Dual Bank vs One Bank SWs/Ripple [RE-wrenches]

matthew tritt solarone at charter.net
Fri Dec 13 08:59:30 PST 2002


Jeff,

I have quite a few stacked sinewave sets out there and all of them ,(make
that MOST of them), perform this asymmetrical charging routine quite well,
and completely on their own. It's normal to find one inverter charging at 15
to 40 amps, while the other charges at 2 to 3 amps, in the late stages of
the charging cycle.

I do have one customer who went through 2 sets of L-16's very prematurely
with the older Sinewave units.
That problem has been cleared-up by replacing the earlier version 4024's
with the pre-problematic 4048's, and a set of IBE industrials. The system
now performs admirably. Trojan L-16's are nice and portable but don't hold a
candle to the Big Boys, and I suspect that many battery failures have as
much to do with wimpy batteries as with Sinewave performance issues.

Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Clearwater" <clrwater at earthlink.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 7:50 AM
Subject: Re: Dual Bank vs One Bank SWs/Ripple [RE-wrenches]


> Hi Kirk,
>
> I was at a dealer training and joined a circle of wrenches talking
> about dual SW ripple.  I can't remember now who it was that was
> speaking but he said that 1) AC ripple from two SWs can cause
> harmonics that greatly accentuate the ripple effect and that 2) AC
> ripple can really harm the plates.  He based this on experience of
> two battery packs that died a premature death under these conditions.
>
> I know from my few dual SW installations that you can get some weird
> charger cycling if you set both SWs to the exact same settings, and
> from that experience and per a thread a few years back on this list,
> I now set dual SWs so that one has a more aggressive charge routine
> than the other so that it leads and the other follows rather than
> fighting each other.  But that's a more macroscopic cycling issue
> than the supposed ripple problem.
>
> Any other wrenches experience on this?  Xantrex, are you there?
>
> Jeff
>
>
> >Jeff,
> >
> >I've never heard of a "ripple" problem. Are you referring to the AC
ripple
> >riding on the DC after rectification? Why is this a problem when charging
> >batteries......all chargers have an ac ripple component of some % to
their
> >DC output.
> >
> >Kirk
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Jeff Clearwater" <clrwater at earthlink.net>
> >To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
> >Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 11:46 AM
> >Subject: Dual Bank vs One Bank SWs/Ripple [RE-wrenches]
> >
> >
> >>  Hey All,
> >>
> >>  I have a customer where we are doing an add PV upgrade to a
> >>  battery/inverter/generator-only system.
> >>
> >>  Presently he has two 5548's  with each inverter fed from a separate
> >>  battery bank.
> >>
> >>  I'm planning to combine the banks so I need only one charge control,
> >>  one shunt and one KWhr meter.
> >>
> >>  Other than than having to set the SWs to work together per previous
> >>  threads on this list - my concern is that I not downgrade by
> >>  introducing the ripple problem.  I've heard that ripple can really
> >>  shorten battery life considerably. He charges with a 10KW diesel so
> >>  charging with just one SW doesn't really make sense.   Other Wrenches
> >>  experience on this?
> >>
> >>  Thanks,
> >>
> >>  Jeff
> >>
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>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jeff Clearwater
> Ecovillage Design Associates - Whole Systems Design
> Community and Village Scale Renewable Energy & Water Systems
>
> Cell: 720-480-8455
> Office:  800-440-2523 (PIN-7071)
> Fax:  720-528-7813
> jeffc at ic.org
>
> Council Member - Ecovillage Network of the Americas -
http://www.ecovillage.org
> Advisory Board - Living Routes - Ecovillage Education -
> http://www.livingroutes.org
> Founder:  Ecovillage Research, Development, and Demonstration Program:
> http://www.home.earthlink.net/~clrwater/RDD/rdd.html
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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>
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>
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>
>

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