[RE-wrenches] Aging Batteries

[Mac Lewis]

Hi Will,

I'd keep inching the start voltage down and see if it helps.  Sometimes old
batteries just operate at a lower voltage and will sag more under load but
they will still carry the load OK

Of course you can:
1.  Do all of your high power stuff when the sun is out.
2.  Disable the generator start at night and see where the voltage goes by
morning, perhaps a load kicks on and the voltage is sagging enough to kick
on the generator from voltage.  It helps if you can plot the voltage over
night to see what is happening.  (Victron battery monitors are really cool
for this).
3.  Load starting can help limit overall run time.

Sometimes you can do inventive things with Quiet time that will limit
generator starting.  Not sure what inverter system you have.

On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 9:03 AM White, Will via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Hello Wrenches,
>
>
>
> I installed my off-grid system in 2008. It’s 24 V using 2 V industrial FLA
> batteries. As you can imagine after 15 years the capacity of my battery
> bank is significantly less than it used to be.
>
>
>
> For logistic reasons, I won’t be able to replace them till around June of
> next year, but it’s not even into winter yet and my generator is already
> running every day.
>
>
>
> Does anyone have any tips on how to get through the winter on these
> batteries while minimizing generator run time? I’ve got two FM80’s with 3.8
> kW of PV, two VFX3524 inverters, and a Kohler RES12 generator. I haven’t
> changed any settings since I installed the system.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Will
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-- 



Mac Lewis

*"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates*
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