02/11/98
8
HOW TO USE YOUR
Link1000
SIMPLE BATTERY MANAGEMENT RULE:
Recharge When the Battery is 50% Discharged!
The
Link1000
isaguidetothe battery's stateofcharge. OurMid-CapacityRule
saysyoushouldbeginchargingwhenyour
Link1000
showsthat50%(ormore)of battery
capacity has been consumed. In Marine and RV systems, which are trying to minimize
chargingtimewithanenginedrivenalternator,orgeneratorpoweredcharging, thebattery
is normally charged only to the 85% level. This means only 35% of the battery capacity
is actually available for use. The Mid-Capacity rule is a very conservative approach to
batteryuse. Occasionallydischargingabatterymoredeeply isperfectlyacceptable. The
Mid-Capacity rule is intended as a design and operating guideline, not a law which must
be obeyed without exception.
We recommend synchronizing your
Link 1000
to the 100% charged level of the
battery. You should begin recharging when 50% of the your battery capacity has been
consumed.Whenrechargingfromanenginedrivensource, youdonotneedtocharge
until the meter reads 0 Amp-hours consumed. You may cease charging even though
15% of capacity has not been returned by charging. See example below. When you plug
back into AC power, or when a long drive provides power which exceeds demand, the
remaining Amp-hours consumed will be replaced. Periodic conditioning or Equalizing
should be used to remove any negative Amp-hours that are not replaced during normal
charging.
OVERCHARGEAMP-HOURS
If the battery is 100% charged, and the
Link 1000
is in sync with the battery,
overcharge A hrs are displayed as a positive Amp-hour number. Some accumulation of
overcharge A hrs is normal with systems continuously connected to a charger. For
example: A 100 A hr battery at Float voltage, will normally have a little less than 0.1
Amp flowing into it. This means you would expect about 2.4 A hrs of overcharge to
accumulateeachday. If yourbatterysystemis larger,proportionatelymorecurrentflows
and more overcharge A hrs will accumulate.
Ifthecharging systemisa constantvoltagetypesetat14.2volts,asmuchas1Amp
ofcurrentmaybeflowingallthetimeafterthebatteryhasreachedthe chargedparameters.
Prolonged high voltage applied to a fully charged battery will likely cause gassing. You
would expect to see a large A hr overcharge every day. This is a clear indication that you
aredestroyingyourbatterybyovercharging. Check your
Link1000
beforeturning off
achargingsourcetoseethatyou havenot accumulatedtoo manyover-chargeAhrs. When
discharging begins, overcharge A hrs are erased and the
Link 1000
resets to zero and
begins to report Amp-hours consumed.
If you Equalize your batteries using a Heart Interface
Freedom
inverter/charger,
youwillaccumulate someoverchargeAhrsduring Equalizing.This isnormal andinsures
that the
Link 1000
stays synchronized with the battery state of charge.
