Fw: off grid battery equalization [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

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A reply from James Surrette on the Surrette battery question from around a
week ago:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Surrette" <james at surrette.com>
> Hi Allan,
> Sorry for the delay in my reply but your message was caught in my spam
> filter.
>
> In my reading of the posting, the major concern appears to be state of
> charge.  As you know, specific gravity readings are very helpful in
> these situations as equalize charging can throw off any amp meters
> until they are reset.  It appears to be a 48VDC bank in parallel and it
> is possible that one bad cell is holding back the entire bank.  A set of
> pre-charge and post-charge gravity readings would verify but this could
> explain why they are not reaching voltage but, if this is the case,
> there would be a significant amount of gassing.
>
> Regarding the gentleman from Peltz Power's comments: not sure how our
> electrolyte solution varies from any other lead-acid battery
> manufacturer (Sulfuric Acid), other than our concentration / strength is
> often lower (1.265 vs. 1.280-1.300) which promotes longer battery life.
>
> Happy to review further. Thanks for passing this along.
> Regards,
> James Surrette
> Surrette Battery Co. Ltd
> 1 Station Rd.
> Springhill, NS, CAN
> B0M 1X0
>
> Direct: 902.597.4027
> Fax: 902.597.8447
>
> >>> "Allan Sindelar" <allan at positiveenergysolar.com> 09/22/04 12:56AM
> Jamie,
> Care to respond? I'll post your message.
> Allan at Positive Energy
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jay Peltz, Peltz Power" <jay at asis.com>
> To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 9:54 AM
> Subject: Re: off grid battery equalization [RE-wrenches]
>
> I've seen this problem with Surrettes before.  They have a different
> electrolite solution so they charge differently.
>
> Had a customer who took meticulus notes, (on some big Rolls) and
> could
> never get them to come right on the hydrometer or volts.  Never got a
> good
> response from Rolls either.
>
> Also know of a number of dealers in my area who no longer carry
> Rolls/surrette for the same problems you are having.
>
> Couldn't say if the life or amp capacity isn't correct, but they do
> act
> differently.
>
> Curious about 1 thing.  Why 16 batteries?
>
> Thanks,
>
> jay
>
> Peltz Power
>
>
> > I have an off grid client that has a 1.4 kW array, a 6.5 kW Kohler
> > generator, and 16 Decca L-16 size 350 Amp-Hr batteries.  System
> worked
> > great for 5 years, although limited sun-hours due to being in bottom
> > of a canyon!.  He needed generator about 3 hours run time twice a
> > week. Client recently decided to replace batteries and we supplied
> 16
> > Rolls Surrette S460 batteries (350AH @ 20 hrs).
> >
> > Client cannot get these new batteries up to full charge.  Nothing
> else
> > changed in system, same solar input, same generator run time, same
> > loads.  He has tried setting his MPPT controller for equalize, then
> at
> > end of day setting the Trace SW40 for equalize and running generator
> > up to 6 hours.  He has also tried to "fool" the inverter by
> resetting
> > the bulk and absorption charge setpoints up to 30 volts to avoid the
> > inverter shutting down the generator before a full equalize charge
> is
> > complete (which is what it is doing now).
> >
> > He has monitored the charging progress by sp.gr. readings and
> Amp-hour
> > meter and still can only reach a 75% full level.  Nothing seems to
> get
> > these even close to 100%.  There are 2 batteries out of the 16 with
> > sp.gr. staying slightly below the others, but since we cannot reach
> > equalization, we cannot force the battery bank to balance.
> >
> > The old batteries did not have this problem and the owner is
> starting
> > to feel the higher priced Surrette batteries are not as good as his
> > older Decca L-16 batteries which he could re-charge to at least 90%
> > full.
> >
> >  We are thinking about dis-connecting the battery "strings" and
> > charging only 8 at a time, but I do not want to do this each time an
> > equalize charge is needed.
> >
> > Has anyone run into this before?  Any other "tricks" to keep the
> > inverter charging at full amps longer when powered from generator?
> >
> > Jeff Yago
> >

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