[RE-wrenches] Trojan L-16 charge settings

[Theo Van]

No "settings recommend by Trojn"were shown. 
> On Jan 18, 2016, at 6:43 PM, William Miller <william at millersolar.com> wrote:
> 
> Colleagues:
>  
> I have an off-grid customer for whom I replaced a set of 8 Trojan L-16s as well as upgrading her inverter and charge controller.  Right after the job, we found several batteries with low specific gravity.  We spoke with the local distributor and received two replacement batteries.
>  
> The system continues to perform poorly.  The customer EQs every 30 days to 60 plus volts for 3 hours.  They try to get a full bulk and absorption charge in every day but this time of year may not. The specific gravity readings continue to diverge and generally go lower.
>  
> We contacted the distributor who told us they have had problems with Trojan batteries since the company was sold about two years ago.  We were told they had a brand X battery that tested better than the Trojans.  We agreed to try the Brand X but then were told that we had not charged the Trojans adequately.  Below are the settings recommended directly by Trojan
>  
> These settings are significantly higher than any I have used before.  Also, I don’t recall it being possible to set different bulk and absorption voltages with any of the equipment I use.  I use Trace, Outback, Schneider default settings of 57.6 bulk, 54.4 float and reprogram to 60.5 for equalization.
>  
> I am curious about what charge settings you find successful for flooded lead-acid batteries and what any of you might think about the recommended settings as seen below. Do you feel it is practical to achieve these settings in an off-grid scenario?  Would these high settings cause excessive water consumption?
>  
> Thanks in advance.
>  
> William Miller
>  
> <image001.jpg>
> Lic 773985
> millersolar.com
> 805-438-5600
>  
>  
>  
> I looked at the spreadsheet and the SG. readings across each battery are uniform which tells be that it is highly unlikely that anything is wrong with the batteries except for being under-charged. Take a look at our User’s Guide on the Trojan website on page 19  ( Recommended Charge Profile) or FLA batteries.
> The Bulk stage should be @ 59.3V, Absorb @ 58.8V, Float @ 54V and Equalization @ 64.8V. When the User notices drops in the SG such as in this document, an EQ charge should be performed in order to get the batteries back up to full charge (full charge SG being in the range of 1.270 to 1.280. When performing the EQ, the user should take SG reading for a “pilot” battery every 30 minutes until the voltages reach that range. Termination should happen when SG reaches full charge range or if battery temperature reaches 112 degrees F, which-ever comes first. SG readings can be taken during EQ, but you have to make sure that you bump the tiny gas bubbles off the Hydrometer float to prevent erroneous readings.
> Seeing the SG readings decreasing after each month is an indication that maybe the Absorb Time needs to be increased, maybe from 3 hours up to 4 or 5 hours.
>  
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