[RE-wrenches] Generator choice for Sunny Island

Howie Michaelson Howie.Michaelson at gmail.com
Mon Jul 24 13:59:54 PDT 2017


I have had generally a good experience with Sunny Island battery charging.
There are definitely way too many parameters to set, but their charging
algorithm is designed to bring batteries up to ~90% on the "boost" charge
(every 1-2 days), 95% on their "full" charge (typically every 10-14 days)
and 100% on their "equalize" charge (typically 120 or 180 days for flooded
batteries). It is a different algorithm than any other battery inverter
that I've programmed, and I was very skeptical when I first used a SI, but
over the years, it does seem to maintain the batteries well (equalize is
generally disabled on sealed batteries).  They claim it is the best method,
but I do not have enough data points to determine that it works better or
worse than the more traditional "bulk/absorb/float" setup.

Howie

On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 4:26 PM, Tom Duffy <Tom at solar-biz.com> wrote:

> 8 hours at least but 24 would be more accurate
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> *Tom Duffy*
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> *From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Ray
> *Sent:* Monday, July 24, 2017 3:24 PM
> *To:* re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
> *Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Generator choice for Sunny Island
>
>
>
> My experience with Sunny Islands are that their SOC can be off by quite a
> bit. Unfortunately with sealed batteries, you can't check SG with a
> hydrometer to confirm, and tweak the settings.  Probably the best you could
> do, is shut the system down and let the batteries sit for long enough to
> take voltage readings to double check the SOC.
>
> I found systems that the SI thought it was close to full, but the
> batteries were actually only at 60%.
>
> R. Ray Walters
>
> Chief Technical Officer, RemoteSolar.com
>
> BS Mech Engineering, 1988
>
> Former NABCEP Certified, 2004-2016
>
> Licensed Master ELectrician, Colorado
>
> 303 505-8760 <(303)%20505-8760>
>
> On 7/24/17 2:16 PM, August Goers wrote:
>
> Hi Drake,
>
>
>
> Good questions. Yes, the taper charge appears to be working well. I've
> been to the site a couple of times where loads were low, irradiance was
> high, and battery SOC was ~90% and the Sunny Boy was just covering the load
> and a little trickle charge.
>
>
>
> I have noticed that the SOC seems to max out around 90 to 92% - that seems
> to be the case with Sunny Islands in general. I'm not enough of a battery
> expert to know if this is a good thing or not. I do know that I custom
> programmed in all the AGM battery parameters and set max voltages. I also
> disabled equalize mode since I couldn't find any literature from US battery
> on recommendations for their AGM.
>
>
>
> August
>
>
> *August Goers*
>
> Luminalt Energy Corporation
>
> o: 415.641.4000 <(415)%20641-4000>
>
> m: 415.559.1525 <(415)%20559-1525>
>
> www.luminalt.com
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 5:36 AM, Drake <drake.chamberlin@
> redwoodalliance.org> wrote:
>
> Are you getting a good taper charge with this system? Are the batteries
> reaching a decent state of charge from the AC coupled connection with the
> inverter?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Drake
>
>
>
>
> At 11:08 AM 7/23/2017, you wrote:
>
> August,
>
>             Of course the genny itself has its own emission of noise but
> the environment its in certainly will affect its overall "annoyance
> level".  Backed up to metal container is a negative, I can't tell from the
> photo if the Kohler is on the side away from most of the public, probably
> don't have to go on, you must have thought of these things....it could have
> its own (partial?)enclosure with some sound deadening qualities.  Hondas
> are a little quieter but not that much, hopefully the darn thing doesn't
> have to come on, eh?
>
> Nice set-up.
>
> Bill
>
> Feather River Solar Electric
> Bill Battagin, Owner
> 4291 Nelson St.
> Taylorsville, CA 95983
> 530.284.7849
> CA Lic 874049
> www.frenergy.net
>
> On 7/21/2017 11:39 AM, August Goers wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I thought I'd provide an update on our setup since we've completed the
> install and commissioning. More or less, the installation went well. We did
> have one of the US Battery AGM L16 batteries dead on arrival with a bad
> cell. That bad battery screwed up the state of charge (SOC) calculations in
> the Sunny Island and made the SOC reading jump from ~ 80% to 19% in just a
> couple of minutes. It was easy to find the bad battery - all the batteries
> were about 6.5 v with the bad battery reading about 4.5 v. We pulled that
> battery out of the string for warranty replacement and are currently
> running it with seven batteries at 42 v nominal. It's cool that the Sunny
> Island allows for this. Other than that, the frequency shift derate between
> the Sunny Island and Sunny Boy is working perfectly and the system has more
> than enough capacity to run the loads during the summer months. I'd say the
> Kohler generator is the nice unit although it is a little loud for this
> application. If I had to do this portable application again, I'd probably
> just go with the Honda 7000.
>
> Thanks for your help! August
>
>
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