Battery Monitoring

The purpose of battery monitoring devices is to show the actual usable energy remaining in a battery bank, so you can avoid unexpected shutdowns, prevent damaging over-discharge and plan when to recharge. It is effectively a fuel gauge for batteries.

A shunt-based battery monitor measures all current flowing into and out of the battery, plus battery voltage. It uses those readings to calculate and display:

• State of charge (SoC): estimated energy remaining, from 0% to 100%.

• Current and power: whether the battery is charging or discharging, and by how many amps or watts.

• Amp-hours consumed: energy removed from the battery since its last full charge.

• Time remaining: estimated runtime at the current load.

• Battery voltage: useful for checking system condition and charge behaviour.

• History: typically deepest discharge, average discharge, charge/discharge cycles and number of full discharges.

This lets users:

• Stop batteries reaching a harmful low state of charge.

• Identify excessive loads or unexpected standby consumption.

• Confirm whether solar, mains chargers, alternators or generators are actually charging as expected.

• Set alarms or relay actions at chosen low-SoC or voltage thresholds.

• Diagnose declining battery performance and improve charging settings.

• Share battery voltage, current and temperature data with compatible chargers, allowing better coordinated charging.