Hi Mac I am a little stupid here so help me out. if the Apollo's are floating
means the batteries are fully charged. OR they are charged to the voltage set
on the Apollo. I have several Apollo charge controllers, they work like they
are set. If the voltage set points are to low the batteries will be discharged
all the time. I would set my absorb voltage at 58.4 volts and set the float at
54.4 and as many people here recommended they need to be watched to see how the
state of charge is holding. The Apollo has a built in state of charge
indication, if the batteries are older they need to be set with a lower charge
efficiency, perhaps 85%. but nothing substitutes for hydrometer readings
periodically. Unfortunately you said it is a very remote site and it may have
very strong seasonal variations, in load and resource. Also the Apollo
inverter/charger has state of charge indication through the charge controller
and the current shunt.
I again wonder if the inverter charger is set for proper battery charging. It
is classic for batteries to be undercharged to death. The apollo equipment has
excellent internet accessibility contact apollo, if you have a way of
connecting, to the internet.
As far as recovery of dead batteries, I have seen old dead batteries brought
back to some performance never good, by putting on a high voltage charge. I
say do this with the up most caution and it you are not confident in what you
are doing do not do this. it does not always work. take a high voltage
rectifier, Isolate the battery completely, Connect the rectifier in series
with the 120 volt source and a 500 watt halogen work lamp and then the Battery.
(if you do not know the polarity do not do this) I have taken batteries
that would not take a charge and performed this stunt and they have come back..
for some reason a heavily sulfated battery will not convert , this high voltage
forces the charge current. The halogen lamp limits the current to 5 amps.
Always were goggles and face mask and rubber apron, never allow spark near
charging battery. This method can generate hydrogen and oxygen, have batte4ry
in well vented place and make
sure connections are solid. after the lamp glows bright shut off the charge
and let H2 clear and then oan only then remove the connections. are doing.
________________________________
From: mac Lewis <[email protected]>
To: RE-wrenches <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Absolyte recovery
Hi Chris,
I suspect that the charger in the Apollo Inverter/Charger is undersized,
especially since all of the loads are -48V. Conversely, the array is very
oversized and the controllers float most of the time. The charge controllers
were working fine last I checked. It's difficult to access the site right now,
it includes a 30 mile snow mobile ride. We intended to put a comprehensive
remote monitoring system but it didn't get put in before the snow came. I want
to get up there and help the system limp along until snow melt when we can do a
thorough assessment.
The generator guy went up there and someone had pulled the stop switch on the
genset. The battery voltage was around 5V on a 48V bank. Yikes!
Thanks for the contact info.
On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Chris <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Mac,
>We had a cell failure on an Absolyte system we inherited and contacted;
>Jeff Lambert
>Product Support and Warranty
>East Penn Mfg. Co., Inc. - Unigy Battery Division
>(Office: (610) 682 – 6361 ext. 2848 | ÈCell: (484) 955 – 2899 | ÇPage:
>888-797-8039 (If no answer on Cell) | *Email:[email protected]
>Jeff was very helpful.
>I do wonder if your charge controllers are getting the array power out to the
>battery bank, was there any damage to them too? Is the Apollo 4048
>inverter/charger doing its job, is it undersized for the size of battery bank?
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Chris Worcester
>Solar Wind Works
>NABCEP Certified PV Installer
>Phone: 530-582-4503
>Fax: 530-582-4603
>www.solarwindworks.com
>[email protected]
>"Proven Energy Solutions"
>
>From:[email protected]
>[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mac Lewis
>Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 12:43 PM
>To: RE-wrenches
>Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Absolyte recovery
>
> Wrenches,
>
>We have inherited a Telecomm system in which the batteries have had a very
>hard life. A lighting strike knocked the system off line for about 5 months,
>and ground fault dragged the batteries way down about a month ago. Now, we
>are seeing about 10h of generator run time/day indicating to me that the
>batteries are not holding voltage at all.
>
> I am uncertain of the exact specs at this moment, but it is a 24 Absolyte
>IIP batteries (5 years old), with a 5 kW array, two Apollo T80HV charge
>controllers and an Apollo 4048 inverter charger.
>
>I don't have experience with these batteries. Is there any way to try to
>recover these batteries? Any good contacts with GNB would be useful.
>
>Thanks
>
>
>
>>Wrenches,
>>
>>We have inherited a Telecomm system in which the batteries have had a very
>>hard life.
>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>
>>
>>Mac Lewis
>>"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates
>>
>
>
>
>
>--
>
>
>
>Mac Lewis
>"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates
>
>_______________________________________________
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--
Mac Lewis
"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates
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