Fw: off grid battery equalization [RE-wrenches]

Hugh Piggott hugh at scoraigwind.co.uk
Sat Sep 25 23:31:10 PDT 2004


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Not a very satisfactory reply, in that he does not explain how one 
cell in one string could be holding back the whole bank.  Unless it 
is losing charge (shorting) in which case I would expect to see 
prolonged high charging current.  When people say that the battery 
does not reach full charge on an amphour meter they also have to say 
what criteria are programmed into the meter.  It's just a machine (I 
think).

>  > 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.

Here in the UK we can sometimes get secondhand storage cells which 
are huge and have a lifetime of 25-40 years.  The acid is much less 
strong but there is more electrolyte in each cell.  The cell voltages 
(off load full charge) are always lower than other battery types and 
I believe this is a chemical phenomenon due to the low gravity.  I 
love these batteries but they are too expensive to buy new and are 
getting hard to find used.

I have a friend who installs diesel sets and I helped him get up to 
speed on installing inverters.  He now tells me that he has installed 
some Outback FX inverters and they charge batteries "much better" 
than the SW. He can't say how they do this.  I would have thought 
that you just had to set the voltage parameters etc and you could 
charge any battery with an SW.  Battery charging seems to involve 
some element of voodoo beyond the numbers.  Does anyone agree with 
him that the FX charges batteries better, and if so what exactly do 
they mean by this?  I was surprised he liked the FX so much because 
the generator control features are relatively crude but he says most 
of the systems he works on the generators are run on timers.

-- 
Hugh
Scoraig Wind Electric
http://www.scoraigwind.co.uk/

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