William, Those default settings are suited for sealed batteries, not flooded. While each battery manufacturer's charge protocols are somewhat different, I would definitely follow Trojan's recommendations as best possible in this circumstance.
Howie Howie Michaelson NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™ Sun Catcher Renewable Energy Systems Sales and Service VT Solar Electric Incentive Partner 802-272-0004 On Jan 18, 2016 11:33 PM, "William Miller" <[email protected]> wrote: > Colleagues: > > > > I have an off-grid customer for whom I replaced a set of 8 Trojan L-16s as > well as upgrading her inverter and charge controller. Right after the job, > we found several batteries with low specific gravity. We spoke with the > local distributor and received two replacement batteries. > > > > The system continues to perform poorly. The customer EQs every 30 days to > 60 plus volts for 3 hours. They try to get a full bulk and absorption > charge in every day but this time of year may not. The specific gravity > readings continue to diverge and generally go lower. > > > > We contacted the distributor who told us they have had problems with > Trojan batteries since the company was sold about two years ago. We were > told they had a brand X battery that tested better than the Trojans. We > agreed to try the Brand X but then were told that we had not charged the > Trojans adequately. Below are the settings recommended directly by Trojan > > > > These settings are significantly higher than any I have used before. > Also, I don’t recall it being possible to set different bulk and absorption > voltages with any of the equipment I use. I use Trace, Outback, Schneider > default settings of 57.6 bulk, 54.4 float and reprogram to 60.5 for > equalization. > > > > I am curious about what charge settings you find successful for flooded > lead-acid batteries and what any of you might think about the recommended > settings as seen below. Do you feel it is practical to achieve these > settings in an off-grid scenario? Would these high settings cause > excessive water consumption? > > > > Thanks in advance. > > > > William Miller > > > > [image: Gradient Cap_mini] > Lic 773985 > millersolar.com <http://www.millersolar.com/> > 805-438-5600 > > > > > > > > I looked at the spreadsheet and the SG. readings across each battery are > uniform which tells be that it is highly unlikely that anything is wrong > with the batteries except for being under-charged. Take a look at our > User’s Guide on the Trojan website on page 19 ( Recommended Charge > Profile) or FLA batteries. > > The Bulk stage should be @ 59.3V, Absorb @ 58.8V, Float @ 54V and > Equalization @ 64.8V. When the User notices drops in the SG such as in this > document, an EQ charge should be performed in order to get the batteries > back up to full charge (full charge SG being in the range of 1.270 to > 1.280. When performing the EQ, the user should take SG reading for a > “pilot” battery every 30 minutes until the voltages reach that range. > Termination should happen when SG reaches full charge range or if battery > temperature reaches 112 degrees F, which-ever comes first. SG readings can > be taken during EQ, but you have to make sure that you bump the tiny gas > bubbles off the Hydrometer float to prevent erroneous readings. > > Seeing the SG readings decreasing after each month is an indication that > maybe the Absorb Time needs to be increased, maybe from 3 hours up to 4 or > 5 hours. > > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/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: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
