Leisure battery dead

[Lee]

So I've got a trip planned at the weekend, had the van on the drive for a couple of days, took it out today and the leisure battery is dead.

No idea why, can only assume I left a light on or something, though there is a solar panel so amazed its run down.

Will it just charge with time, have heard stories that if they go dead then they won't charge again.

 

[Lee]

Scratch that, just tried again and it works, can only assume I had a numpty moment.

 

[Davenjo]

Assuming it's a decent size and was fully charged, I wouldn't expect a light (usually LEDs so very low energy) to discharge your leisure battery over a couple of days, especially as you have a solar panel trickle charging your battery. Did you have anything else on such as a fridge or water pump that is constantly trying to pressurise or something?

Do you know how big the solar panel is - I'm about to get a 100 watt system installed with the expectation that it will keep my fridge permanently without having to use EHU.

 

[Davenjo]

Scratch that, just tried again and it works, can only assume I had a numpty moment.

I'm too slow lol

 

[Lee]

The solar panel isn't big at all, ours is a 100 watt one, probably take up 1/8th of the roof.

Plan to use it over the weekend without hookup, we run the fridge off it mainly, charge devices, lights and a 12v kettle. The conversion company I bought it from said they did a long weekend festival in it, it had the fridge on the whole time, with devices charging etc. The weather was bad too.

 

[Davenjo]

Sorry, by size I meant wattage. Everything I've been reading suggests that 100w will be sufficient to run my fridge permanently whilst on the drive at home and significantly extend the 2 or 3 days I expect to get without EHU when using other things camping such as water pump, device chargers, lights, etc.

 

[Lee]

I can report back after the weekend, though the conversion company suggest that it more than did the job on a similar setup to yours, that in poor weather.