Hey Will, At the risk of being overly simplistic and obvious, have you kept good specific gravity records over the years? Are they showing lowered or uneven readings? I've often been able to get some more life out of flooded batteries by raising the charge and equalize voltages, particularly if these are Rolls 2- volts. I've been known to run the bulk charge as high as 31 sometimes and equalize up to 32 with longer run times (2.5 - 3 hours) for off grid, assuming that there aren't any particularly weak cells.
You can also do a simple load test on each individual battery and if you find a very weak or dead one, taking it out of the string often improves capacity (if you've already tried recovering it through extra charging). Of course, you would would need to adjust the inverter and CC settings appropriately. Which model of 2-volts are these? Again, sorry if this is all too obvious for you. Just getting back to basics. Good luck, Howie On Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 11:27 AM Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Will, > > I'd keep inching the start voltage down and see if it helps. Sometimes > old batteries just operate at a lower voltage and will sag more under load > but they will still carry the load OK > > Of course you can: > 1. Do all of your high power stuff when the sun is out. > 2. Disable the generator start at night and see where the voltage goes by > morning, perhaps a load kicks on and the voltage is sagging enough to kick > on the generator from voltage. It helps if you can plot the voltage over > night to see what is happening. (Victron battery monitors are really cool > for this). > 3. Load starting can help limit overall run time. > > Sometimes you can do inventive things with Quiet time that will limit > generator starting. Not sure what inverter system you have. > > On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 9:03 AM White, Will via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello Wrenches, >> >> >> >> I installed my off-grid system in 2008. It’s 24 V using 2 V industrial >> FLA batteries. As you can imagine after 15 years the capacity of my battery >> bank is significantly less than it used to be. >> >> >> >> For logistic reasons, I won’t be able to replace them till around June of >> next year, but it’s not even into winter yet and my generator is already >> running every day. >> >> >> >> Does anyone have any tips on how to get through the winter on these >> batteries while minimizing generator run time? I’ve got two FM80’s with 3.8 >> kW of PV, two VFX3524 inverters, and a Kohler RES12 generator. I haven’t >> changed any settings since I installed the system. >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Will >> ------------------------------ >> >> Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information. >> If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us by email by >> replying to the sender and delete this message. >> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org >> >> List Address: [email protected] >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the >> other: >> https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> > > -- > > > > Mac Lewis > > *"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates* > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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