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  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Sunking View Post
    Jabroni you might think I am being hard on you. Perhaps, but only to get your attention.
    U got my attention. And made it abundantly clear how abrasive u are and how poor u are at helping people.


    I can help you,

    No u can't

    - Ur too busy trying to prove how smart u are and how smart I am not.
    - U haven't the slightest clue what my facility needs in terms of power
    - I don't want your help

    You cannot go off-grid without knowing much about power and batteries.
    Sure u can. Hire quality installers.

    I hired the wrong installer. Pretty simple.

    If i buy a car that's a lemon, Im not mad that I don't know how to fix it. Im mad at the dealership. Professionals have to be able to do their jobs.

    There is a way to fix your issues.
    Yep. On it already.
    Allow me to explain a couple of things.
    Nope. U had ur chance on page one. And multiple times after. Move on. I don't care for your explanations.


    A fifth grader can do that.
    Have you ever worked with 5th graders? For someone that references them as much as u do, maybe u should go get some training on communication & teaching youth. Passive aggressive jabs aren't exactly the best way to catch anyone's attention or teach them anything.

    3. Sell one of your 100-Amp Controllers,
    Would this be one of my 100-amp controllers that u were convinced didn't exist just a few posts ago?

    4. Sell off 1000 watts of your panels, you will not need them once you remove all that heat load. That leaves you 5000 watts and that is way more than you will need.
    U have no idea what I need. Because u don't ask questions before drawing ur wacky conclusions.

    I need more panels actually. I need to have appx 8k of power available on a hot sunny summer day. I was getting by with 4k watts. It's much cheaper to set up a 8k watt array of panels & 8k worth of inverter for float usage in summer months than a battery bank that (a) will never get charged due to my loads and (b) last 12 hrs a day with 6000w loads on it.

    Replace your batteries.
    I will. Once it's proven they are toast. There are still more likely possibilities as to the issue at the moment. And both account for the coincidence of the AGS being installed.

    I spent 2 hrs on the phone with Magnum tech support. They went over my entire system with me. They found 4 major setup errors that we addressed and they didn't give me the impression my situation was as dire as ur convinced it is. In fact, Ive spoken to 2 electricians, 1 generator expert, and 3 solar companies. Not a single one made any of the suggestions you have. They did find errors in the setup tho. And we might have found the issue. I'll know exactly after a site visit.

    Keep reading this until you understand,
    Follow ur own advice when I say this, ur a dik. I don't want ur "help". Move on to troll someone else.


    He screwed and tattooed you blue.
    Thx for making that clear for the 46th time.

    You allowed that to happen and no one to blame but yourself, not the messenger.
    I blame the the "messenger" for being a clown. Not for any of the issues Im having with my solar. I put that blame on the "professionals" that were supposed to design & install it properly.

    The only difference between u and I is I know how little I know about my solar system.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sunking
    replied
    Jabroni you might think I am being hard on you. Perhaps, but only to get your attention. I can help you, but dude you have to listen and more importantly learn. You cannot go off-grid without knowing much about power and batteries. Otherwise you get what you ask for and exactly what has happened to you. Screwed. The math is really 5th grade stuff and easy to understand. First lesson is batteries DO NOT TOLERATE abuse or ignorance. Especially AGM batteries. AGM batteries cost twice as much and last half as long as FLA. Meaning they cost 400% more then FLA

    There is a way to fix your issues. First thing is find a reputable Solar Installer who knows what they are doing, and educate yourself so you know when something is wrong and can take action immediately.

    Allow me to explain a couple of things. First step is you MUST determine your worse case daily Watt Hour consumption. No one and I mean no one can do that for you.

    Watt Hours = Watts x Hours.

    Example that 3000 watt eater of a heater you use turned on for say 6 hours consumes 3000 watts x 6 hours = 18,000 watt hours or 18 Kwh, about $1,80 worth of electricity. Just like if you make $10/hour, how long do you have to work to make $100. A fifth grader can do that.

    So once you have figured out your worse case power useage, you then calculate the battery capacity to do the job. Again that is super simple. You size the battery to last you 5 days or discharged 20% per day. You do this so your battery last at least 5 years and to cover your but for cloudy days. Only 3 days are useable until you hit 50% discharged and forced to go on Generator to recharge. OK Once you have a Daily Watt Hours your Battery Capacity = 5 days x Daily Capacity. Want to run that Heater 6 hours a day plus whatever else you need is say 20,000 watt hours (20 Kwh). Battery Capacity = 20,000 watt hours x 5 days = 100,000 watt hours. To find the AH capacity is done later once you know what battery voltage is used.

    AH = Watt Hours / Battery Voltage. See that is simple. The rest is just that easy.

    Next is find the panel wattage required to provide you with your daily Watt Hour consumption In this example we know it is 20,000 watt hours. To do this we have to find the Sun Hours for the shortest Winter months of December and January. That depends on your location and is super easy to find. So Let's assume ou live in the south where winter Sun Hours are plentiful in winter of 4 Sun Hours. So lets start. First we need a correction factor to account for all the system losses. With a MPPT controller, battery, wiring, and Inverter system efficiency is 67%. You have to account for that. So the panels need to generate 20,000 watt hours plus 1.5 times more. You can work that 1 of 2 ways. Either 20,000 / .67 or 20,000 x 1.5. Either Way you get 30,000 watt hours. All we have to do now is factor out Hours and that leaves us with the Watts. Watts = Watt Hours / Sun Hours. So 30,000 Watt Hours / 4 Sun Hours = 7500 Watts. Now in this example we know it will take a 7500 watt panel, and a battery capacity of 100,000 Watt Hours. Time to select Battery Voltage and Charge Controller Amps.

    OK you already have 2-100 Amp Charge Controllers which was a mistake because your pro selected the wrong battery voltage of 24 volts. At 6000 watts requires 3 controllers. Easy peazy fix, use a higher battery voltage so it only requires 1 Expensive controller rather than 2 or 3 controllers. So lt's go with a single controller, one of your 100 Amp Controllers. So how do we find the right battery voltage. Real darn simple we already know the panel wattage and the controller maximum current. Again the math is real simple Volts = Wattage / Amps. So 7500 watts / 100 Amps = 75 volts. OK there is no such thing as a 75 volt battery/ We have to work in units of 12 volts. 72 volt battery will work because a 72 volt battery is actually operates at 75.6 volts. Now we got a problem, good luck finding a 72 Volt battery charger for the genny and Inverter. Not going to happen, so what can we do. Well since your needs are so high is really beyond any single Controller, So we lower the battery voltage to a common used voltage of 48 volts and use your second controller. To do that means we have to break up the 7500 watt panel into two separate arrays of 3750 watts and each array using its own Controller charging a common battery. Really the only option in this example.

    OK time to find the battery Amp Hour capacity required at 48 volts. Again simple. AH = Watt Hours of Battery Capacity / Battery Voltage. 100,000 Watt Hours / 48 volts = 2083 AH a huge $20,000, 6000 pound gorilla you get to replace every 5 years. Take note here you have a 24 volt 830 AH battery. How much capacity is that? Remember the simple formula? Watt Hours = Battery Voltage x Amps Hours. So 24 volts x 830 AH = 19,920 Watt Hours. That means your batteries are only really capable of proving you roughly 5 Kwh per day and you are demanding 20,000 watt hours or more per day. Do you see a problem?

    I do lots of problems with what you have, and there is one good solution that will work:

    1. Quit using Solar and battery power for heat. Use Propane for heat, cooking, and hot water.
    2. Redesign your system and use 48 volt battery which means a new 48 volt Inverter.
    3. Sell one of your 100-Amp Controllers, you wil not need two once you take heat, hot water, and cooking out of the picture. LPG cost will be dirt cheap.
    4. Sell off 1000 watts of your panels, you will not need them once you remove all that heat load. That leaves you 5000 watts and that is way more than you will need.
    5. Replace your batteries. With 5000 watts of power, and 100 amp controller will require a minimum 48 volt 600 AH battery. They need to be that large with 100 Amps of Charge Current so you do not cook them while charging. Take note right now your batteries are way to small with 200 amps of charge current. Keep the battery charge current between C/10 and C6. All that means is where C = Battery AH capacity divided by a 10 or 6 hour charge rate. Example a 600 AH battery should be charged with no less than C/10 or 600 AH / 10H = 60 amps, and no higher than C/6 or 600AH / 6 Hours = 100 amps.

    Current with 200 amps on your existing 830 amps is to much at 830 AH / 200 Amps = C/4.15.

    Keep reading this until you understand, then see what your pro did to you.. He screwed and tattooed you blue. You allowed that to happen and no one to blame but yourself, not the messenger.

    Good Luck

    Leave a comment:


  • Sunking
    replied
    Originally posted by Jabroni View Post
    Here's my charge controller btw, of which I have 2 of. It says it can handle up to 6600w of solar. It must be lying.
    I agree with you 100%, you are lying. Your story has changed. You went from a single 60 amp charge controller to 2 100 amp charge controllers. Which one was the lie? Garbage in, Garbage out.

    Makes no difference, if your so called pro knew anything about what they were doing would never have used 24 volt battery for a real damn good reason. If they would have used 48 volt battery would have only required 1 controller not two. They screwed you. What is laughable and proves the point is you have or claim to have 8 6-volt batteries configured as 24 volts. To get 24 volts requires two parallel strings. Put all 8 in series and you have 48 volts.

    You also misinterpreted what Magnum told you. The controller can input over sized array up to 6600 watts. It does not output 6600 watts at 48 volts. Try reading the manual sometime. It outputs up to 100 Amps. Again Power = Volts x Amps. So do a little math fun and educate yourself. Try 100 amps x 24 volts = 2400 watts. You have two controllers so 200 amps x 24 volts = 4800 watts from your 6000 watt panel. Sure you can put 6600 watts of panels on the input as long as you are good with throwing 1200 watts away. To get the mising 1200 watts will cost you another controller. You pro installer should have told you that.

    Lastly I can reply to your post and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. Whine all you want. Bottom line is you destroyed your batteries from abuse and ignorance. You cannot hammer the batteries as you have and get away with it for long. It is not only me telling you that, everyone has told you that. I do this for a living professionally for 35 years.
    Last edited by Sunking; 01-13-2017, 01:34 AM.

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  • Mike90250
    replied
    OK, I may have been hasty closing this thread - Flame On!

    Leave a comment:


  • Mike90250
    replied
    Sunking,
    Jabroni has written asking the moderators to inform you he no longer wishes your advice.

    Jabroni
    Sorry you think Sunking is harrassing you. Actually, he's being kind, but he's been told you wishes to not comment on your thread.

    And so, I will close the thread, there seems to be no new information to add to it. If something else comes up Jabroni, feel free to start a new thread,
    Moderator

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Sunking View Post
    blah, blah, your system sucks, blah, blah, you're ignorant, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...
    I went over the entire system, part number by part number with the Magnum tech. She pointed out that the solar charger jumpers had been set wrong but when I specifically asked her about whether the panels were too much for the system, she said no.

    Ur a schitty messenger, who has drawn a ton of conclusions before knowing all the facts. So again, I ask, go find someone else to troll. Or go out, get some fresh air, get laid, or whatever is necessary to get the huge chip on your shoulder delt with.

    Here's my charge controller btw, of which I have 2 of. It says it can handle up to 6600w of solar. It must be lying.
    https://www.altestore.com/store/char...Lh4aAsJv8P8HAQ
    Last edited by Jabroni; 01-12-2017, 12:16 AM.

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  • Sunking
    replied
    Way more than a installer error. Nothing about your system was done correctly and the operator has no clue how to operate the system. You cannot go off-grid and be clueless ojn how everything operates. You especially have to know batteries inside and out. Or else you get what you got.

    Example Red Flags as soon as you said you had 6000 watts on 24 volt batteries. Why do we know that is a problem, real simple the largest charge controler made is 80 amps. 80 amp charge controllers have the following power inputs vs battery voltage.

    1000 watts @ 12 volts
    2000 watts @ 24 volts
    4000 watts @ 48 volts
    6000 watts @ 60 volts.

    The math is real damn simple 6th grade stuff with very easy formulas. Example how many watts can a 80 amp controller handle Watts = Current x Battery Voltage. Try it out with your 24 volt 60 amp Controller. 60 Amps x 24 volts = 1440 watts. So what is your problem with a 6000 watt panel, 24 volt battery, and 60 Amp Controller? I will tell you since you cannot do simple math 6000 watts does not equal 1440 watts. You are missing 6000 - 1440 watts = 4560 watts

    More simple math To find how much current a given wattage into a given battery voltage is terrible complicated. Amps = Panel Wattage / Battery Voltage. Try it with what you have and tell us what is wrong. 6000 watts / 24 volts = 250 Amps. Your controller is a 60 amp controller. Is that a problem or not?

    Battery Capacity takes 16 years of formal education in the USA or a 5th grader in any other country Watt Hours = Battery Voltage x Amp Hours. Try yours on for size 24 volts x 830 AH = 19,920 Watt Hours. You should use no more than 4000 watt hours in a day and never ever more than 10,000 watt hours before a complete recharge.

    So do some more hard math Watt Hours = Watts x Hours. That takes 20 years of school. So if you rload is 3000 watts and your daily limit is 4000 wat hours gives you at most 4000 / 3000 = 1.3 hours run time a day. You are trying to run 5 to 8 hours. Your battery was dead after 19.920 wh / 3000 wh = 6.6 hours. Completely discharged beyond the point of NO RETURN. Yes you abused the crap out of your batteries.

    No one can fix your problem, it was broke before you ever turned it on. You got away with it during longer days of Summer and Fall with no heat demand. You pushed it over the cliff from ignorance and idiots who designed and installed the system.

    Dude I am just the messenger, You need a complete new system. Only thing you have that can be reused is the panels. That is you problem we cannot fix it nor can Tech Support. I suggest you educate yourself real fast. Start with the Stickies. When you replace the batteries get FLA batteries as they cost half a smuch and last twice as long as AGM. With FLA you can measure the specific gravity and actually tell what the real SOC is.

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    I appreciate the long well written post. I'll respond, and at the end I have more info to add as I just spent 2 hours on the phone with Magnum energy and they went thru the entire system and found MULTIPLE setup errors.

    Originally posted by PNjunction View Post
    As we say here - if you want to learn, you gotta' grow a thick skin, so don't take it personally.
    The irony? I think some of the guys in this forum need to go get some sun. Theyve been on the forums too long and forgot how you normally talk to someone face to face.

    AGM's - I love 'em. BUT you *have* to be on top of your game. If those cells aren't TRULY charged up to 100% often, then you are going to walk them down in capacity every cycle, and can be fooled by voltage alone.

    Here is what happens assuming a perfect setup that only gets charged to 99% *capacity* each cycle:

    1) You start out running from 100% to say 50% DOD.

    But because you don't fully charge each cycle, your battery capacity is now only 99%, yet voltage wise while charging things seem fine.
    More cycles without a full charge - 80% *capacity*.
    Even more cycles, 75% and so on. Yet your SOC meter, based on voltage alone, knows nothing about capacity degradation!

    Each bit that doesn't get fully charged over repetetive cycles, hard-sulfates, reducing the overall capacity little by little. What you are experiencing is not uncommon. Unlike a flooded battery, where a monthly EQ can kind of make up for the sins of undercharge, most agm's can't. And is the reason why an agm needs to be treated a bit aggressively in a solar setup. Ie, on top of your game.
    We'll get to this later in my post. The charge settings were not correct on install.


    And so on until failure. The other question to be asked is if prior to the autostart, was your charging setup (generator included), set properly and allowed to absorb down to .05C each cycle? Basically does it match what the Fullriver specs are, or was it a generic setup. Basically, what are the absorb, float, and absorb time (if listed) of both your solar CC, and that of your genny (were you using an external charger - and if so, what was it's settings?)

    I bet not, and that long absorb is a huge waste of fuel.
    No. It was not set up correctly.


    In addition to this, AFTER absorb is done, 6 -8 hours of float is needed! Obviously one doesn't usually have the fuel / sun and time necessary to finish absorb, let alone this 6 hour post absorb float stage for an agm. Thus, if you do agm, you MUST be a bit aggressive without blowing the manufacturer's specs of course.
    So much for AGM's being "maintenance free".


    What I'm saying is the 9 months of everything working perfectly, actually weren't. Despite the followup additions by the solar company, the batts were already pretty much knackered.
    That doesnt explain the abrupt and coincidental fall-off-a-cliff drop in performance. That's what's got me perplexed.

    I have no doubts at this time the batteries were being abused, by how I used them AND how they were set up. The fact that they all of a sudden failed to perform the day the auto-start was installed leads me to believe there is something else not functioning correctly.

    ALL voltage / cycle charts from manufacturers for agm's are assuming perfect health, ie a truly full charge each cycle! If you don't do that, the truth is revealed when you do a capacity load test.

    And that's the problem with AGM - unless you are totally on top of it, it is very very easy to make a mistake and not be able to recover.
    Noted.


    BTW, you know that 5.9 to 6v as measured on your cells are pretty much toast and NOT good right? Even fullriver's charts show that in the what - 10-25% SOC range. That's bad.
    They were at around 6.2-6.3 and then with load down to 5.9-6.

    Each battery is a 6 volt battery. Im not sure why they should be reading any different than that.

    I have no idea if that is "toast". The installer certainly didnt say they were in need of immediate replacement. The only reason he was suggesting new batteries was because of the lack of actual performance. He couldnt find anything during his diagnosis that would imply the batteries were done.


    There could very well be a shared responsibility component we are overlooking. Remember that this is all reverse-engineering - which is very hard to do at the distance of a forum.
    No doubt.

    Which is why I called Magnum and spent 2 hours with their customer support. I wanted to understand the auto-start better and what could be the issue.

    We went thru every setting on the controller and also some of the solar charging hardware.

    (1) they were the first person Ive spoken too to NOT dismiss my claims of the system not performing immediately after the auto-start was installed. They were very perplexed at the coincidence of it all.

    (2) that said, they could not fathom how the auto start would have any effect on voltage readings. So that sorta scratched out the "shared responsibility components" theory.

    (3) so then this is when it got "fun". We went thru all the settings on the controller and here are the mistakes found (some of which you already alluded too)...

    - AGS stop was set to 28.8 (shouldve been set to FLOAT)
    - Absorb was only set to 2.0 hours (shouldve been to 4.0 hours)
    - and here's the REALLY big one, the BMK was set to 790aHrs (so the controller this entire time has been charging for a smaller battery bank than was already here and for too short a absorb time)
    - and lastly, the jumpers on the solar charger controllers were set wrong, and were set for a much smaller solar array than I currently have


    So yes, the batteries have been taking a beating. During the summer due to the jumper settings and since November when the generator was being used heavily since the absorb as set wrong. And apparently the entire time since the BMK has been wrong all along. Magnum had some settings and charging advice that they thought could try to salvage the batteries a bit but cleaning off the plates (forced charging) and so Im going to try it.

    This is mostly a installer setup error, and the resulting damage to the batteries not being charged fully.

    That said, Im still hung up on the coincidence of it all. The performance drop off was too sudden and was immediate after the auto start was installed. There just seems to be something else too it. Im not saying the batteries havent taken a hit. But if their is a problem related to the autostart, new batteries arent going to solve this issue.
    Last edited by Jabroni; 01-12-2017, 12:20 AM.

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  • PNjunction
    replied
    As we say here - if you want to learn, you gotta' grow a thick skin, so don't take it personally.

    AGM's - I love 'em. BUT you *have* to be on top of your game. If those cells aren't TRULY charged up to 100% often, then you are going to walk them down in capacity every cycle, and can be fooled by voltage alone.

    Here is what happens assuming a perfect setup that only gets charged to 99% *capacity* each cycle:

    1) You start out running from 100% to say 50% DOD.

    But because you don't fully charge each cycle, your battery capacity is now only 99%, yet voltage wise while charging things seem fine.
    More cycles without a full charge - 80% *capacity*.
    Even more cycles, 75% and so on. Yet your SOC meter, based on voltage alone, knows nothing about capacity degradation!

    Each bit that doesn't get fully charged over repetetive cycles, hard-sulfates, reducing the overall capacity little by little. What you are experiencing is not uncommon. Unlike a flooded battery, where a monthly EQ can kind of make up for the sins of undercharge, most agm's can't. And is the reason why an agm needs to be treated a bit aggressively in a solar setup. Ie, on top of your game.

    And so on until failure. The other question to be asked is if prior to the autostart, was your charging setup (generator included), set properly and allowed to absorb down to .05C each cycle? Basically does it match what the Fullriver specs are, or was it a generic setup. Basically, what are the absorb, float, and absorb time (if listed) of both your solar CC, and that of your genny (were you using an external charger - and if so, what was it's settings?)

    I bet not, and that long absorb is a huge waste of fuel.

    In addition to this, AFTER absorb is done, 6 -8 hours of float is needed! Obviously one doesn't usually have the fuel / sun and time necessary to finish absorb, let alone this 6 hour post absorb float stage for an agm. Thus, if you do agm, you MUST be a bit aggressive without blowing the manufacturer's specs of course.

    What I'm saying is the 9 months of everything working perfectly, actually weren't. Despite the followup additions by the solar company, the batts were already pretty much knackered.

    ALL voltage / cycle charts from manufacturers for agm's are assuming perfect health, ie a truly full charge each cycle! If you don't do that, the truth is revealed when you do a capacity load test.

    And that's the problem with AGM - unless you are totally on top of it, it is very very easy to make a mistake and not be able to recover.

    BTW, you know that 5.9 to 6v as measured on your cells are pretty much toast and NOT good right? Even fullriver's charts show that in the what - 10-25% SOC range. That's bad.

    There could very well be a shared responsibility component we are overlooking. Remember that this is all reverse-engineering - which is very hard to do at the distance of a forum.
    Last edited by PNjunction; 01-11-2017, 07:35 PM.

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  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Wy_White_Wolf View Post

    Since you don't know how to interpret the readings - yes.

    WWW
    Is the passive aggressiveness really necessary?

    Leave a comment:


  • Wy_White_Wolf
    replied
    Originally posted by Jabroni View Post

    Is the voltage meter worthless also?
    Since you don't know how to interpret the readings - yes.

    WWW

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post

    Take your SOC meter and put duct tape over it , It is worthless. All of them are worthless, except the amps in/out totalizers. But still, refrigerators are sold in Alaska.

    Is the voltage meter worthless also?

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Sunking View Post

    I take no pleasure in it. I just wonder why you would cough up $30K on something you know nothing about or did any homework to protect yourself. To go off-grid requires you to know a lot about batteries and power, or else you end up where you are at now. Screwed.
    Have you ever bought a house? Did you learn how to do carpentry beforehand? Of course not.

    I dont have time to micromanage every contractor I hire. I hire lawyers, accountants, builders for a reason. So I can make the most of my 24hrs per day.

    To go off-grid shouldnt require that I become an expert in the field. I pay (supposed) "experts in the field" to come install what Im asking for.


    Originally posted by Sunking View Post
    Got news for you. You own the problem and is yours to fix.

    Thanks for that heads up. It was totally necessary. Since it's mine to fix, please leave the discussion and go troll someone else.

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by littleharbor View Post
    So do you ,in fact, have 6000 watts of solar panels charging a 24 volt battery through one 60 amp charge controller? That doesn't sound possible as you have a potential 214 + amps available If it is in fact that's what you have, your controller is limiting your charging output to a mere 60 amps.
    There is 1 Magnum remote controller

    And 2 Magnum power track performance charge controllers

    Originally posted by littleharbor View Post
    You mentioned it yourself you don't know much about this whole solar thing and that's what you paid the "pros" for. You really should be a little less argumentative and a little more willing to listen to what these very knowledgeable people are telling you. Plus they aren't charging you a dime for their time and their vast knowledge.

    Im not trying to be argumentative. Sunking seems more interested in proving that my system doesnt work (despite the fact that it has worked fine for 9 months) than actually listening to what the symptoms are and helping me diagnose them. I'd take him more seriously if he wasn't convinced that my system could only charge 1440w at a time, which is impossible considering the loads I could put on the system during daylight hours without the SOC or voltage dropping. Do u think I really want to get in a debate on whether my panels are only giving my system 1440w of energy? That has ZERO to do with the topic at hand.

    I have little interest in arguing my charging output yet some of you are fixated on it.

    Here's a fact: I was able to put 3000w+ loads on my system all day long during summer hours with the charge controllers sitting in "float" mode the entire time. So can we move on from that?

    Leave a comment:


  • Jabroni
    replied
    Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post
    I'm going by your loads and hours. Your batteries lasted valiantly , right till the misconfigured (missing) Absorb cycle, which should have lasted 3 hours,
    put the nail in their coffin . Without absorb, they never recharged much at all, Without recharge, they sulfate. End of battery, Then, a fully charged battery
    that collapses rapidly under load, is the classic example of sulphated,

    here's what doesnt make sense about that assessment...

    (1) I started from a full charge after the auto-start was installed
    (2) the batteries could no longer hold their voltage... INSTANTLY

    or at the very least, the controller was reading low voltage and kicking on the generator instantly.

    (3) I watched him take voltage readings of each battery and the results came back healthy


    Im not doubting that the missing absorb cycle can cause the batteries to sulphate. What I dont think is being accepted, is that this issue was instant. Not after days or hours of abuse from the auto-start but instantaneous. I never had a chance to run the batteries down for them to not fully recharge. The autostart was kicking on constantly, and in turn, keeping the (fraudulent) SOC and voltage high.

    Im wondering if there are settings that couldve been changed to give false voltage readings to the controller? Or if the auto-start could be causing false low voltage readings somehow? What the controller is showing and what the handheld voltage tester was showing arent corroborating.

    Leave a comment:

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