[RE-wrenches] Test procedure for Concorde batteries

Fri Sep 2 09:40:55 PDT 2016

Gary

A number of years ago I designed the back-up system for the Washington DC Metro System communications in conjunction with Apollo Solar. After extensive testing of both the Concorde and Full River brand batteries. We chose Concorde SunXtender because of failures in the Full River during testing.

Kind regards

Tom Duffy
Senior Solar Design Engineer
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From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Gary Willett
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2016 9:08 PM
To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Test procedure for Concorde batteries

Larry:

What is your experience with FullRiver DC1150-2 2V 1150AH AGM L16 battery?

Regards,
Gary Willett
Icarus Engineering LLC
214-629-4279

On 9/1/16 8:51 PM, Starlight Solar Power Systems wrote:
Hear, Hear, Gary, listen to the Graybeards.

One thing I would like to mention here. Over the last 3 years, I have seen a dramatic increase of early failures of Lifeline (like Sun Xtender, made by Concorde) batteries. I have been selling and installing Lifeline since 2004 and have hundreds of 8-12 year old battery systems being used. I have not been able to identify any cause related to use.

So, has anyone seen Sun Xtender or Concorde early failures in recent years?
BTW, we have been selling FullRiver batteries for a few years now with no failures and very happy customers.

Thank you,

Larry Crutcher
Starlight Solar Power Systems
(928) 342-9103

On Sep 1, 2016, at 6:19 PM, jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com<mailto:jay.peltz at gmail.com>> wrote:

HI Ray,

I second your opinion.

jay

peltz power
On Sep 1, 2016, at 4:43 PM, Ray Walters <ray at solarray.com<mailto:ray at solarray.com>> wrote:

Hi Gary;

I think it would be a waste of time to load test a sealed battery that is 9 years old.  Even at only 20% discharge, that battery only has 2800 cycles.  At 80% discharge, its 550 cycles.  The daily system cycle is probably roughly a 10% cycle, coupled with the frequent deep cycles.  We have been seeing 5 to 7 years in GTB systems with regular sealed batteries.  Even in float mode, they don't last forever.
Also the customer has already done a basic load test, and the battery is failing.  Its only a matter of time before you start seeing cell failures, and then the system won't even work when the grid is up.
I'd just replace the set on your next trip.

R.Ray Walters

CTO, Solarray, Inc

Nabcep Certified PV Installer,

Licensed Master Electrician

Solar Design Engineer

303 505-8760
On 9/1/2016 2:00 PM, jerrysgarage01 wrote:
Wrenches
You can do a carbon pile test but the best way is testing under several conditions. Here is an option real easy and maybe faster, put a volt meter on each battery under constant charge conditions, higher volts on one battery meens high resistance in battery, low volts meens low resistance, either extreme can be an issue.  Then let sit for at least an hour with no load and check the volts, next put a fixed load on the system, again a volt meter check each battery,  here you may find a lower reading then the rest, there is the problem, now replace the entire bank not just the single battery. This is an easy test and the customer can see it easily too.
Jerry

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S(tm) III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Gary Bassett
Date:09/01/2016 2:51 AM (GMT-10:00)
To: "RE-wrenches (re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>)"
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Test procedure for Concorde batteries

We have a grid tied battery backup system that uses 8 Sun Xtender PVX-2120L batteries, about 9 years old. The grid has been going out frequently - about 4 times in the past 3 weeks. When the grid goes out, the battery voltage gets too low and shuts the system down pretty quickly. One of the times, this happened within 4 hours. We want to test the capacity of the batteries and we have a testing procedure from Concorde that seems like it would take a lot of time. Is there a quick way to test the battery capacity?

Gary

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