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When is the battery bank supposed to charge?

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  • When is the battery bank supposed to charge?

    I have a Schneider Electric Conext SW 4048 AC coupled system with lead acid batteries. I see the battery bank is down to 84% and I am wondering why they are not recharging during the day? I have the charge block set so it does not charge during the evening, but should charge during the day (solar). What am I missing? Thx.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Do you have solar installed as well? What charger controller?

    If No solar, What do you have the the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge Voltage Set at? The battery voltage must drop below the recharge voltage for charging to start. Also, Are you using AC Support mode?


    Try this in the ComBox Making sure you save each setting change as you go thru these steps ...

    - Turn off the charge block for now
    - look at the current battery voltage and set the the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge voltage to a full volt higher than the current battery voltage.
    - Now look at your System Devices>CSW screen ... about 12 lines down look to see what the Charger Status reads: Does it say AC Support, Not Charging, Bulk Etc ??? Watch for it to change to Bulk. Might take a minute.
    - OK, if it did not change to bulk, go to System Devices>Settings>Controls>Force Charger State and select Bulk. (don't forget to save the settings after selecting Bulk for the force) If bulk was already selected, select No Float - Save and they select Bulk - Save. Got back to the System Devices>CSW screen ... did the Charger Status Change to Bulk?
    - NO?? Go to System Devices>Settings>AC Support. What setting do you have Enabled for AC Support? 1.) AC support Mode? 2.) Load Shaving or 3.) On Battery SOC (if you have #3 you also MUST have an SW battery monitor). Regardless. Disable any and all that are Enabled.
    - Now look at your System Devices>CSW screen Charger Status line. Did it go into bulk. ... Wait for it ... It should have if your Recharge Voltage is set higher than the current battery voltage.
    - If this got your charge to start, now go back and set the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge Voltage to a lower number because if you set it to a number near or above float to get the charge to start, as soon as it goes to float it will jump back into Bulk. Yes this is odd behavior in MHO.

    If you had to work thru ALL those steps above before charging would start you are having the same problem as me. I can only get my SW to start charging IF I disable any and all AC Support mode. And it has not always been that case. I believe The system is supposed to start charging at the point where the batteries fall below the user setting for System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge voltage OR when you do a Force Charger state. Currently mine does not. Schneider says it is supposed to be in AC pass thru before charging starts. But while I realize that is true when charging, I do not believe that is not suppose to be the case to initiate charging. I am actually testing and creating a log file to send to Schneider tonight to address this in my system
    285Wx9 / MNClassic 150 / CSW4024 / TrojanL16H-ACx4

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Matrix View Post
      Do you have solar installed as well? What charger controller?

      If No solar, What do you have the the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge Voltage Set at? The battery voltage must drop below the recharge voltage for charging to start. Also, Are you using AC Support mode?


      Try this in the ComBox Making sure you save each setting change as you go thru these steps ...

      - Turn off the charge block for now
      - look at the current battery voltage and set the the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge voltage to a full volt higher than the current battery voltage.
      - Now look at your System Devices>CSW screen ... about 12 lines down look to see what the Charger Status reads: Does it say AC Support, Not Charging, Bulk Etc ??? Watch for it to change to Bulk. Might take a minute.
      - OK, if it did not change to bulk, go to System Devices>Settings>Controls>Force Charger State and select Bulk. (don't forget to save the settings after selecting Bulk for the force) If bulk was already selected, select No Float - Save and they select Bulk - Save. Got back to the System Devices>CSW screen ... did the Charger Status Change to Bulk?
      - NO?? Go to System Devices>Settings>AC Support. What setting do you have Enabled for AC Support? 1.) AC support Mode? 2.) Load Shaving or 3.) On Battery SOC (if you have #3 you also MUST have an SW battery monitor). Regardless. Disable any and all that are Enabled.
      - Now look at your System Devices>CSW screen Charger Status line. Did it go into bulk. ... Wait for it ... It should have if your Recharge Voltage is set higher than the current battery voltage.
      - If this got your charge to start, now go back and set the System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge Voltage to a lower number because if you set it to a number near or above float to get the charge to start, as soon as it goes to float it will jump back into Bulk. Yes this is odd behavior in MHO.

      If you had to work thru ALL those steps above before charging would start you are having the same problem as me. I can only get my SW to start charging IF I disable any and all AC Support mode. And it has not always been that case. I believe The system is supposed to start charging at the point where the batteries fall below the user setting for System Devices>Settings>Charger Settings>Recharge voltage OR when you do a Force Charger state. Currently mine does not. Schneider says it is supposed to be in AC pass thru before charging starts. But while I realize that is true when charging, I do not believe that is not suppose to be the case to initiate charging. I am actually testing and creating a log file to send to Schneider tonight to address this in my system
      Thx for the input. I will try everything. I have solar, but it is an Enphase micro inverter setup, so it outputs AC, not DC....so no charge controller. The Solar AC output goes to the critical loads panel, where it is AC coupled with the SW output.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by TheVillagesGuy View Post

        Thx for the input. I will try everything. I have solar, but it is an Enphase micro inverter setup, so it outputs AC, not DC....so no charge controller. The Solar AC output goes to the critical loads panel, where it is AC coupled with the SW output.
        Yes try it and let me know if you can get the charger to "kick on" . I am having this pain and it is very frustrating to say the least. I am glad I do not need to rely on the SW to charge as I have a solar system with CC, so for me it is an inconvenience as best.
        285Wx9 / MNClassic 150 / CSW4024 / TrojanL16H-ACx4

        Comment


        • #5
          Bump. I bought a few thousand more watts of solar panels and having opportunity to put micro inverters on them. $200 for all the micro inverters sounds cheap enough so I'm wondering if this will charge my batteries through the off grid sw4024 inverter. It looks as if it will but I'm trying to find definite answers from people who have it working. So far sounds like I should pick up another basic charge controller and avoid this mess. I hear micro inverters sometimes fail a lot now with all this added confusion you guys are talking about I'm thinking I'm sticking with a separate charge controller

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