped about 30AH in from solar during the day. The voltage on charge got up around 16v. Not regulated about of desperation. I ahve crtankled up the regulated voltage and battery seems to come up to about 16v on charge relatively quickly. One might think it is fully charged but it seems to ahve a small capacity for charge.
Charging comes from 2x 160w 40v ex domestic panels located so at least one is in sun all day (a big tree in the way) It feeds a buck converter to give a regulated charge voltage. I also have a 80w 20v panel that I have used more recently unregulated to push in about 3 amps regardless of charge level.
Have I simply stuffed it through not enough charge and too much discharge over possibly some cycles? Is there any way to recover capacity ? Was it just a dud or am I the stupid one to not care for it well enough. Waht is this "equalising charge' spoken of ? No i don't have smart auto mans charger. Any comment please ol'will
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