February 17, 20233 yr Hi. SACOLAR5kVA inverter & 4 x 12V 180AH Lead Acid Batteries in series In the inverter's menu settings, I have the following: Battery Equalization: Enable or Disable (default is disabled) Battery Equalization Voltage: xxxxxxx Battery Equalized time: xxxxxxx Battery Equalised timeout: xxxxxxx Equalization interval: xxxxxx Question 1: Do I need to enable it. Question 2: If "Yes" what should I set the batterye Equalization voltage to? the time? timeout? & interval? Thanks very much so long. Deon
February 17, 20233 yr 19 minutes ago, deonholt said: Hi. SACOLAR5kVA inverter & 4 x 12V 180AH Lead Acid Batteries in series In the inverter's menu settings, I have the following: Battery Equalization: Enable or Disable (default is disabled) Battery Equalization Voltage: xxxxxxx Battery Equalized time: xxxxxxx Battery Equalised timeout: xxxxxxx Equalization interval: xxxxxx Question 1: Do I need to enable it. Question 2: If "Yes" what should I set the batterye Equalization voltage to? the time? timeout? & interval? Thanks very much so long. Deon Provide more info on what kind of lead acid or get the values from the manufacturer.
February 18, 20233 yr Author 14 hours ago, Scorp007 said: Provide more info on what kind of lead acid or get the values from the manufacturer. Values from manufacturer are as follows: Charging current: 30A for Utility (It doesn't mention anything about Solar charging current. Charge Voltage: 56.4 Floating Voltage: 54.3 Cutoff voltage: 44.5 These are all the settings on the brochure that came with the batteries.
February 18, 20233 yr 1 hour ago, deonholt said: Values from manufacturer are as follows: Charging current: 30A for Utility (It doesn't mention anything about Solar charging current. Charge Voltage: 56.4 Floating Voltage: 54.3 Cutoff voltage: 44.5 These are all the settings on the brochure that came with the batteries. Deon I would reduce the AC charging to 20A unless you need faster recharge due to LS but anything over 20A will reduce the cycles. The same value applies to solar charging. Just note their is also a setting for the combined charging from solar + AC. Using 20A for each and a combined for 40A should/could be OK as AC could come on when you have no solar. It will depend if you select solar and AC or AC only or solar only in setting 16. This number might be different on your inverter. The battery does only get amps charged and don't see a difference from the source used. Also i would use 47.2V as the cut off instead of 44.5V again to get better cycle life out of lead acid. Float and bulk the closest to the brochure setting but rounded to the lower value for bulk if you can only adjust in increments of 0.5V instead of 0.1V.
February 18, 20233 yr I agree as a rule of thumb with lead acid C/10 for bulk so 180/10=18 amps so 20 amps is spot on. For lead carbon though bulk charge C/5. I installed 2 x 200ah Shoto lead Carbon at my brothers house and i am very impressed as it is the only lead type that can be discharged to 10% soc without damaging them. Short curcuit current 2800 amps. I got them from Current Automation. https://batterydistributors.co.za/product/6-fmx-200-shoto-battery/
February 19, 20233 yr On 2023/02/18 at 11:10 AM, TaliaB said: I agree as a rule of thumb with lead acid C/10 for bulk so 180/10=18 amps so 20 amps is spot on. For lead carbon though bulk charge C/5. I installed 2 x 200ah Shoto lead Carbon at my brothers house and i am very impressed as it is the only lead type that can be discharged to 10% soc without damaging them. Short curcuit current 2800 amps. I got them from Current Automation. https://batterydistributors.co.za/product/6-fmx-200-shoto-battery/ Thanks for the info on lead carbon. I saw some seller prefer this to normal lead acid. Keep us posted on how long they last if discharged deeply.
February 20, 20233 yr Author On 2023/02/18 at 11:10 AM, TaliaB said: I agree as a rule of thumb with lead acid C/10 for bulk so 180/10=18 amps so 20 amps is spot on. For lead carbon though bulk charge C/5. I installed 2 x 200ah Shoto lead Carbon at my brothers house and i am very impressed as it is the only lead type that can be discharged to 10% soc without damaging them. Short curcuit current 2800 amps. I got them from Current Automation. https://batterydistributors.co.za/product/6-fmx-200-shoto-battery/ I sent an email to www.rectifier.co.za They replied that they don't import Shoto anymore. But they sent me the attached documentation on another brand they import. Waiting for price and will let you know. Ritar-FT12-200.pdf
February 20, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, deonholt said: I sent an email to www.rectifier.co.za They replied that they don't import Shoto anymore. But they sent me the attached documentation on another brand they import. Waiting for price and will let you know. Ritar-FT12-200.pdf 465.88 kB · 1 download It is a pitty as i had a look at the spec sheet and it is normal lead acid and if you look at the graph cycle life in relation to dod they won't last with current LS. My brother bought the 2 lead carbon last year May and they are still going strong. Like i said a pity maybe someone nows of a diffrent supplier that imports the lead carbon. I know Victron also does lead carbon but i don't know if the import to SA.
February 15, 20251 yr On 2025/02/13 at 1:10 PM, Herbie. said: Do lifepo4 batt also need equalization or is it only lead acid? Depends on what you mean by equalization charge. If you hare referring to charging the batteries at a higher voltage / deliberate overcharging which helps to remove sulfate buildup then the answer is no. A lot of people use "equalization", cell balancing and even battery balancing interchangeable which often caused co fusion. I have read through the entire post, but suspect the OP is referring to battery balancing. Edited February 15, 20251 yr by I84RiS
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