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Battery Monitors:
Q1: What is a Battery Monitor?
A1: A battery monitor is an electronic device that measures the flow of power to and from a battery/batteries, plus giving a readout of the battery bank's SOC (state of charge) in voltage. Some makes and models of monitors will aslo give a percentage indication as well as ampere hours left to go on the battery/batteries.
A2: Is a battery monitor really necessary?
A2: There are systems that don't incorporate or make use of a separate battery monitor due to the fact that the inverter will provide battery status and health information from it's built in shunts. The down side to this is that you would need to access a WEB based portal in order to see what the battery status is as lot of inverters won't display this information. When it comes to having a highly accurate report on battery health and status, a battery monitor with it's own shunt is definitely recommended. The other bonus feature is that the monitor itself can be mounted some distance from the battery bank and shunt allowing one to easily read the display in a lounge or kitchen without having to go to the inverter room where the batteries are situated.
Q3: Are battery monitors used for Solar Systems only?
A3: Battery monitors can be fitted to any battery or battery bank for that matter, which is being used to either power an inverter or drive loads directly off of the battery. The beauty of some higher quality monitors, is that they have data logging capabilities which greatly aids in determining whether a battery or battery bank is being adequately charged or not, may it be with a conventional AC-DC charger or a Solar Regulator. Battery monitors used in conjunction with battery backup systems makes it very easy for one to see how much power is left so that non essential loads can be switched off to prolong backup time to critical circuits and loads.