[RE-wrenches] cycling flooded batteries is not necessary

Sun Feb 19 19:53:33 PST 2012

There is to much water under the bridge.  It can't be nothing.   The battery manufacture make the battery and then forms the plates, he ships the battery expecting and knowing that the user will cycle the battery.  In the cycling process there are "chanels formed in the plate for acid to enter, and consequently the plate becomes a better plate.  the cycling forces avenues to form, and as everyone knows the battery capacity increases.  this increase is easy to see in the performance.  Then the battery begins to very slowly lose capacity as the plates detererate.over several thousand cycles.  

The enlightenment here is the small minimum number of cycles it takes to maintain a battery.  A flooded Lead antimomy battery has a self discharge rate, during that discharge H2SO4 becomes H2O the H2O rises to the top, leaving acid at the bottom.  now you have stratification, in the presence of H2O  the lead Oxide softens and will actually desolve.  the water and acid need to be mixed, so a bubling action is rfquired, this is  controlled over charge.  So as long as the battery is equalized that is the only cycleing it needs per John  and Jammie.

Darryl 

________________________________
 From: Maverick Brown [Maverick Solar] <maverick at mavericksolar.com>
To: 'RE-wrenches' <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] cycling flooded batteries is not necessary

Other than some 
statements I have heard about battery reaching full capacity after X cycles... 
Maybe that is a wives-tale as well. 

Otherwise, maybe I was not clear. 
By cycling, I mean daily (or periodic) Absorbas I mentioned in the email, not 
loading/draining the battery (other than the clear statement to test to see if 
the system actually works as a backup systemevery once in a while).No real deep 
draining necessary. For instance, after some months without issue, one customer 
called in a panic because the electricity did go off one night and they had no 
backup. Turns out, somehow they turned off the "Inverter" function. Easy 
solution, press a few buttons, etc. to turn on the 
inverter. 

Maybe 
all I need is a Time function attached to Selling, like the Charge function has 
on some brands. Who knows. 

It is 
clear that FLAs have a self discharge and some percent of capacity is obtained 
during Absorb, so a long term Float only might reduce some of the batteries 
capacity. 

Anyway, Outback does have the "Absorb before Sell" function 
when using the FN-DC in the system. Not sure about the newer version of 
hardware. The "Parameters Met" settings gave me fits until I figured it out. 
Plus, the FN-DC is not free. 

The XW 
has a function for Absorb before/during sell. I think it requires a XW CC. We 
use every brand of CC appropriate for the site. Also, the setup instructions 
are weird in my mind since it requires the Grid Support Voltage to 
programmed to very high value. I wish they would just have added the function 
"Enhanced Interactive Mode = Enable", etc.  

Ok, 
enough rambling... 

Maverick 

________________________________
 From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org 
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of toddcory at finestplanet.com
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2012 3:37 
PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] cycling flooded 
batteries is not necessary

 to 
reiterate wrenches: 

two 
battery manufacturers (surrette & trojan) have both stated there is NO NEED 
to cycle floating, flooded lead-antimony batteries. i have heard this urban 
legend for some time and it is nice to finally have it put to rest as an 
incorrect myth. 

todd 

On 
Saturday, February 18, 2012 7:04am, "Doug Wells" 
<dwells at thesolarspecialists.com> said:

> 
Maverick,
> 
> "But you would think after 20 years, inverter 
manufacturers would make some
> software similar to generator cycling to 
handle this cycling issue. "
> 
> I believe that the XW Inverters 
have this ability in sell mode. There is
> traditional sell voltage. And 
then there is a setting that puts the batteries
> through a traditional 
bulk cycle while still "selling" back any excess energy.
> The next 
question would be, is this better for battery longevity. Seems like a
> 
hybrid of the two would be ideal.
> 
> Doug Wells
> The Solar 
Specialists
> Morrisville, VT 05661
> (p) 802-223-7014
> (c) 
802-498-5856
> www.thesolarspecialists.com
> 
> 
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WebMail.

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