Posted March 28, 20205 yr Hi everyone, so I have absolutely no background in inverters and electrical work. I have a Mecer inverter connected to 4 batteries. I'm not sure of the make but the whole system was bought from Ellies in March 2019. The system worked perfectly even lasting 18 hours at one stage. But since January of this year, it would only last 2 hours of loadshedding. An electrician came out and tested the batteries and they were all perfect but when loadshedding hit the next day, same it died within 2 hours. It isn't overloaded at all but now it's not lasting the normal 18 hours. He even added 2 more batteries to see if it would help. Any idea why the system isn't lasting as long as it used to?
March 28, 20205 yr 12 hours ago, Azz_TJ said: An electrician came out and tested the batteries and they were all perfect but when loadshedding hit the next day, same it died within 2 hours. That tells me the batteries are not what they use to be. You will need to tell us more about the system. Inverter size, system voltage battery make and ah rating ext. 12 hours ago, Azz_TJ said: He even added 2 more batteries to see if it would help. With lead acids you have 6 months to add new batteries. Adding now after a year is not wise. The internal resistance of the old batteries is not the same as the new ones causing the new ones to prematurely fail. Normally within a few months after adding. 12 hours ago, Azz_TJ said: The system worked perfectly even lasting 18 hours at one stage If he added 2 batteries, I suspect it's a 24volt system. To get 18 hours of backup, you will need a lot more than 4 batteries. If you got 18 hours it will means that you only have a few watts of load, or you seriously over discharged the current bank. If that is the case you might have damaged them beyond repair. The batteries they normally sell with these systems can only safely be discharged to 80% or in other words you can only use 20 percent of the power. Using more, will shorten the battery life a lot. On some of the cheaper batteries as little as 4 over discharges are enough to stuff them up completely. I am afraid this is the case with your batteries. Have them tested by a battery centre. They will give it a proper load test.
March 29, 20205 yr More details please! Make/model of inverter and batteries & what load are you supplying with this?
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