[RE-wrenches] Outback Charging Method

[Mark Frye]

Thanks Jay,
 
This came up because I was looking at the summary on the Mate during
charging and it showed that one of the stacked slaves had 0.0kw charge
power. Strangely enough, the ac charge current showed 16 AAC. This is how I
got on the subject with tech support. They said that the 0.0 kw charge power
was perfectly normal because the charge controller was trying to reduce the
charge current by drop operation of one of the stacked inverters.
 
I always figured that the slaved stack would rise and fall in unison to meet
the current demand.
 
I do have them running at variuos "power save" levels so I suppose it is
possible that entire chargers are being dropped, but I thought that was only
for managing the on/search mode on larger stacks.
 
I am guessing that this is more a matter of reporting errors in the mate.
 
Mark Frye 
Berkeley Solar Electric Systems 
303 Redbud Way 
Nevada City,  CA 95959 
(530) 401-8024 
 <http://www.berkeleysolar.com/> www.berkeleysolar.com  
 

  _____  

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of jay peltz
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 2:05 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback Charging Method


HI Mark, 

I can't speak to the issue OB tech says here, although it doesn't seem to
support what I see in the real world.

One issue I have seen a lot of is the inverters getting hot, and then
derating the current output.  I especially see this with them mounted in the
normal outback model.  In a side by side mounting ( Midnite or custom) they
run much cooler.

In the past I have actually taken out the foam filter and side screens (when
I don't have to worry about debris getting into the inverters) and this has
both increased air flow substantially and also the charging rate for systems
with large batteries and generators that run for many hours at high charge
rates.

Hope this helps,

jay

Peltz power




On Jun 21, 2010, at 1:49 PM, Mark Frye wrote:


I just got off the phone with Outback technical support in which my
understanding of how the charger works was challanged.

In my situation, the AGS Volt Start conditions start my generator and a
charge cycle is initiated. 

I always though that during the bulk phase, the chargers try to operated at
a constant maximum current, limited by the charge ACC input limit in order
to raise the voltage to the absorb set point.  At that point the charger
changed to a constant voltage mode and tapered off the current.

The tech said that the charger will actually taper off the current before
then, as the actual battery voltage approaches the absorption set point
voltage, as part of a single current curve, based on voltage, running from
the start of the bulk cycle to the end of the absorption cycle.

So long as the charger rating is large compared to the battery size, I
expect to see the charge current a constant maximum all the way up to the
absorption set point. So if I don't see this, I am looking for a problem
somewhere. Not so according to technical support.

Any thoughts? 
  
Mark Frye 
Berkeley Solar Electric Systems 
303 Redbud Way 
Nevada City,  CA 95959 
(530) 401-8024 
 <http://www.berkeleysolar.com/> www.berkeleysolar.com  

_



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