Battery Fuel Gauge [RE-wrenches]

[Ezra Auerbach, DragonSun Consulting]

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A good reason for gt systems with battery backup to have service  
contracts associated with their sale. A pro showing up once or twice  
a year to test and exercise the batteries is the best was to ensure  
that there will be reserve power when a real outage occurs.

Ezra Auerbach
DragonSun Consulting
Lasqueti Island, B.C. V0R 2J0

ezra at lincsat.com
250 333 8650



On 4-Nov-06, at 9:11 PM, Joel Davidson wrote:

>
> Hi Don - Thanks for the feedback. What battery fuel gauge do you  
> recommend?
>
> Wrenches - Do any of your grid-tie customers ever test their  
> battery bank with a simulated outage, let alone on a regular basis?  
> None of my customers do and some are real tinkerers.
>
> Joel Davidson
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Loweberg" <I2P at aol.com>
> To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
> Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 2:06 PM
> Subject: Re: Battery Fuel Gauge [RE-wrenches]
>
>
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 11/3/2006 8:20:53 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>> danbob at otherpower.com writes:
>> I usually recommend the TriMetric or Pentametric from Bogart
>>
>>
>> Going back to Joel's original post-- The fuel gauge products  
>> already exist
>> and I do agree that watts and watt hours are preferred for easy  
>> customer use.
>>
>> One problem with systems that are grid connected and at float all  
>> the time,
>> is that indeed the meter has little function and as Bob-O already  
>> remarked,
>> does not account for selfdischarge.
>>
>> In my mind the only way to know capacity with sealed batteries is to
>> excercise them by testing. Simulate an outage , note the loads,  
>> and then see how long
>> for the voltage to drop to a designated cutoff point. Then a  
>> person knows how
>> much backup to expect. Without testing on a regular basis, the  
>> reserve or
>> backup capability of a grid connected system becomes unknown over  
>> time no matter
>> how well the original design attemped to predict it.
>>
>>
>> Don Loweburg
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
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>
>
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>
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