short lived UPS system [RE-wrenches]

[ASAP POWER!]

All of our sell-back ups battery systems have had Concorde Chairmans or
SunXtenders with SW4048's, almost all Trace control products.   The oldest
systems I have out there (sic) are now 30 months old and all doing fine, no
complaints.  Now I integrate GT'd systems with MK's AGM Batteries (Deka
Solar on the label) and just started using Solar Boost's and all Outback
gear around the SW4048's. Generally, 8D's or lesser are specified, at least
when we need batteries that one or two people can lift.  No problems thus
far.  Being relatively new as integrator/installer, I never had to stop
selling flooded batteries cuz I never really started.  Still, IMO, a
"maintenance free" battery is a misnomer.  Nevertheless, I never saw a
compelling reason to use the flooded batteries (besides cost).  The Trojan
Battery was the only game in town it seemed like until about 2000, and all
the Y2K systems that were sold prior to, allowed that battery type to be
exposed to a suddenly much larger number of inexperienced users.  So the
numbers alone may warrant the percentage of "manufactured" failure, but this
situation could also show a higher percentage of user error involved, and
it's likely due to both battery type and ability to maintain.  And the SW
menues aren't the easiest thing for folks to navigate through, set
setpoints, or troubleshoot.

Peter D.
ASAP POWER!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Fisher [mailto:jfisher at nahbrc.org]
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 5:28 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: short lived UPS system [RE-wrenches]


I've now had two Y2K customers (I know, but what was I going to say, no?),
each with PV charging sixteen L16s @ 48V and SW's in sell mode, have their
entire banks fail in the last year. These robust battery banks were only
about 3 years old! It's hard for me to know what happened since they claim
they watered the batteries and cannot give me a good idea of whether the
system was cycled or equalized on any regular basis (which probably means
none of these events occurred!). These recommendations had been given to
them in their owner's manual.
I also have another customer, also with sixteen L16s of the same vintage,
who has kept the water up, cycled the bank frequently, and equalized every
few months. His bank is doing fine.

I stopped selling flooded batteries to grid-tied PV customers who wanted
backup in 2000. I simply didn't believe them when they said they "enjoy"
watering the batteries and interacting with their PV system. Now that I've
experienced these premature failures, I'm sure this was the right idea.

On this note, any common failure modes of gells or AGMs anyone knows about?

Jason Fisher

Aurora Energy LLC
Annapolis, MD
410-268-3088
jason at aurora-energy.com

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