I would tend to agree with Ray's analysis, with one question: - Does the Eq timer reset to 0 when the voltage dips? It should basically hold the time the batteries were at Eq voltage when it drops below, sort of putting the EQ timer on hold until the voltage comes back up. So eventually given enough sun and long enough day, or long enough generator run time, the mate should still report that equalization was reached. - If it doesn't reach equalization do that even though the battery voltage is being attained for enough time, then it might suggest a Mate issue...
Howie On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 2:12 PM Ray <r...@solarray.com> wrote: > I would add to the chorus that it probably is a battery issue. Here are > the symptoms that lead to that conclusion: > > A) it started occurring recently, > B) it is somewhat intermittent, > C) the system has aging L 16s (failures at 4 to 5 years are pretty > common) > D) they are the Trojan RE series (dead cells at less than 2 years has > been documented several times on this list) > E) the customer is trying to equalize regularly. (which causes over > heating, and accelerates cell failures) > > Besides checking battery voltages, an infared camera can quickly show over > heating, bad cells. Also, I would advise the customer to only equalize > when the batteries are unequal, based on specific gravity readings. > > Ray Walters > Remote Solar > 303 505-8760 > > On 4/28/20 12:20 PM, Dave Tedeyan wrote: > > Steve and Jerry, > Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to take a closer look at the battery > bank next time I am out there. > The solar setup is 4 strings of 3 kyocera 270's into each charge > controller. So that is almost 65A @50V coming out of each charge controller > for bulk. The parallel battery strings all have the same length of premade > cable, so current should be balanced (unless there is a dead cell or two in > there...). > Cheers, > Dave > > *Dave Tedeyan, PE* > Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC > > 110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850 > o. *607.277.1118 x121* f. 607.277.2119 > www.taitem.com > > Solar • Sustainability • Energy • Design > Certified B-Corporation since 2013 > > > On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 11:52 AM Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarag...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Sounds like a battery issue at first glance, as you EQ a battery it gets >> warm or even hot and this will effect ability to charge. If e en one of the >> L-16 is not exactly the same voltage you will not get to EQ untill another >> battery over voltages to show your overall volts. Need to look at each >> battery volts under this charge condition. Also if you have a battery >> acting up be very careful working around them. >> Jerry >> >> On Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 6:50 AM Dave Tedeyan <dtede...@taitem.com> wrote: >> >>> Hi All, >>> >>> I've got an outback system (Radian 8048A, 2 FM80, 16 Trojan L16RE-B) >>> where when the customer equalizes, the batteries hover right around the EQ >>> voltage, but will often dip to 0.1v less. Because of this, the EQ timer >>> does not count down properly, and so left to its own devices the system >>> would equalize for way longer than it should, potentially forever. This >>> will happen when doing an EQ from the solar on a bright sunny day, or the >>> generator, or both. The customer can manually keep track of the time and >>> manually stop the EQ after 3 hours, but that is not ideal. Has anyone dealt >>> with this before and have any suggestions on how they fixed it? >>> >>> This system is 3-4 years old, and the issue only started in the past >>> year or so. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Dave >>> >>> *Dave Tedeyan, PE* >>> Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC >>> >>> 110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850 >>> o. *607.277.1118 x121* f. 607.277.2119 >>> www.taitem.com >>> >>> Solar • Sustainability • Energy • Design >>> Certified B-Corporation since 2013 >>> _______________________________________________ >>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >>> >>> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >>> >>> Change listserver email address & settings: >>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >>> >>> List-Archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >>> >>> List rules & etiquette: >>> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >>> >>> Check out or update participant bios: >>> www.members.re-wrenches.org >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List-Archive: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & > settings:http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette:www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios:www.members.re-wrenches.org > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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