Fantastic Fan Amperage

[SWharton]

Has anyone measured the amperage at each speed for the Fantastic Fan? Thanks

[Yarome]

Sure. It depends on the model, but the standard pulls... Low/1.1, medium/1.6 and high/2 amps. The temp controlled model pulls... Low/1.8, medium/2.3 and high/3 amps.

[SWharton]

Thanks. We forgot to measure those and have been boondocking and was wondering what the impact would be overnight since we also have a residential refrig. Everything that we went through in education, changing batteries(AGM) and remotes+BMK has paid off. Surprised how fast the batteries recharge on the generator. 

 

[SWharton]

A quick, unrelated question. We now have AGM and are trying to determine what we should set the Starting/ending voltage on our Onan Generator for Autostart.

We can't find where we tell the Onan that we now have AGM? Obviously missing something in our thinking but we don't know what.

Can you help us, if not I'll post a new thread.

[Yarome]

7 hours ago, SWharton said:

We can't find where we tell the Onan that we now have AGM? Obviously missing something...

Nah.. you're good. You don't have to tell the Onan what "type" of battery you have as the start and stop voltages will be the same. Regardless of FLA or AGM's "full" is "full" and "low" is "low". 😉

The difference will be, as you've already noticed, how much quicker your AGM's will reach full capacity over FLA's. Less runtime, noise, smell, wear on your Onan and $'s out of your pocket. 

[Yarome]

Reread that... where you asking for the actual SOC voltages on AGM's?

If so, technically, your target voltages are ever so slightly different than FLA's. "Easy" on the AGM's would be:

100% - 12.8-12.85
75% - 12.6
50% - 12.3

FLA's woulda been something more in the 12.75/12.4/12.25 range.

 

[SWharton]

Thanks for the AGM answer.

To clarify(I hope) the other question. Can we live with AUTO for the defaults on the generator or do we need to adjust the start and stop voltages to reflect AGM numbers. This morning we were at 12.3 and 76% soc. I like the 76% SOC, not sure about the 12.3. I've read where we should set the starting voltage lower since the 12.3 isn't a resting voltage, at a loss on understanding that. I've started keeping a chart of various voltages and SOC to try to get to the best number.

I see the end in sight though in getting everything set up correctly.

Yes, we really noticed the fast recharge on the AGMs. We have been boondocking for 3 days now and all is fine. Just fine tuning the system so we don't accidentally kill the batteries. Luckily we are able to run the generator whenever we want.

Thank goodness for the Escapees Forum.

[Yarome]

Auto is going to work alright. It "could" be tweaked a bit for more control and a "fuller" charge on your AGM's, but unless you're pressed for ah's you "can" just leave it on auto. It makes more sense to tweak your start/stop values if most of your charging is primarily off genset or you don't see a cord at least every 5 or 6 days.

Trust your BMK's SOC over voltage. Voltage "will" artificially drop if there is any type of load on, or if there was in the last little while, even though the capacity remains high. Working solely off voltage values is incredibly inaccurate for a "working/full timer" rig. KWIM?

You read correctly. That's exactly why your start voltage is typically set lower than your target start voltage. If you set it for "desired" resting voltage then your genset may be kicking on ALL the time.

Ie., Your actual voltage... call it 12.7v, minus load draw... call it .5v... so your genset would "see" 12.2v and would have kicked on (with a 12.3v start value) as soon as the load started even though... in reality... you still have 12.7v and stacks of AH's on hand. In that case, you're genset might have to be set somewhere in the 11.7v range. It all depends on your usage and DC loads that are typical for you.

It's best to start with a little higher start value, make note of when your genset kicks on and check your SOC. If the SOC is higher than it needs to be and /or your genset is turning over more often then you like... drop the start voltage incrementally. Allow yourself a little bit of an SOC "buffer" (for those days when DC loads might run a little higher) and within a few charge cycles you should have it dialed in to a nice balance between acceptable SOC's and gen runs.

"...end in sight though.."
Yup. It just takes a few cycles to get all the parts playing nice with each other then you can pretty much kick back and let your systems go about their business. 😉

Everyone's approach is a little different. If you're using the bulk of your ah's daily then you might have your genset set to kick on nearer to 50% so it only runs once or twice a day. Another might only use a small portion of their AH's. Their genset might be set to kick on at 75% SOC... because they want a full charge at least every couple of days to keep their reserves handy. Still others that live primarily off solar and manual gen runs when it fits their schedule may have their autostart set for 40%SOC or lower... simply as an emergency failsafe in the event they have a catastrophic failure in their battery bank.

Just have to find what works best for you. The only real issue being that you don't want your start value so low that your SOC is dipping below 50% on days when you really don't have any loads pulling down your voltage. Ie., 12.1v's "could" actually be 12.1v's. It's not the end of the world if you dip into the lower 50... you just don't want to make a habit of it. AGM's are actually more tolerant in that regard.

That 50% SOC value is the balance between total ah's deliverable over the life of your battery and actual cycle life. Beyond 50% is when the lifecycles will begin to diminsh at a more excelerated rate. Dipping a little low while you're working out the tweaks... no harm no foul really.

Glad you've been having success! It's really not as difficult as we try and make it sound. 😉

 

[SWharton]

Thanks again. You have confirmed we are heading in the right direction. We find the problem is we read too much and much of the reading is in conflict with one another. Our biggest concern has been the residential refrigerator but since putting in new batteries everything is working much better and we are not in panic mode any longer. As you say we are fine tuning at this point.

We plan to tweak so the SOC doesn't go lower than 60%. We will be in summer camp in a couple days so tweaking will have to stop for a while, back to it when we are out of summer camp and boondocking again.

[Yarome]

1 minute ago, SWharton said:

We plan to tweak so the SOC doesn't go lower than 60%. 

That's a great place to be. If you find your genset still runs too frequently... you still have a little wiggle room. OR.. you may find you can even go a little higher so your genset typically runs at about the same time each day/night. 

You're most definately moving in the right direction.

[SWharton]

Thanks for the vote of confidence and all your support along the way of our learning.