[RE-wrenches] Generator choice for Sunny Island

Drake drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org
Tue Jul 25 03:16:57 PDT 2017 

If there is a grid connection, does the built in 
battery charger in the Sunny Islands sufficiently 
make up for any deficit in the AC coupled charging algorithm?

Thanks,

Drake

  04:59 PM 7/24/2017, you wrote:
>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 
><<mailto:Tom at solar-biz.com>Tom at solar-biz.com> wrote:
>
>8 hours at least but 24 would be more accurate
>
>Â
>
>Kind regards
>
>Â
>
>Tom Duffy
>
>Senior Solar Design Engineer
>
>Solar-Biz-new-logo-800X300
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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: 
><mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Generator choice for Sunny Island
>
>Â
>
>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
><tel:(303)%20505-8760>303 505-8760
>On 7/24/17 2:16 PM, August Goers wrote:
>
>Hi Drake,
>
>Â
>
>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.Â
>
>Â
>
>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.Â
>
>Â
>
>August
>
>
>August Goers
>
>Luminalt Energy Corporation
>
>o: <tel:(415)%20641-4000>415.641.4000
>
>m: <tel:(415)%20559-1525>415.559.1525
>
><http://www.luminalt.com>www.luminalt.com
>
>Â
>
>Â
>
>On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 5:36 AM, Drake 
><<mailto:drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org>drake.chamberlin at 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,
>
>Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  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
><tel:530.284.7849>530.284.7849
>CA Lic 874049
><http://www.frenergy.net>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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