When I installed my
Victron battery monitor, my boat's
service batts were still divided into two banks. Now they are combined into one big bank. So the
battery monitor gives weird info - the shunt is only on the ground wire of half of the
batteries.
Now that I have new batts I am thinking again about how best to monitor them. The obvious thing to do would be to combine the two ground wires at the shunt so that the
Victron works as it should. But this will add 20 feet of cable to the
wiring of one part of the bank - seems like that would exacerbate any imbalance. Since I don't worship the "percentage capacity left" reading on the meter, paying rather more attention to voltage trends and total amp/hours used, it's also conceivable to just leave it like it is, double the amp/hours used reading, and rock and roll(as I've done for the last two years. However, there are a couple of other ways to do it:
1. Install a second Victron meter (they're not that expensive) with a second shunt at the second ground wire. Aggregate the amp/hours used readings of both meters.
2. Add a "Smart Gauge" meter which does not measure amp hours in and out; rather it does a sophisticated analysis of the voltage trends.
3. Add both a second Victron and a Smart Gauge.
What do you guys think?