Why Choose Home of 12 Volt for your Volt and Amp meters?
Home of 12 Volt is your 'One - Stop - Shop' for all of your 12 Volt needs. We stock the largest variety of 12 volt voltage displays on the market! In addition to our range of volt meters, we stock a variety of 12v amp meters to help you monitor your system.
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What is a volt meter and how does it work?
A volt meter offers the ability to take a capacity reading of your remaining charge condition in a battery. Volt meters can be either digital or analog, however, they are both reading the same thing; the voltage remaining in the battery.
Are digital displays more accurate then analog volt meters?
The use of analog meters were more popular in the past, however, they have now been superseded with the use of digital meters due to accuracy. A digital voltage meter is easier to monitor and minimizes the possibility of user error. The Analog meter consisted of a needle that moved along a number of voltage lines; if the reading was not taken from straight on, this could skew the overall result and provide an incorrect status of battery condition.
Can I use a volt meter to monitor an AGM or Sealed Lead Acid Battery?
In the past, the most popular battery on the market for dual battery systems were AGM or Sealed Lead Acid batteries. This type of battery was easy to monitor directly from a 12v volt meter. The approx reading of a Sealed Lead Acid Battery was as follows:
Using the above reading, the use a digital volt meter made it easy to monitor a 12 volt battery with just a quick glance.
Can I use a volt meter to monitor my Lithium LiFePO4 Battery?
Lithium Batteries are very difficult to monitor from the use of a simple 12v volt meter. Unlike AGM or Sealed Lead Acid batteries, Lithium batteries have large change in their overall capacity for just a minor change in the voltage reading. For example, see below for approx reading of battery capacity with Lithium batteries:
As the remaining capacity changes greatly with just a small increment in voltage change, the best way to monitor a Lithium battery then moves to using an AMP METER 12v or a SMART SHUNT.
What is the difference between a volt meter and an amp meter?
A voltage meter will read the remaining capacity in the battery, whereas an Amp meter will read the amount of power you are charging or discharging from the battery.
Think about it like a tank of water.
The voltage meter will read how many liters you have left in the tank.
The amp meter will read how many liters you are taking from the tank (or how many liters you are filling the tank) over one full hour.
Some 12 volt Amp meters can go to the next level and accumulate all of the amps you have taken from the battery / or how many amps you have replenish back into the battery over the time in which it has been connected for. This type of Amp meter is often referred to as a SHUNT.
What is a smart shunt?
Much like a 12v amp meter described above, a SMART SHUNT is a type of 12 volt amp meter that will act to read all loads that have been discharged or recharged from the battery. The Smart Shunt allows the user to dial in the overall capacity of the battery and then monitor the discharge or recharge from the battery so that an overall remaining state of charge (SOC) can be obtained.
The "smart" word in the name SMART SHUNT refers to the ability offer Bluetooth connectivity to your smart device (like a phone or tablet) so that these readings can be viewed at your fingertips.
How do I install the smart shunt to my battery?
Installing a smart shunt is relatively simple.
Usually all loads from all appliances will run back to the battery and will connect to the positive and negative terminals of the battery.
When installing a smart shunt, all the negative loads from all appliances will instead connect to one side of the SMART SHUNT. The other side of the smart shunt will then connect directly to the battery's negative terminal. This essentially means the SHUNT SHUNT is positioned 'in line" of the appliances and the negative terminal of the battery.
Home of 12 Volt offer a pre-made 32mm (2B&S) linking cable to suit the use of a SMART SHUNT to make installation easy!
How do I install a 12 volt meter in my vehicle or Caravan?
Installing a 12v voltage meter is extremely easy!
The 12v voltage display will have a positive and negative cable that will connect directly to the battery terminals. It is as simple as connecting the red cable from the volt meter to the positive terminal of the battery, and then connecting the black cable of the voltage meter to the negative terminal of the battery.
It is always recommended to install fuse on all positive cables connected to the battery.
Still need help with monitoring your system?
Home of 12 Volt Online are specialists in the field of 12 Volt. If you are unsure on how to best monitor your system, then CONTACT US directly on 08 8391 3121