short lived UPS system [RE-wrenches]

[EH Roy]

Darryl,

In addition to the wrench comments about watering and float charging
currents, I'd call your customer's attention to the need to cycle and
equalize flooded lead acid batteries that are in primarily float
applications. A common misconception is that when a flooded battery is
continuously kept at its float voltage level, it doesn't need any
maintenance other than watering. This is really not true. There are Y2K
battery banks failing (mossing) out there because of this misconception.
Flooded batteries need to be cycled and equalized regularly to avoid such
failure. This seems odd because most of us see batteries fail prematurely
due to intense cycling but they can fail from inactivity as well.

E. H. Roy
Solar Works Inc.
64 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
802 223-7804 x306
ehroy at solar-works.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Darryl Thayer [mailto:daryl_solar at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 11:03 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: short lived UPS system [RE-wrenches]


Thanks for the help on other topics
I have another question.  I just got a new customer
who has a UPS system consisting of two sw5548
inverters, and 800 AH of batteries.  He has only had a
few outages but he has ruined his second set of
batteries in less than three years.  The odor from the
hot dry batteries set off his smoke alarm.  In less
than two years should lead antimony batteries go dry?


I think there are two problems, the SW5548 have
overcharged and once the batteries had a problem in
one cell the others ( four parallel strings, 200 ah
per string, 48 volt) dumped there power into the bad
cell and the overcharge was rampant.  They had
Hydrocaps which also were two years old, and either
could not keep up or just wore out.

How should I solve this to make this system last
longer?


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: michael_welch at sbcglobal.net

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html
--^----------------------------------------------------------------