[RE-wrenches] High L16 voltage situation

[jay peltz]

HI Nathan,

Thats a good one.
what is the wiring like between the controller and the battery?

you are measuring the 15.6 at the CC?

each battery is same voltage while charging?

you have checked all battery cable connections?

jay

peltz power





On Jul 17, 2012, at 7:34 AM, Nathan Jones wrote:

> 
> Wrenches, 
> This is baffling me and I need others experience. It is a small stand alone system with 4 L16s in series/parallel. Charging source is 2 Kyocera 140 watt modules. It is powering a satellite receiver as well as providing 120 VAC for a boat dock using a listed 3000 watt mod sine inverter. The inverter operating range is 10.5-15VDC. The Morningstar controllers are running the voltage up to 15.6 in bulk and float.
> At first it had two 10 amp controllers and I wondered if there could be a PWM situation existing. Swapping for a Morningstar SS20L gave exactly the same voltages. I replaced that controller with a MorningstarSL20 with no change in voltages to the batteries. I have used two meters as well as had the inverter tone the high voltage condition. I can shut off the solar input and get the batteries below 15 volts in a few seconds and bring the inverter online. I have repeatedly pulled surface charge off the batteries and watched the same voltages repeat themselves. I wondered about RF noise from the satellite feed messing with the PWM but unhooking it from the load side of the controller changed nothing. Batteries are gassing but not boiling out with no indication of a bad cell. In desperation I installed the spade jumper to switch the controller over to AGM settings and immediately saw the bulk and float voltages fall to the settings Morningstar lists in their
> manual.
> It was 100 degrees when I was onsite last week so this is not a cold weather situation. Anyone have any thoughts as to what is going on here? I am 140 miles from the site and this will be my third trip to sort this situation out.
> Thanks,
> Nathan Jones
> Power Source Solar
> Springfield, MO
> 417-827-0738
> __