Ernie Green Posted August 23, 2020 Posted August 23, 2020 Good day, I need advice regarding the battery volts reading my Mecer 5 KV inverter shows and the actual battery bank reading i measure with my multi meter. There is almost a 8 volt difference. This will surely harm my battery banks. I did reset the mecer settings to default, no difference. Quote
Gerrie Posted August 23, 2020 Posted August 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Ernie Green said: There is almost a 8 volt difference. This will surely harm my battery banks. Which reading is correct, the inverter or the multi-meter? Do you have another meter to confirm the correct reading as it might be possible the multimeter is faulty? Quote
Ernie Green Posted August 23, 2020 Author Posted August 23, 2020 Gerrie, I used 2 different multi meters. I disconnected each bank and remeasured them one by one and the results stay the same, average of just over 7 volt difference between what inverter reading is and the banks. i connected each one at a time to the inverter and the problem still persist. I restarted the inverter and still same results. Quote
Gerrie Posted August 23, 2020 Posted August 23, 2020 19 minutes ago, Ernie Green said: I used 2 different multi meters. I disconnected each bank and remeasured them one by one and the results stay the same, average of just over 7 volt difference between what inverter reading is and the banks. i connected each one at a time to the inverter and the problem still persist. If you also measured with no load and with no charging from solar panels and the difference in readings was still there it’s possible their is a problem with your inverter, but I see on the photo you posted your inverter were under about 50% load and you draw 8A from batteries while solar panels also supplied power. it might be possible that the voltage on the keypad is just the charging voltage to the batteries at that point in time. And the batteries that is under load could measure lower until you remove the load then the voltage could bounce back up to a higher level. Someone else might be able to comment if I’m missing something here. Quote
Ernie Green Posted August 24, 2020 Author Posted August 24, 2020 Good morning Gerrie, Thanks for your feedback. I suspect that my inverter has a problem. After i took the photo, i changed the output source to utilities, allowing the system to charge the batteries to full, according to the inverter reading. Battery Capacity was at 100%. Take note that it was fully charged from the solar and was drawing feed from the batteries for about 30 minutes when i took the photo. I then proceeded to disconnect all banks from the inverter. The readings varied between 45.3 to 45.7 volts, per bank. This indicates to me that the inverter is not reading the true volts of the batteries. I will call my supplier / installer today to help investigate. I would appreciate any further advice. Quote
Gerrie Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Ernie Green said: The readings varied between 45.3 to 45.7 volts, per bank. Ernie, hope that there are no damage to the batteries as that voltage seems very low at 100% charge, hopefully your supplier can sort things out. Quote
Coulomb Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 (edited) Duplicate post. Sigh. Edited August 24, 2020 by Coulomb Quote
Coulomb Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 (edited) Gerrie is right, that's not a good way to compare voltage readings, because of the voltage drops from cables. It's best to measure the battery voltage when there is no load on (or charge into) the battery. Measure directly at the inverter terminals to eliminate voltage drops across the battery cables. Bypass mode with the PV isolated should be close enough (there should only be about 1 A drawn for self consumption). What has happened could be (a) the sense resistors have changed value from when the battery voltage readings were calibrated at the factory, or (b) the calibration value in EEPROM has somehow changed or become corrupted. Resetting to default settings does not reset the calibration values. If it's option (a), it could be that (a1) the resistors have changed in such a way that they are completely stable, so you can just recalibrate, or (a2) the resistors have changed in such a way that they are drifting, either with temperature or time or mechanical stress or moisture or a combination of these, so that recalibrating at this stage is pointless. It could be that the conformal coating became damaged somehow, and moisture is affecting the resistance. In these cases, the resistors have to be replaced, sealed under a conformal coating, and then the readings have to be recalibrated. There are 8 resistors involved, R29-R36, all 1.0 MΩ. They appear to be M2012 size (0805 imperial), and are located under the large high frequency transformer in the model I have here. One megohm is a fairly high value, easily affected by moisture. Moisture will tend to lower the resistance, and these resistors are in the upper part of the voltage divider, so reducing their value will tend to exagerate the voltage (the inverter will read higher than a multimeter). Unfortunately, (a2) is the more likely case, followed by (b), and (a1) is unlikely. I give a recalibrating procedure in this post. I note that Weber's clever "nudge" commands will take a long time (some 140 commands) to change the reading by 7.0 V, so you might want to try my "hard way", which at least lets you change the reading by 0.45 V at a time (so 15 commands should get you close). If the resistors are replaced, then it's most likely that you won't need a massive calibration, so Weber's nudges should be fine. I note that a single nudge is only 0.05 V, and the voltage is displayed down to tenths of a volt. But you should take note of whether the value flips between two values; if so, consider this as half way between those two values. For example, if the reading alternates between 45.6 and 45.7, consider the reading as 45.65. Do the same with your multimeter, if necessary. [ Edit: Just as Gerrie noted, ] I also note that 44.1 V is a very low reading for any battery, and it's good if you don't leave the battery in this state too long. Certainly don't use it to power loads until this is all sorted, if at all possible. So time is "of the essence". Edited August 24, 2020 by Coulomb Sigh. Must have quoted instead of edited. wolfandy 1 Quote
Coulomb Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Ernie Green said: Battery Capacity was at 100%. I note that this is probably "battery capacity as judged by the inverter", and since it's so far out of calibration, that means that the battery is far from 100% full. Quote
Ernie Green Posted August 24, 2020 Author Posted August 24, 2020 Coulomb and Gerrie, Thanks for all the effort and feedback . I had the installer to help and found that one battery is a problem but the biggest error of it all is my multi meter, now called my ex multi meter. lesson learned, get a second tester to verify the readings. Quote
Gerrie Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 19 minutes ago, Ernie Green said: I had the installer to help and found that one battery is a problem Hi Ernie, It’s great your installer identified the problem, now it makes sense why that battery voltage were so low, that one damaged battery dragging the whole bank down, and yes multimeters can sometimes cause big headaches, I have learnt to always have a second meter when there is any doubt. Thanks for sharing the finding it’s always nice finding answers. Quote
Coulomb Posted August 25, 2020 Posted August 25, 2020 11 hours ago, Ernie Green said: lesson learned, get a second tester to verify the readings. ? But you said you verified with a second multimeter. Lesson should be: always have a reliable meter. I have a second hand Fluke 87 III. Apart from chewing through the 9 V batteries, it's been really good. Before that, I had 7 multimeters (about 3 of those were cheap junk ones I used for a while as voltmeters and ammeters in an earlier solar project). I also managed to calibrate its DC voltage reading against a certified 5 digit voltmeter from a colleague, so I know it's accurate as well. Quote
Ernie Green Posted August 25, 2020 Author Posted August 25, 2020 Coulomb......that is why i now have no multi meters.....both in bin. I always buy the cheap once because it is just there to do odd checks. I will look at something better. Quote
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