Gary A number of years ago I designed the back-up system for the Washington DC Metro System communications in conjunction with Apollo Solar. After extensive testing of both the Concorde and Full River brand batteries. We chose Concorde SunXtender because of failures in the Full River during testing.
Kind regards Tom Duffy Senior Solar Design Engineer [New-Logo-Solar-BiZ] E-Mail: t...@solar-biz.com<mailto:t...@solar-biz.com> **Please note my new email - You will now be able to find me at: t...@solar-biz.com<mailto:t...@solar-biz.com> Please update your records so we don't lose touch!** Main Number: 888-826-0939 Panama Office: 507-836-5588 X 122 Direct Toll Free: 888-503-6772 International: 575-539-2111 X 122 SKYPE Address: thesolarbiz (e-mail first) NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off... It should have been solar. Confidentiality Notice: This message including any attachments is for the sole use of the intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete any copies of this message. From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Gary Willett Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2016 9:08 PM To: re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Test procedure for Concorde batteries Larry: What is your experience with FullRiver DC1150-2 2V 1150AH AGM L16 battery? Regards, Gary Willett Icarus Engineering LLC 214-629-4279 On 9/1/16 8:51 PM, Starlight Solar Power Systems wrote: Hear, Hear, Gary, listen to the Graybeards. One thing I would like to mention here. Over the last 3 years, I have seen a dramatic increase of early failures of Lifeline (like Sun Xtender, made by Concorde) batteries. I have been selling and installing Lifeline since 2004 and have hundreds of 8-12 year old battery systems being used. I have not been able to identify any cause related to use. So, has anyone seen Sun Xtender or Concorde early failures in recent years? BTW, we have been selling FullRiver batteries for a few years now with no failures and very happy customers. Thank you, Larry Crutcher Starlight Solar Power Systems (928) 342-9103 On Sep 1, 2016, at 6:19 PM, jay <jay.pe...@gmail.com<mailto:jay.pe...@gmail.com>> wrote: HI Ray, I second your opinion. jay peltz power On Sep 1, 2016, at 4:43 PM, Ray Walters <r...@solarray.com<mailto:r...@solarray.com>> wrote: Hi Gary; I think it would be a waste of time to load test a sealed battery that is 9 years old. Even at only 20% discharge, that battery only has 2800 cycles. At 80% discharge, its 550 cycles. The daily system cycle is probably roughly a 10% cycle, coupled with the frequent deep cycles. We have been seeing 5 to 7 years in GTB systems with regular sealed batteries. Even in float mode, they don't last forever. Also the customer has already done a basic load test, and the battery is failing. Its only a matter of time before you start seeing cell failures, and then the system won't even work when the grid is up. I'd just replace the set on your next trip. R.Ray Walters CTO, Solarray, Inc Nabcep Certified PV Installer, Licensed Master Electrician Solar Design Engineer 303 505-8760 On 9/1/2016 2:00 PM, jerrysgarage01 wrote: Wrenches You can do a carbon pile test but the best way is testing under several conditions. Here is an option real easy and maybe faster, put a volt meter on each battery under constant charge conditions, higher volts on one battery meens high resistance in battery, low volts meens low resistance, either extreme can be an issue. Then let sit for at least an hour with no load and check the volts, next put a fixed load on the system, again a volt meter check each battery, here you may find a lower reading then the rest, there is the problem, now replace the entire bank not just the single battery. This is an easy test and the customer can see it easily too. Jerry Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S(tm) III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Gary Bassett Date:09/01/2016 2:51 AM (GMT-10:00) To: "RE-wrenches (re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>)" Subject: [RE-wrenches] Test procedure for Concorde batteries We have a grid tied battery backup system that uses 8 Sun Xtender PVX-2120L batteries, about 9 years old. The grid has been going out frequently - about 4 times in the past 3 weeks. When the grid goes out, the battery voltage gets too low and shuts the system down pretty quickly. One of the times, this happened within 4 hours. We want to test the capacity of the batteries and we have a testing procedure from Concorde that seems like it would take a lot of time. Is there a quick way to test the battery capacity? 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