Anotherpower.com Forum
Project Journals => User Journals => Bryan => Topic started by: Bryan1 on July 24, 2012, 02:21:57 am
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G'day Guy's,
Well my mate rocked up at lunchtime today with that new (well just under 3 yrs old) set of 24 volt 1000AH traction batteries. He did say the sitting voltage was 24.3 but after a quick check with my dmm we found they were sitting on 25.1 volts.
A quick inspection found the fluid levels were way down so my put in what he had and I had a 4 litre jug in my shed. Well that one did 2 cells just enough to wet the plate tops. I went off in search for some Demineralized water and after the 3rd shop that didn't have any bigger than 4 litres I thought I better make the call on whether the Deminned water or distilled water should be used. My mate did say the Deminned water is the preferred and don't put any distilled water in. Anyway the last shop before i gaveup had 10 litre jugs for a tad under $10 so got 2 of them. After using all of I managed to get every cell with water over the plates so that will be enough to give them a good charge. There is a self watering system and the caps work on 2 psi pressure so as one fills water will pass to the next until all levels are topped up. My mate gave me a quick connect fitting and a clear plastic flow guage so got 6 metres of 10mm plastic hose to setup the self watering system. Now my mate did show me the newer version of the caps which is a much better way so hopefully in the future I can score a set.
[attachimg=1]
There was a small crane on the back of my mates truck so we were able to place the battery set where I wanted it which is close to my RE shed. For now I think the quickest and easiest way is to install some 150 amp Anderson connectors, cut the current battery leads before the fuse box and put a Anderson fitting on then another anderson fitting on the fuse box wires. Then put a Anderson fitting on the new lead so when I want to change over the bank it will just mean turning the inverter off and swapping cables. Then while each set is charging via my 80 amp traction charger power can still be used in the house.
Here's a pic of the current Anderson fitting and one can imagine the current draw thru that connector.
[attachimg=2]
Tomorrow I'll get some heavy cable and some Anderson fittings so I can give the new batteries a good charge ( may take 2 full tanks on the 5kva genset too) get them onto float charge then we can see how they fare on the house array.
Cheers Bryan
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For now I think the quickest and easiest way is to install some 150 amp Anderson connectors, cut the current battery leads before the fuse box and put a male fitting on then a female fitting on the fuse box wires. Then put a male fitting on the new lead so when I want to change over the bank it will just mean turning the inverter off and swapping cables.
??? Anderson connectors are hermaphrodites - there is no "male" and "female".....
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Nice Bryan, serious capacity.
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I better make the call on whether the Deminned water or distilled water should be used. My mate did say the Deminned water is the preferred and don't put any distilled water in.
Hmmmm . . . I don't think I've ever seen anything around here called Demineralized Water, my spell checker doesn't even recognize the word. Could it have another name? I've always understood that Distilled water should be used in a flooded battery, and recently purchased some for that reason.
When I was a teenager my dad was teaching me how to take care of the car. I remember him pouring Tap Water into the battery and telling me that "you're supposed to use Distilled Water in a battery but everybody he knew used tap water without having any problems".
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I did some searching and found that Demineralized water is also Deionized water.
From WikiPedia- Distilled Water
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In chemical and biological laboratories, as well as industry, cheaper alternatives such as deionized water are preferred over distilled water. However, if these alternatives are not sufficiently pure, distilled water is used. Where exceptionally high purity water is required, double distilled water is used.
Distilled water is also commonly used to top off lead acid batteries used in cars and trucks. The presence of other ions commonly found in tap water will cause a drastic reduction in an automobile's battery lifespan.
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G'day Guy's,
Well bit of a busy day I went and got those anderson connectors and made the new cables so now the 1000AH array is powering the house. I put the FM60 directly onto the 600AH array to let them fully charge over the next week with no load on. I still have setup the 350 watts of solar onto the 1000AH bank but thats the tomorrows jobbie.
Here's a pic of the now rough setup, to the right of the charger is the new fittings and one can where the old main cable for the 600AH would of gone. This is only a temp setup until I can get the 6x3 metre concrete slab done for the new RE power room and my electronics room.
[attachimg=1]
Heres a pic showingthe voltage on the inverter
[attachimg=2]
and one of the charger showing the current going in, it is a bit hard to read in the pic but it is showing 42 amps.
[attachimg=3]
The charger has been on for about 1-1/2's now now and taking one cap off a cell shows it bubbling slowly. I'll just let the genset run for the full tank and it will be interesting to see how many days it take to get back down to 24 volts.
Cheers Bryan
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I like that charger :)
If you care to look inside of it you will find every rule about pwm high power circuits is broken. No electrolytics to fail, no problems with power factors... they are just a great simple unit.
Fair lump of battery to fill up too.
..............oztules
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Fair lump of battery to fill up too.
..............oztules
Oz;
Yeah, like auto engines, there is no replacement for displacement!
Bigger is gooder.
Traction batteries are hard to beat for tough.
Tom