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Rebuilding my Solar Power System after 3 years Storage

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WooferHound:

--- Quote from: oztules on September 18, 2018, 06:16:23 am ---A few dollars will get a cheap SG tester ( bulb thing with the floating stick inside).

Without this, it is  very difficult to even guess at whats going on inside the batts..... I suspect not as much as we wish).

Fiendishly tidy set up there :-[

........oztules

--- End quote ---

Oh my goodness, why didn't I think about that, will get one of those very soon, Thanks !
When I transported the batteries from the shed, 70 feet to the new location, I was hoping that the rough motion would stir it up to make a difference but I don't think it had any effect.

WooferHound:
Working on the batteries for 4 days. Can Not get the voltage to go above 12.5 on this pair of batteries.

They sat all night at 12 or 11.9 volts. I hooked up my inverter and ran a 120v 100w incandescent bulb, should have been about a 10 amp battery load. In a few minutes the voltage dropped down to 11.4 volts and ran for half an hour before dropping to 11.3 then another half hour before reading at 11.2 and I turned it off. So there is some usable power but it is almost too low voltage. I  don't even need a charge controller right now.

On the Other RE Forum a user talked about reviving batteries by pulsing them with 10 times their rated voltage. So that is my plan for tomorrow. I have a transformer with two 80 volt 10 amp secondaries. 80 volts AC power will peak at 112 volts which is almost 10x12 volts. I plan to halfwave rectify those outputs and feed the battery with 60hz pulses for a second or so to see if they can Wake Up some.

bj:
  might work woof,  but I just had to warn you to be careful.  I blew up a battery in the shop
and it can be, for lack of a better word, spectacular.
  It was a poor connection spark that caused mine.

oztules:
I'm a long way away... so from here looks like a plan..... if I were closer, then maybe no so flash... but you never know.

The internal resistance/impedance of the battery and the transformer will dictate just how exciting this may get. If the battery has sloppy impedance, then the voltage may rise easily, and the current flow fairly benign, or if the internal impedance of the 80v secondary is high, then the current  will not be intense perhaps... so suck it and see is a viable option.

Make sure sparks are unlikely to occur (connections into and out of the battery region),and keep a good idea of the temp rise,(battery and transformer) and it should be safe enough...... standing in the next zip code may be worthwhile too :o
A fuse some distance from the battery may be a good investment too.

Oh, and check your water level before you start this... plenty of water over the plates


..........oztules

Pete:
If you have access to an electric fence unit I have heard that they can do the job of desulphating batteries.
Like others have said be very careful with sparks while charging batteries.
I too have had a battery blow up in my face, it is very spectacular and took quite a while for a new thumbnail to grow and for my ears to stop ringing.
Good luck with the batteries, I have not had much luck myself with old batteries, They usually end up at the recyclers.

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