Batteries

Some humor for the day

Has anyone heard or used any of the US battery's? Been running them now for about 12 months but have not seen anyone talk about them or use them........

I have been running 8x150Ah Trojans for almost a year and would like to add another 4 or 8 batteries (48V configuration). Now the folklore is that you shouldn't mix batteries of different ages. What does that actually mean practically? If I added another 4 would the new batteries be damaged? Or the older ones? I'm not sure how this all works.

I have a solar system with 6 X Sunpower monocrystalline 327 watt panels, an Axpert 5 KVA inverter and 4 X 230 Ah Excis batteries. The solar power is wired to plugs and lights only, not the oven or hot plates. Hot water comes from a 16 vac tube system. ( I also store 21000 liters of water, as our local supply is full of sodium, calcium and magnesium salts). The installation is remote from the house, with the panels on a frame above a small solar hut which contains the electrics, the panels are almost due North facing. I realize now that the system has been running for about 3 months that I should have doubled the battery bank. I have a 25 year old large fridge- freeze…

Since I got the new battery bank going and running the house, which admittedly has only been 4 days, I've been wondering a few things. The bank size 400Ah @ C10, together with the 3000W of PV, pretty much runs my house. My deepest discharge was yesterday where we went down to 82% according to the BMV. Now my question, on a good solar day with the maid maybe doing 1 load of washing, we'll be fully charged by 1pm. On a bad day like today where we've peaked at 500W PV, the batteries wont get fully charged, and we'll hover around 85% SOC. How does this hovering between 95% and 80% SOC affect battery life as opposed to discharging to 80% and then fully…

Another battery topic close to my heart - sulphation (or sulfation if you are a Yank) of lead acid batteries. First let us look at the chemistry. The anode (positive plate) of a lead is a made up of lead dioxide (PbO2). The cathode (negative plate) is made up spongy lead (Pb). Both of these materials are soft and are mechanically supported by a grid made of a lead- antinomy alloy, a lead - calcium alloy or a lead -antimony selenium alloy. Each with their own inherent pros and cons but that is not the focus of my post. Let us deal with the oxidation reaction at cathode first Lead (Pb) reacts with sulphuric acid in the electrolyte as follows: P…

Charge rates on batteries is one of the last things I understood about solar. Charging rates are expressed as 1C C/10 etc. They are based on the discharge rates of the battery. C1 is the rate of discharge to discharge 100% battery capacity in 1 hour. C/2 or 0.5C (different notation for expressing same discharge rate) is 100% discharge over two hours and so on. The rule of thumb is to charge at a rate of C/10 or 0.1/C (10% of battery capacity). One of the advantages of AGM batteries is that they can be charged at a much higher rate than standard "wet" lead acid batteries. My batteries for instance can be charged at C/5 (double the recommend wet rate) for 2 …

What do you guys think about these. Looks real interesting to me http://www.flowsystemsusa.com/water-miser-vent-cap.html

Here is a great source for battery basics: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/ And here is a good explanation on how to connect batteries: http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

Hi Guys Hope you can offer some advice. I need to replace my batteries in my solar setup and am looking at these Narada 12NDT200. I have a 24v sustem and would use 4 Batteries, Thus i would have 400ah at 24v. I have a Axpert 3kva inverter with 1200w solar. Has anyone used these batteries in a solar setup and what is your experience with them. The batteries are second hand, and were used as backup in a cell tower. They are selling for R2600 each. Do you think this is worth it? Thank you Charl

Fairly soon after I started out with solar I became aware that the batteries were the weak link in the chain and although VRLA batteries were convenient they could not be treated like vented LA batteries and thus periodic overcharging could not be used to balance the battery bank. I first tried Zener regulators which helped but still did not seem to cope with the very large 260Ah batteries. It seems Zeners need to have a higher bulk voltage than my batteries need for them to really work. http://www.evdl.org/pages/hartregs.html I was still searching for an answer for my battery pack. I noted that Victron had balancers but at over R1k a pop. This was to my mind …

Hey guys My BMV SOC is jumping way too fast to 100% SOC. This seems to happen on the absorb stage of charging whenever I look away. When they are only drained a little like 95% SOC it does look like it's going to 100% slower. I have the trojan T105RE's 48v Bank 225aH Charger set to the following Max Charger current: 20A Bulk charge: 56.4v Float: 52.8v On the BMV settings Setting 02 Charged Voltage: 52.6v Setting 03 Tail Current: 4% (default) Setting 04 Charged detection time: 5min (default 3min) I suspect the problem is the tail current. Should I lower this to 1% or maybe even 0.9% Thanks Thys

It's been quite a while since I was last on these forums, but I'm back on with a tale of woe, but with a happy ending In December last year, I came home from a lovely Sunday morning to a strange smell coming from the garage. In the garage I could hear a sizzling noise coming from the solar setup. On closer inspection, the sizzling was coming from the battery bank, where 3 of the 12 batteries were hugely swollen, so much so that they had swollen into each other and melted together. All the rest of the batteries were showing signs of warping along their tops. To say my heart sank would be an understatement. My mind was all over the show wondering how this could h…

Recently saw an Australian off road trailer add and it had an Airconditioner in it which, together with the microwave and geyser, was driven by a small Fuel cell and there were no batteries. How does a fuel cell work and why don't we use those in our homes? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have an idea and would like some opinions. The temperature in my garage, where my batteries are located, varies between 27

MIke, Wetkit, SuperDIY, Plonkster and TTT do you chaps know about this and if so could it be useful in a solar setup? http://m.polity.org.za/article/cape-energy-storage-start-up-creates-peak-shaving-offering-on-back-of-battery-innovation-2015-12-11

hi, I'm putting together a infini 3k+ system and would like to use the trojan t105 string - for now only 8 of them to get to 48V. Any suggestions where to source the t105's ? much appreciated Stephan

Hi all I am planning to add to my current battery bank. Currently I have 4 x 12VDC in series to get required 48VDC for inverter. Batteries are 100AH. I would like to add another bank in the same configuration and then in parallel to up the amps, and yes I know its not good to add new batteries to an older bank. My current bank is not to old yet. Less then 50 cycles. So I have the following questions What effects will I have on charging the 2 series banks in parallel? Should I put the newer series bank infront of the old ones to allow them to start charging first and reduce the strain on the older ones? Can I use a Victron balancer with my axpert and if so how man…

Hi Everyone I have 12 x 105 dixon deep cycle, 5 kw axpert and 12 x 250watts panels. My question is that the glass on the batteries all show black (to be charged), yet the inverter shows that the batteries are fully charged. Is this a setting problem or are the batteries not being fully charged. As per the specs the battery should show green.

Hi All I have finally had the time to post some pics of my portable battery box for camping, etc. Consists of: Big Jim Toolbox (heavy duty) 102aH Deep Cycle 12V Various fuses 2x Hella Sockets 2x 12V sockets 2x BH Sockets (Red) - for NL dual battery connection to bakkie. 1x BH Socket (Grey) - for connection to solar panels (2x 100W) 20A Solar Controller (Built in) 1x NL battery monitor - recessed in lid. Works very well with NL freezer or inverter (used for grinder/drill etc on farm) Comments and suggestions Mark

Sodium Ion Batteries This is the 'salt water battery' the world has been waiting for! Now available in NZ the AquionSodium Ion Battery. S-Line products deliver extremely long cycle life, deep depth of discharge and excellent abuse tolerance. The batteries

Narada has a black friday sale on their Gel Batteries: MPG 12v 200AH - 4576.95 ea excl Dwayne - 082-741-7772

I have noticed something really weird. The batteries that have the highest voltage in the battery bank differ depending whether the charging is solar or AC. Can anyone explain this?

A question. I was wondering how service life relates to cycle life, because it appears they are not the same thing. I also wonder about the cycle life itself. Here's why: From what I read in various googled places, it appears that the cycle life is the amount of full cycles you can put a battery through before it has lost 20% of it's capacity. Many of these articles also talk about how DoD plays a large role, but there is one question I have not managed to find an answer to. I'll put it as two options. If a battery (for argument's sake) has 800 cycles at 50% DoD, does it mean, A. After you've done 800 cycles it has 80% of its original capacity/performance left, or…

Hi all, I'm wanting to charge batteries. The basic thing is I have a bus I'm converting to a motorhome. I want to charge 4 D cells from a smallish solar panel. While there are commercial chargers available, they don't perform as required. I need more than just small cells and a diode in an expensive plastic box. What I want to do is to control the charge in each cell to prevent overheating. I also want to have the panel on the roof with the batteries charging inside the vehicle. My problem is nobody seems to cater to this level of sophistication. I'm OK with buying panels from china via eBay and charge controllers. Just not sure what I really need. Any ideas? Sent fr…