A spool of 14, 12 or 10 gauge wire makes a pretty good load.
You want some decent current for a load test.
100 feet of 12 gauge would give you 12/1.5=8 amps.
Very nice current for load testing a battery.
It will throw off 96 watts so it will get a bit warm.
But you don't need it on for more than perhaps 10 seconds.
For long term testing I have put coils of copper wire in buckets of water.
-----Original Message-----
From: ch...@wbmfg.com
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2018 9:38 AM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fun with a solar site
I agree, or put a load on each one by itself and see if one drops to a lower
voltage quicker.
Load testing is one of the best test methods.
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 10:34 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fun with a solar site
Probably because none have had a chance to charge up to a higher
voltage.. You would have to put each battery on a charger separately...
On 6/29/18 7:25 PM, Matt Hoppes wrote:
I do you have a fuse on each battery which I found interesting and now I’m
sort of wondering if that isn’t the case they all share the same voltage I’ve
even had them disconnected since about noon today and none show drained
more than another one.
On Jun 29, 2018, at 21:54, Chuck McCown <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote:
You can avoid this in the future if you have a fuse on each battery.
(This only works with parallel arrays, not series arrays).
When a cell shorts, that battery will have much higher current until all
the other batts discharge into it down to the new voltage. Just make the
fuse higher by a little bit than the max charging current.
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Hoppes
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 7:46 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fun with a solar site
OK that’s what I was wondering. thanks Chuck, a wealth of information as
always.
On Jun 29, 2018, at 21:38, Chuck McCown <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote:
Disconnect one terminal of the battery and measure the voltage. The
battery with the shorted cell will have a lower voltage.
Or, during charging, just put your hand on the batts. The shorted cell
bat will run warmer.
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Hoppes
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 7:30 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fun with a solar site
He’s very reasonable way other than trial and error to determine which
battery has the shorted cell in it?
On Jun 29, 2018, at 21:21, Chuck McCown <ch...@wbmfg.com> wrote:
Any time you have cells or batts in parallel and one of the cells
shorts, the whole system drops 2 volts. (if lead acid chemistry).
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Hoppes
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 6:45 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fun with a solar site
Robert, that was my first thought as well but why would connecting
additional batteries suddenly drop the overall voltage? Do you think
that is just the cells can’t put out enough to charge everything so the
overall output voltage goes down?
On Jun 29, 2018, at 20:38, Robert <i...@avantwireless.com> wrote:
hosed cell(s)
On 6/29/18 5:12 PM, Matt Hoppes wrote:
I’m currently about halfway through troubleshooting a solar site and
had to quit for the day.
I have a site with five 100 amp hour batteries. It is a 12 V site and
I have three of the batteries on to wire leads going to the charge
controller and two of the batteries on a wire lead going to the
charge controller.
I have been seeing something weird for the past three months where
during the day on a sunny day we never hit and plateau at about 12.5
12.7 V like we used to.
Instead it will get up to about 12.2 or 12.3 and then do this weird
saw tooth pattern. Today when I was at the site I disconnected the
secondary battery group of three batteries and things went up to 12.5
V and plateaued.
When I reconnected the three batteries it went down to 12.2 and
started doing the weird saw tooth pattern.
What do those of you who have worked with solar before think? Might
this indicate a bad cell or battery? Or some kind of an issue with
not enough voltage or amps being pushed into the battery strings? Or
something else?
I should also mention that normally this site is able to maintain
itself, but in its current state it maintains a very steady decay
until the batteries are finally drained and I’ve had to boost it once
with a charger.
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