# Battery Selector Switch - why



## rumik (Aug 19, 2007)

The panel in my van has a switch marked "Hab" on one end and "Veh" on the other. I presume that this switches between the leisure battery and the vehicle battery but why? Does it allow power for the habitation to be drawn from the vehicle battery and if so, why would you want to do this? Maybe it is for "emergencies" when the leisure battery is flat but you need power short-term?

Is there not a danger that if left switched to the vehicle battery (perhaps inadvertently) the habitation power usage will flatten the vehicle battery - a most undesirable result!

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the function of this switch - please all you experts out there enlighten me.


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## loddy (Feb 12, 2007)

I think its for charging the batteries in hook up mode not for drawing power from.

Loddy


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## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

I think loddy's right - I have a switch on my control panel that means I can charge the vehicle battery when on hook up, rather than it charging the leisure battery. Sometimes useful when the radio / Cd player is in use alot, or cab area lights / anything else running on the ciggy lighter socket (when on site for more than a few days). 


and why are they called cigarette lighter sockets when nobody uses them as such? Suggestions please for a new name? :wink:


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

auxillary 12v socket..

mouthful though


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## GerryD (Sep 20, 2007)

rumik said:


> The panel in my van has a switch marked "Hab" on one end and "Veh" on the other. I presume that this switches between the leisure battery and the vehicle battery but why? Does it allow power for the habitation to be drawn from the vehicle battery and if so, why would you want to do this? Maybe it is for "emergencies" when the leisure battery is flat but you need power short-term?
> 
> Is there not a danger that if left switched to the vehicle battery (perhaps inadvertently) the habitation power usage will flatten the vehicle battery - a most undesirable result!
> 
> Perhaps I am misunderstanding the function of this switch - please all you experts out there enlighten me.


Absolutely right, it also allows you to select the battery for charging when on EHU.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Batteries*

Hi

My understanding of the system as fitted to my 2007 Kon-tiki is that

1) As suggested, I can select which battery I want to charge via EHU.

2) I can use the engine battery to provide the 12v power to the hab area, instead of using the leisure battery.

In the case of the latter, this van has a warning beep than sounds if the engine battery is getting low. That would therefore be the signal to "switch off".

Maybe if a fault developed with the leisure battery etc, you might need to use the engine battery to provide power. Belt and braces I suppose.

Russell


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## trevorf (May 16, 2005)

> My understanding of the system as fitted to my 2007 Kon-tiki is that
> 
> 1) As suggested, I can select which battery I want to charge via EHU.
> 
> ...


Thats exactly my understanding too 

Trevor


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## rumik (Aug 19, 2007)

Thanks everyone for your replies - there seems to be agreement on the function and purpose of the switch.


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## chrisjrv (May 7, 2007)

Upper class vans have a cigar lighter socket :lol:


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## safariboy (May 1, 2005)

On all vans this switch allows power to be taken from either battery but when on hook up not all vans will charge the vehicle battery even when it is switched to "van". Our present Swift van will charge either battery but our previous Explorer van did not. You can tell what it is doing looking at the voltmeter reading.
The other point to watch is what your charger does when the battery is fully charged. On the Swift it stops charging and just cuts in from time to time to make up any loss. On others it will charge -all be it slowly- but in doing so water in the the electrolyte will decompose and you will need to top up.
If you are not using the van on the first design you can leave the vehicle battery charging all the time. On the second you need to put the charger on for a few hours once a week.


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## rumik (Aug 19, 2007)

In addition to asking for your input I also emailed Autosleeper about the Hab-Veh switch (I thought I'd get faster response from your good selves). To their credit Autosleeper replied today and their answer is interesting so I reproduce part of it below:

_...it allows you through the mains hook-up and thus the battery charger, to charge the selected battery...

Some customers believe, wrongly I can assure you, that the markings indicate from which battery power is being drawn from the 12 volt system. This definitely is NOT the case. I stress it is only operative and live when the mains hook-up is applied._

From your responses I guess that this is true only for my particular van and others vary.


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## 108921 (Dec 30, 2007)

This may be of no use whatsoever, but my manual shows instructions for several Motorhomes, and several of them have a switch which it says. "Before setting off on a journey switch to AUX". Don't know if that somehow connects to your query and helps any.


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