<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hi William,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> If the SG was 1.26, of course
the battery voltage would increase </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">quickly to >30V (which is high for
warm weather, BTW).</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> It has been my experience that
sulfation causes the voltage NOT to climb. Especially when you have a very
large bank, and a</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> relatively small amount of solar.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> Sometimes it is necessary to reduce
the bank size into smaller sets to equalize them and recover their performance.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">This method of reducing bank size is
also effective to compare performance and weed out a potentially bad battery.
</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> Systems that have a lot of capacity,
with a relatively small amount of charge current usually creates problems,
because</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> the load demand exceeds solar
production.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> This results in batteries that
operate with partial SOC, which is when sulfation is most prevalent. With
(8) L16s, you have approx</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"> 800Ahrs of capacity (24V bank).
It would take significantly more than 8A of charge current to properly
care for a bank that size.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Rgds,<br>
</font><font size=3 color=#008000>_____________________________________________________________________________________</font><font size=3>
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</font><font size=1 face="Arial"><b><br>
Eric Bentsen</b> | </font><font size=1 color=#008000 face="Arial"><b>
Schneider Electric </b></font><font size=1 face="Arial"><b> | Solar
Business</b> | <b>UNITED STATES</b> | <b>Technical
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<br>
<br>
<br>
<table width=100%>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">From:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"William Miller" <william@millersolar.com></font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">To:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org></font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Date:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">07/23/2013 01:13 PM</font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">[RE-wrenches] Tri-Star MPPT</font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Sent by:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org</font></table>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">Friends:</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">I have a customer with a new Tristar MPPT
controller. The customer has some older L-16 batteries mixed with
new and she thinks the controller has damaged her batteries. I am
trying to convince her that the batteries were already damaged and mixing
old with new is a bad idea.</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">I removed the worst batteries from the array,
leaving one string of older batteries with reasonable SG readings. The
CC still acts strangely: When programmed to charge the L-16 batteries,
the battery voltage shoots up to 30.2 volts and the batteries boil a lot.
The green light on the controller blinks at variable rates, at one
moment fast, the next slow, the next solid.</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">I believe the client started with bad batteries,
6 are 4 years old, 2 are 1 year old. She is convinced that the CC
damaged her batteries. She replaced panels and CC recently, installing
the Tristar. I believe the old PV system charged at such a slow rate
(8 amps) that the battery deficiency was not apparent. The higher
charging rate has emphasized the problem.</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">Any one have any thing to add to my theory?</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">Thanks in advance.</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">William Miller</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><img src=cid:_1_0BDA4E4C0BDA4B4000778E2E88257BB1>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">17395 Oak Rd. Atascadero, CA 93422</font>
<br><a href=http://www.millersolar.com/><font size=3 color=blue face="Arial"><u>www.millersolar.com</u></font></a>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">805-438-5600 voice*</font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">*Note: above number replaces cell number</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
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