battery sulfation [RE-wrenches]

[Doug Wells]

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Marco,

I have seen a lot of UPS systems with L-16's.  We have tried tweaking the
settings in a variety of ways to extend battery life.  I would in no way
promise a 10-12 year life span on L-16's used in this manner.  The average
battery bank life is more like 5 to 7 years.  Premature failure has been do
to 1. mossing of plates due to stagnation  2. habitual overcharging due to
auto bulk charge on rural lines that have frequent power dips and 3. lack of
customer maintenance.
Equalization would probably be ideal for some customers, but I have found
that a simulated outage is pretty easy for people.  Once a month flip the
main panel breaker, and let the batteries run the critical load panel for a
morning or evening.  Then flip the main breaker and the SW and Outback
inverters will go into an auto bulk charge.  This is enough to stir up the
electrolyte and mildly cycle the batteries.

Doug Wells
Solar Works Inc.
64 Main St.
Montpelier, VT 05602
800-339-7804 ex. 305

-----Original Message-----
From: Marco Mangelsdorf [mailto:marco at pvthawaii.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 3:59 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: battery sulfation [RE-wrenches]


If one were using flooded L-16-type batteries in a UPS mode (grid-tie
w/battery back-up) where the batteries are spending 99+ percent of their
lifetime in a float state, are equalization charges needed and if so, how
frequently?

marco

Marco Mangelsdorf
President
ProVision Technologies, Inc.
Electrical Contractor License C-26351
69 Railroad Avenue, Suite A-7
Hilo, Hawaii 96720 USA
(808) 969-3281, fax 934-7462
www.provisiontechnologies.com


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