When it comes to installing our Sprinter Battery in a camper van or motorhome. We have a lot of questions. Which one to choose. What capacity, how to install it, maintenance, and what is Sprinter Battery price in Pakistan etc. In this guide we will answer all these questions and many more.
Normally Items at Stores
Sprinter Battery for camper van
Sprinter Battery Guide for Camper Van.
The best system to charge the Sprinter Battery
Install a booster to regulate the load
Mounting of the Sprinter Battery for camper van
- Sprinter Battery assembly with relay
Non-automatic relay
Automatic relay
- Sprinter Battery assembly with booster
- Sprinter Battery assembly with booster and solar panel
Final considerations
Units In Electricity
Before we begin, let us look at the fundamental units of electricity that go into batteries:
Tension/Voltage:
It is the potential difference between two points. We measure It in volts (V) and in our case it will usually be 12V.
Intensity/Current:
It is the flow of electrons and measure it in amps (A).
Capacity:
It is a unit of electronic load. We represent it in ampere-hours (Ah).
Power:
It is the intensity times the voltage (P=VxI). We express it is in watts (W).
To see it more clearly, let us imagine that a Battery is a water tank.
Example Electric Units Water Tank
The tension or voltage would be the height of the water (electrons) inside the tank. The intensity or current would be the flow of water (electrons) of filling or emptying. And the capacity would be the liters of water in the tank.
So, we can say: The higher the flow with which we emptied the tank, the faster we will run out of water and its height will drop faster (the higher the consumption we put on the Battery, the faster it will lose its charge and its voltage will drop faster).
Acronyms On a Battery
When comparing a Battery, on the label, we find different acronyms that provide us with a lot of information about its properties and characteristics. We should know the meaning of each of them. Since it can condition the correct or incorrect operation of the Battery.
Acronym Camper Van Battery
Throughout this article we will use the 160Ah C100 U-Power AGM Battery as an example:
Deep Cycle Solar Battery AGM 160Ah Solar Photovoltaic with terminals
Capacity
We expressed the capacity of a Battery in ampere hours (Ah). If we have a Battery with a capacity of 100Ah and we apply a constant consumption of 10A, it will take 10 hours to fully discharge.
Discharge Time
Next to the capacity we find another number or numbers preceded by a “C”. This value indicates the discharge time, expressed in hours, for a Battery to deliver all its energy at a constant rate of discharge.
Let us take our 160Ah C100 U-Power AGM Battery as an example. The C100 discharge regime tells us that, if we apply constant consumption for 100 hours, the Battery will be capable of supplying us with 160Ah.
A priori, it seems like a piece of information that is not of much interest, but it is very important to take it into account. In a Battery, the longer the discharge time, the more energy it can deliver (more Ah).
Specifications Of Our Sprinter Battery
To see it better, let us go to the specifications of our Sprinter Battery that we will place in the camper van. The manufacturer tells us that our Battery is 160Ah at a C100 rate, but its capacity drops to 130Ah at a C10 rate (if we fully discharge it in 10 hours). If the load we put is very large and we take our Battery to C1 (complete discharge in 1 hour) its capacity will be 85Ah. As we can see, the faster we discharge the Battery, the less energy it will not deliver.
Let us take an example: we have two identical vehicles with the same liters of gasoline. One goes at 100km/h and the other at 200km/h. The second vehicle will use up the gas tank before, but the first will do many more kilometers.
Although the manufacturer gives us the nominal capacity of the Battery in C10 or C20, for an electrical installation in a van we are more interested in knowing the nominal capacity in C100, since this discharge rate will be closer to our application.
