[RE-wrenches] FLA battery setpoints with larger arrays

[Darren Anderson]

I’d also be interested to know if anyone is doing active or passive cooling for battery banks and what solutions they have come up with. We have been exploring various options including solar direct drive cooling, DC aircon units, and high efficiency AC aircon units. 

As far as I know there are no solar direct drive solutions that are commercially available or affordable. There are options in DC-powered units - used frequently in the Telecom industry. But the easiest solution, especially for AC coupled systems, could be high efficiency AC units that could be made to operate with photocell control for daytime operation only. One could just cool an insulated battery box, or better yet, the entire control room since heat is also the enemy of electronics and it might extend the life of inverters and charge controllers as well. 
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Darren Anderson | Project Manager
Solar Electric Light Fund | www.SELF.org 





>Message: 1
>Date: Sat, 23 May 2015 12:37:55 -0600
>From: Luke Christy <sgsrenewables at gmail.com>
>To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] FLA battery setpoints with larger arrays
>Message-ID: <26C3EC91-D268-4F00-A9DF-36540376C189 at gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
>Jay's point about adding PV to offset daytime AC for the battery bank brings up the issue of active cooling. 
>
>How many folks out there are installing some form of cooling for LA battery banks, and how are you implementing it? 
>
>The issue of excess heat being an enemy of battery life has had me concerned for several years now, and I have started installing multiple fans in battery boxes to increase the cooling from air circulation, but I'm not sure I have the effectiveness dialed yet. 
>
>Interested to hear what others are doing here.
>
>As always, I appreciate the great resource that is this list. 
>
>-Luke