<font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hi:</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">This may not be the problem, but I wanted
to bring it up as I have heard of a few cases of battery boiling issues
with various charge controllers and want to suggest a possible cause.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I'll do this point form. It's
easier to describe it that way:</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">1. Solar charge controllers are programmed
to go to bulk charge in the morning.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">2. The intensity of the sunlight starts
off low in the morning and depending on the weather during the day, the
intensity can reach any level between virtually 0% and 100%.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">3. The exit criteria for bulk is that
the battery voltage reaches the Vbulk/abs volts setting or a bulk/abs timer
times out.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">4. If the sunlight conditions are just
right to keep the charging voltage just below the Vbulk/abs setpoint, the
exit from bulk/abs will be the timer.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">5. Bulk/Abs timers are usually set for
rather a long time, many hours is not uncommon.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">6. Given the above, it is possible that
the battery stays at gassing voltages for many hours every day at certain
times of the year when the sunlight intensity is just right to support
that.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">7. As a consequence the boiling problem
will show up only at particular sites, particular battery/charge controller
sizes and particular times of year.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Again, I am not suggesting that this
is necessarily the cause of battery "boiling" in systems with
solar charge controllers, but it could be a reason.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">2nd ps. All manufacturers do precise
battery voltage/current measurements on the bench with a wide variety of
conditions, but we will never be able to simulate the 1000's of conditions
that happen on the 1000's of installs out there. With that in mind,
on-site battery voltage/current data logging is a very powerful tool when
investigating these kinds of issues.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">JARMO<br>
</font><font size=3 color=#008000>_____________________________________________________________________________________</font><font size=3>
<br>
</font><font size=1 face="Arial"><b><br>
Jarmo Venalainen</b> | </font><font size=1 color=#008000 face="Arial"><b>
Schneider Electric </b></font><font size=1 face="Arial"><b> | Solar
Business</b> | <b>CANADA</b> | <b>Training &
Development Specialist - Senior</b> <b><br>
Phone:</b> +604-422-2528 | <b>Fax:</b> +604-420-1591 |
<b>Mobile:</b> +604-505-0291 <b><br>
Email:</b> </font><a href="mailto:jarmo.venalainen@schneider-electric.com"><font size=1 color=blue face="Arial"><u>jarmo.venalainen@schneider-electric.com</u></font></a><font size=1 face="Arial">
| <b>Site:</b></font><a href=http://www.sesolar.com/ target=_blank><font size=1 color=blue face="Arial"><u>
www.SEsolar.com</u></font></a><font size=1 face="Arial"> |
<b>Address:</b> 3700 Gilmore Way, Burnaby, BC V5G4M1 <br>
</font><font size=1 color=blue face="Arial"><u><br>
</u></font><a href="http:// www.sesolar.com/"><img src=cid:_2_0D9157440D91547C00632D9B88257D94></a><font size=1 face="Arial"><br>
*** Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail</font><font size=3>
<br>
</font>
<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">Drake <drake.chamberlin@redwoodalliance.org></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">11/18/2014 09:15 AM</font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">[RE-wrenches] Suspect MX 60</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" <re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org></font></table>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=3>Hello Wrenches,<br>
<br>
An MX 60 boiled a 24 volt bank of 4 Trojan L-16 batteries last summer.
The batteries all checked out to be in good shape. It is not totally clear
that the CC was not set to auto equalize, but the EQ voltage was only set
at 31.0 V. <br>
<br>
The battery bank has been replaced by 8 Full River L-16 AGM batteries.
The parameters have all been reset for AGM with EQ disabled. The homeowners
are concerned that the charge control may not work, and damage their new
battery bank. <br>
<br>
If there is a problem with the CC, it is very intermittent. Has anyone
ever seen an intermittent MX 60? <br>
<br>
Outback tech support says if we send it in they will update the firmware
for $90, and do a 24 hour bench test. It appears that the firmware update
will not do anything useful for this off grid system. There are no new
boards available for this unit. I'm not sure if the bench test will show
up an intermittent problem. <br>
<br>
Has anyone had this situation before? Would it be better to: </font>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>Replace the CC </font>
<li><font size=3>Send the CC to Outback </font>
<li><font size=3>Do nothing </font></ul><font size=3>Thank you,<br>
<br>
Drake <br>
<br>
Drake Chamberlin<i><br>
Athens Electric LLC<br>
OH License 44810<br>
CO License 3773<br>
NABCEP Certified Solar PV <br>
740-448-7328</i></font><font size=3 color=blue><u><br>
</u></font><a href="http://athens-electric.com/"><font size=3 color=blue><u>http://athens-electric.com/</u></font></a><font size=3>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
______________________________________________________________________<br>
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.<br>
______________________________________________________________________</font><tt><font size=2>_______________________________________________<br>
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance<br>
<br>
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org<br>
<br>
Change listserver email address & settings:<br>
</font></tt><a href="http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org"><tt><font size=2>http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
List-Archive: </font></tt><a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html"><tt><font size=2>http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
List rules & etiquette:<br>
</font></tt><a href="www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm"><tt><font size=2>www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
Check out or update participant bios:<br>
</font></tt><a href="www.members.re-wrenches.org"><tt><font size=2>www.members.re-wrenches.org</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br>
<br>
</font></tt>
<br>
<br>