[RE-wrenches] Sick pack

Larry Crutcher, Starlight Solar Power Systems larry at starlightsolar.com
Fri Dec 20 09:16:53 PST 2013


Bill,

This sounds like an ideal customer for AGM or GEL batteries. Far more efficient and no maintenance required. One thing for sure, I would check the programming of the Trimetric. You can undercharge a battery and never know it if the configuration is not done properly. Make sure to calculate and use P1, P2 and P14 to determine SoC.

Larry

On Dec 19, 2013, at 9:23 PM, frenergy <frenergy at psln.com> wrote:

Tump, Larry, Tom, Ray, Steve...........
 
        First off this pack is a 2.3 hour round trip drive from here, it's winter so most of the charging would be her AC genny, the customer is in her 80's.  She has been recording SG's but I discovered she would take them without regard to battery SOC reflected in her Trimeteric, so they are useless.  I did not check SG's while I was there though I started the generator soon after I arrived to try and do just that,  but it was taking too long to get to even just 28 volts much less some fully charged voltage for a couple hours.
 
        From all your responses, my sense is to install a new pack.  Part of me loves the challenge of trying to"save" a pack that's on the edge of a (sulfated) cliff.  However, she is not capable of some of the tasks required those times when I'm not there (watering cells, adjusting voltage settings according to SG response to long charge times, monitoring temps to prevent a catastrophe, etc) This could evolve over the course of what would easily be days, probably weeks of culling/moving batts around in the pack, swapping cables, adjusting set points, swearing.  The cost to benefit ratio probably doesn't add up.
 
        Thanks for slapping me upside the head on this one.
 
Bill

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