The second one.
I am keen to know what I am doing wrong ?
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Hello - I am back with more tales of woe
are my 3 month old batteries bad ? could thay have been in a bad way when I bought them even though they were brand new in the box ? I am at the tail end of what would be a long distribution chain and is there a definitave way to test them in the shop ?
with only about 50 watts of LED spotlight load the batteries last about 8 hours before getting to 11.7 v and the inverter alarm starting
solar overnight discharge_20180820_021128.jpg
I have the 2 panels connected in series and seem to get a good voltage and current during the day and get the batteries above 14v
Solar charging PV voltage_20180820_095430.jpg
solar charging amps_20180820_102010.jpg
solar charging batt at end of day_20180820_153844.jpg
and then with no load except for the inverter and the solar controller the batteries have lost a full volt
Solar charging battery overnight discharge no load_20180821_034601_HHT.jpg
I have 2 of 150AH batteries in parrallel - should I maybe move to 1 battery at a time to determine if one is a bit sad ?
should I just disconnect both batteries and inverter and controller overnight and measure changes to the battery voltages ?
thanks for any tipsAttached FilesComment
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What is the idle load of the inverter ? I asked you that before, a 2000w inverter is a red flag, your inverter burns way more power than your lights do
How long do the batteries stay in Absorb, 20 min ? Should be at least 90 minutes in Absorb before they go to Float.Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-ListerComment
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yes - I do understand that my inverter is a little large for te application at the moment , but it was purchased for future proofing
do you think it is the real reason ? I would have thought it was a little extra load , but irrelevant in the whle scheme of the issue
I am not sure about your terminology concerning absorb and float
I think I will disconnect everything after the sun goes down and look at the voltage of both batteries overnight with a multi meterComment
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Bear in mind that a fully charged 12 volt battery, at rest, no load and no charge will be 12.8 volts. If you are seeing the 13.1 volts after the sun goes down there is nothing unusual about that.2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024Comment
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ok - yes
I will disconnect everything soon when the sun is over and then measure the battery voltages
and then check them again in the morningComment
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ok - both batteries are reading 13.14 volts with everything disconnected - I will check them in the morningComment
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Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-ListerComment
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^ I read the article about hw the morningstar units work and the presets for charging timings - previously I had set the MPPT unit I have for AGM/sealed so it will be doing what it thinks is best
I measured the batteries this morning and each one was 12.99v , so that seems fine
I have connected everything up again today , and the overcast and rain which has been prevalent for the last few weeks is supposed to clear later in the day , so I think I will put the load back on and see how it fares tonight
I think I will have to buy a wattmeter plug to double check the exact load that I am drawing - though it is not something I can find locally -Comment
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well , no joy last night
during the day the battery got to 14.3 volts , but as soon as the sun went down it wen to 13.3 volts ans then at 18h30 when the timer switched on the spotlights it went to 12.8 volts
the inverter started to alarm at 02h45 at 11.8 volts so I switched off and plugged the lights into mains power for the rest of the night
better sunlight conditions today so I will give it another try tonight
the batteries are not lasting anywhere near what I wantedComment
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You were told 8 months ago you would destroy your batteries in less than a year. You got exactly what you planned for.MSEE, PEComment
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The problem could be that the batteries are wired in parallel or that you are not getting enough charging amps to get them back to 100% SOC.
With a true MMPT CC you should be seeing about 30 amps of charging which is about right for a 12V 300Ah battery system.
Another problem is your inverter is sucking down the batteries overnight and you have a much bigger load on them then you calculated.
Biggest problem is that once the batteries get below 50% SOC (which at 11.8v is way below) they have now gotten hurt and may never get back to 100% SOC.Comment
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