Can I ad more batteries on 48V System with AGM Batteries

[Chris Dononion]

Hi all,

I´m a "newbie" when in comes to Solar & Batteries and here I am with my "whole set of questions":

 

( Apex 5KVA inverter, 12 x 235W Solarmodule, CEIL NXT Batteries 4 x 105AH running on 48V)

 

Output Ource priority :  @the moment:   Solar first

max charging                                        :  10 A

Battery Type                                         :  AGN

Max Utility Charging Current                : 10AH

point back to utility                                : 47V

back to battery mode                            : 49V

charger source priority                          : Solar only

bulk charging voltage                            :58V

floating charging voltage                       :54V

low DC cut off voltage                            :47V

 

are these values ok ?

do I have to buy the same sort of batteries to increase my storage capacity ?

can I easily add more capacity ( my batteries are 12 month old )

or must I buy a complete new set ?

 

 

 

 

 

         

[___]

1 hour ago, Chris Dononion said:

max charging                                        :  10 A

 

1 hour ago, Chris Dononion said:

Max Utility Charging Current                : 10AH

Rule says up to 15% of Ah capacity of battery, so you can bump these to 15A. The rest looks good to me (generically speaking), though ideally you should check the specification of the batteries.

1 hour ago, Chris Dononion said:

do I have to buy the same sort of batteries to increase my storage capacity ?

Yes. Dissimilar strings are the death of batteries, be that age, capacity of chemistry.

1 hour ago, Chris Dononion said:

can I easily add more capacity ( my batteries are 12 month old )

It's not ideal. It can be done, by carefully monitoring both strings and making sure the old string still gets a full charge, at the expense of slightly overcharging the new string. It's complicated and I can almost confidently say that you're going to break both strings if you do that. Read this for more info.

Sell it on and get new 200Ah batteries if you can.

[___]

1 hour ago, Chris Dononion said:

CEIL NXT Batteries

Besides, the NXT isn't the bets of the bunch. At 1200 cycles to 50% is actually not bad at all, but for what you pay for them, I'd go for these ones instead.