E-meter [RE-wrenches]

John Blittersdorf, Cent. VT Solar & Wind cvsolar at aol.com
Sat Oct 21 08:43:04 EDT 2000


Bob-O,
    Now that I know there is another installer partial to E-meters, maybe you 
will be the one to answer this question.  Are there any scenarios of loads 
(ie high amp draws by multiple large loads) where the E-meter is unable to 
correctly track and show percent of battery remaining.  I  am seeing a 
situation with a customers system where the batteries appear to be at a lower 
s.o.c. than the emeter is indicating.   The amp hours down from full and the 
percent displayed seems to agree.  My own system is also showing the same 
symptoms and I have seen it on a system I installed last winter.   All summer 
when I had surplus solar at my house it seemed to be tracking fine but now 
when we are stretching the batteries to make it to the next sunny day, I am 
seeing low battery voltages (22.8 to 23.6) in the morning when we had only a 
12 watt total load plus the SW4024 running during the night.
Battery voltage was about 24.6 with a 10 amp load during the late evening and 
the % charge displayed and amp hours down looked correct.   The owners of a 
new system I just completed (1200 watt PV array, 16 L16PF batteries) are 
questioning the performance of the batteries as they are seeing the same 
thing..... batteries down 250 amp hours out of a 1400 amp hour battery and 
voltages below 24 volts with only one compact fluorescent on.  I have an old 
BCM from SunAmp Power that was my only meter for years with my bank of T105's 
and I tried to keep the batteries at 40% or above on that.  Now I am seeing 
10% on the BCM when the emeter says 85% ???    Any ideas?  I still have 12 e 
meters in stock to sell and I like how they look... I just need my faith 
restored in them. 

John Blittersdorf
CVSolar

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