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  • Disappearing power?

    My system has only been up and running a couple of days.

    This afternoon at about 3pm the CC (Tristar PWM 45A) was flashing green - i.e. batteries fully charged.

    At 5pm it green/yellow, which according to the manual means 60-80%. I had no load on it, just the inverter and the sun was still up.

    Suggestions?

    More info:

    Inverter ep1524: http://www.mustups.com/pure-sinve-wa...ep3000-series/

    Panels 3x200W in parallel: http://www.ubbink.co.ke/ubbinkcoke/m...e.pdf?ext=.pdf

    Battery: 6x 70Ah 12V set up as 24V x3.

  • #2
    Originally posted by choob View Post
    My system has only been up and running a couple of days.

    This afternoon at about 3pm the CC (Tristar PWM 45A) was flashing green - i.e. batteries fully charged.

    At 5pm it green/yellow, which according to the manual means 60-80%. I had no load on it, just the inverter and the sun was still up.

    Suggestions?

    More info:

    Inverter ep1524: http://www.mustups.com/pure-sinve-wa...ep3000-series/

    Panels 3x200W in parallel: http://www.ubbink.co.ke/ubbinkcoke/m...e.pdf?ext=.pdf

    Battery: 6x 70Ah 12V set up as 24V x3.
    Based on the equipment data you gave us it sounds like the battery system may not be getting a full charge (gets above 80% but not 100%) or is being quickly drained.

    That inverter is rated ~ 25 watts usage on standby so not really a big load and should not run down the battery much in 2 hours but it is on the big side at 1000 watts for your battery system.

    Based on 3 x 200 watt panels wired in parallel which will get you ~ 17 amps max of charging at 35volts.

    That 17 amps is a little low to keep your 24volt 210Ah battery system happy because it calculates to a C/12.5 but still in range of an FLA type system.

    So while your equipment could be better matched I don't see a good reason for your battery drain except that maybe you are just barely getting above 80% SOC to get your green light (SOC is 80 to 95%) at 3 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks for the reply.

      The slightly mismatched system comes down to lack of access to a variety of equipment here (east africa). Inverter was the smallest 24V one I could get locally.

      I note your points about an undersized array and will keep an eye on it. On the other hand I would have expected it to manage to charge up given that there is no load connected to it yet. Will update this evening after another day's charging.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by choob View Post
        Thanks for the reply.

        The slightly mismatched system comes down to lack of access to a variety of equipment here (east africa). Inverter was the smallest 24V one I could get locally.

        I note your points about an undersized array and will keep an eye on it. On the other hand I would have expected it to manage to charge up given that there is no load connected to it yet. Will update this evening after another day's charging.
        A very simple test to make would be to let the panels charge the batteries with the inverter completely disconnected for at least two days in a row. See if that is enough to get your batteries to full charge.
        If they then go down again with just the unloaded inverter attached it will be a sign that either the batteries are damaged and not delivering their full nominal energy capacity or your panels are not charging the batteries as well as you expect them too. The troubleshooting then will be to determine which is the case.
        SunnyBoy 3000 US, 18 BP Solar 175B panels.

        Comment


        • #5
          Something I noticed today - the batteries have their own state of charge indicator. 4 of them are green, 1 is green/red and the other is red.

          Strange that there is a 'red' battery after charging for a few days? Dud battery?

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by choob View Post
            Something I noticed today - the batteries have their own state of charge indicator. 4 of them are green, 1 is green/red and the other is red.

            Strange that there is a 'red' battery after charging for a few days? Dud battery?
            That one battery could be bad or for some reason not connected properly so did not get charged correctly.

            Was the the one that is "green/red" connected to the one that is "red" for a 24 volt series string?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by choob View Post
              Something I noticed today - the batteries have their own state of charge indicator. 4 of them are green, 1 is green/red and the other is red.

              Strange that there is a 'red' battery after charging for a few days? Dud battery?
              If your batteries have charge indicators, they are likely flooded lead acid batteries. The only way to really know if they are charged is to get a temperature compensated hydrometer.

              Also, have you inspected the electrolyte level in the batteries?

              Comment


              • #8
                The red and green/red batteries are not close to each other.

                They are FLAs, electrolyte is fine. I'm taking them back to the supplier on Wednesday for testing.

                Comment

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