<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Both cases started with new batteries: Trojan L16s. One was a 24 v system that tapped for 12 v lighting, the other was a 48 v system that charged with a 24 v Bergey added later. The problem seems to come up when you have more than one parallel string. I could see the Vanner working on a single string. The imbalance showed up just barely at first, and got much worse with time. In the end, the L16s died in less than 5 years, and never provided their full rated amp hours even the first year.<div>DC to DC converters from Solar Converters, Inc. seem to work pretty well, but I always under load them (maybe 5 to 10 amp load on a 20 amp rated unit)</div><div>THese days I just go all AC and avoid multiple DC voltages in the first place. There is almost always another solution.</div><div>A fair bit of our rewire work these days involves converting DC circuits (lighting, etc.) to AC under the K.I.S.S. principle.<br><div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>R. Walters</div><div><a href="mailto:ray@solarray.com">ray@solarray.com</a></div><div>Solar Engineer</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span>
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<br><div><div>On Sep 3, 2011, at 9:10 PM, boB Gudgel wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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On 9/3/2011 7:57 PM, Darryl Thayer wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:1315105057.78859.YahooMailNeo@web39305.mail.mud.yahoo.com" type="cite">
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><span style="RIGHT: auto">I have had
one experiance with equalizers, the batteries be came very
unequal. (over time of course)<var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var><br style="RIGHT: auto" class="yui-cursor">
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<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</span></b> R Ray
Walters <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ray@solarray.com"><ray@solarray.com></a><br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</span></b>
RE-wrenches <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org"><re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org></a><br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</span></b>
Saturday, September 3, 2011 5:55 PM<br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</span></b> Re:
[RE-wrenches] unique battery bank design question<br>
</font><br>
Systems I tried years ago with Vanner equalizers, still
ended up being unequal. I pulled them all years ago. It
seems to be about as much a problem as not balancing your
battery cables so each battery string has the same wire
resistance,<br>
I know that you couldn't imagine a few amps on 12" of 2/0
making a difference, but after 5 years the battery damage is
very consistent and identifiable.<br>
The only load I would consider tapping would be metering, or
maybe a low milliamp relay. I wouldn't go over 100 mA, and
even then I bet you would see some long term imbalance. I've
seen imbalances due to some batteries just being closer to
a cold outside wall.<br>
<br>
R. Walters<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:ray@solarray.com" ymailto="mailto:ray@solarray.com">ray@solarray.com</a><br>
Solar Engineer<br>
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<br>
Has anyone that has used battery balancers checked the individual
battery voltages or SG during charge and/or discharge to<br>
see how well the balancers worked ??<br>
<br>
Could it be that the batteries themselves were just not quite the
same age at the start ??<br>
<br>
I would think that a decent balancer system that makes things share
should work pretty well. Maybe the balancer<br>
itself does a bit of unbalaced charge/discharge ?<br>
<br>
boB<br>
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