The Battery Thread (Solar / Inverter)

[johnjm]

So my sosolar batteries are for some reason making funny noises under charge, even at float.

Upon calling sosolar they don’t seem to know wtf.

So I have logged an exchange with takealot and they have confirmed they will drop off the replacements and pick up at the same time.

Unless these noises are normal, and sosolar have the decency to give me actual fact, I might just return the new ones for a refund and be on the search for another set of batteries.

 

[TheChamp]

Anything better if you want to run a stander fridge and freezer combo than this

View attachment 1037804

Takealot

Takealot

Have you tested how much your standard fridge/freezer pulls at startup? Mine goes slightly above 1000W. If that system is 12V, 1000W will be 83A, which won't be good for a single battery, that's why most inverter manufacturers recommend a minimum amount of AH, my 12V 2000W pure sine wave recommends 400Ah.

 

[wingnut771]

Have you tested how much your standard fridge/freezer pulls at startup? Mine goes slightly above 1000W. If that system is 12V, 1000W will be 83A, which won't be good for a single battery, that's why most inverter manufacturers recommend a minimum amount of AH, my 12V 2000W pure sine wave recommends 400Ah.

It's 24V hence the 2 batteries.

 

[wingnut771]

So my sosolar batteries are for some reason making funny noises under charge, even at float.

Upon calling sosolar they don’t seem to know wtf.

So I have logged an exchange with takealot and they have confirmed they will drop off the replacements and pick up at the same time.

Unless these noises are normal, and sosolar have the decency to give me actual fact, I might just return the new ones for a refund and be on the search for another set of batteries.

Maybe your inverter is not gel compatible? Does your inverter do equalisation cycle as that "boils" the liquid. Gel doesn't have liquid, and equalisation will cause bubbles to form which is very bad for the battery.

 

[johnjm]

Maybe your inverter is not gel compatible? Does your inverter do equalisation cycle as that "boils" the liquid. Gel doesn't have liquid, and equalisation will cause bubbles to form which is very bad for the battery.

My MPPT charged the batteries yesterday, and I had it set on GEL and confirmed no equalisation. Just to be safe as well I set the equalisation to the float charge even though it was disabled.

Still the noise. I don’t know if it’s bubbling, nor who I spoke to at sosolar, but he recommended a 10A charge rate. He also said that 28v is too high which is rubbish because it’s clearly stated on the battery.

It kind of sounds like venting maybe, I don’t know.

If the replacement set does the same I’ll just assume it’s by design.

The UPS float and bulk etc is similar to the MPPT as I’ve been testing it today with a amp meter and my multimeter. So the UPS is fine as well.

 

[Neuk_]

So my sosolar batteries are for some reason making funny noises under charge, even at float.

Upon calling sosolar they don’t seem to know wtf.

So I have logged an exchange with takealot and they have confirmed they will drop off the replacements and pick up at the same time.

Unless these noises are normal, and sosolar have the decency to give me actual fact, I might just return the new ones for a refund and be on the search for another set of batteries.

That is not good, I hope it doesn't happen with the replacement set.

 

[johnjm]

That is not good, I hope it doesn't happen with the replacement set.

If it still does it has to be inherent. It’s not bubbling probably, one can just hear chemical reactions I suppose.

Not looking forward to have to carry them off those heavyweight things. Abs putting new ones up.

Will still use them for the stage 2 now as I reckon takealot will only deliver next week I hope.

 

[wingnut771]

If it still does it has to be inherent. It’s not bubbling probably, one can just hear chemical reactions I suppose.

Not looking forward to have to carry them off those heavyweight things. Abs putting new ones up.

Will still use them for the stage 2 now as I reckon takealot will only deliver next week I hope.

Stage 1 now.

 

[Lupus]

Stage 1 now.

Nope it's back to stage 2

 

[wingnut771]

Nope it's back to stage 2

Yeah - lol, just saw it now. Bunch of RETards this bunch.

 

[Neuk_]

If it still does it has to be inherent. It’s not bubbling probably, one can just hear chemical reactions I suppose.

Not looking forward to have to carry them off those heavyweight things. Abs putting new ones up.

Will still use them for the stage 2 now as I reckon takealot will only deliver next week I hope.

Could it just be settling after an initial charge? Keep us updated...

 

[johnjm]

Could it just be settling after an initial charge? Keep us updated...

Yeah I will. At least the stage two will let me see how these perform abs how they settle down, if that.

I’m floating them on the UPS at the moment, will switch off and let the sun take over tomorrow before my 10am loadshed.

 

[Stuey74]

Just came across an article on why moving off grid might not be a good idea, with comments from Ralph Berold, owner of Sun Ship Technologies. Starts ok with reference to high cost but then you get this:


But there was a second consideration, he said: "Other than the economic point, I believe philosophically it doesn't make sense for us to delink from the grid."

He said that, as citizens, we contributed to services like electricity, water, roads and more.

"If we decide to not offer assistance to public services, then we are not doing ourselves a favour, or larger society.

"We need to remember that our electricity purchases also help to cross-subsidise people who cannot afford electricity sometimes, and also we are contributing to the development of the grid."

Link

 

[Neuk_]

Just came across an article on why moving off grid might not be a good idea, with comments from Ralph Berold, owner of Sun Ship Technologies. Starts ok with reference to high cost but then you get this:


But there was a second consideration, he said: "Other than the economic point, I believe philosophically it doesn't make sense for us to delink from the grid."

He said that, as citizens, we contributed to services like electricity, water, roads and more.

"If we decide to not offer assistance to public services, then we are not doing ourselves a favour, or larger society.

"We need to remember that our electricity purchases also help to cross-subsidise people who cannot afford electricity sometimes, and also we are contributing to the development of the grid."

Link

Personally, I contribute way more than either myself or the citizens of this country benefit, if I can reduce this and as a result and possibly at a stretch reduce the chance for corruption, I will. It would be a different story if there wasn't rampant corruption, misuse of tax payers money, etc. and we lived in a country where tax payer money was being spent with more responsibility and care.

 

[TheChamp]

I think the notion that people will be moving en masses from the grid is over hyped, people scream and swear when there's loadshedding, start threads asking about inverters, batteries and solar and get quotes but as soon as the bout of loadshedding passes they go back to their lives with Eskom, rinse and repeat.

People will continue installing back up systems to reduce the inconvenience but that's pretty much it, truth is most people like their luxury of not counting every kWh, moving off grid is just too much responsibility and discipline for most people.

 

[Neuk_]

I think the notion that people will be moving en masses from the grid is over hyped, people scream and swear when there's loadshedding, start threads asking about inverters batteries and solar and get quotes but as soon as the bout of loadshedding passes they go back to their lives with Eskom, rinse and repeat.

People will continue installing back up systems to reduce the inconvenience but that's pretty much it, truth is most people like their luxury of not counting every kWh, moving off grid is just too much responsibility and discipline for most people.

I agree, I have no plans to go completely off grid at the moment despite having a small ESS that I could expand, for various reasons.

 

[AchmatK]

I think the notion that people will be moving en masses from the grid is over hyped, people scream and swear when there's loadshedding, start threads asking about inverters, batteries and solar and get quotes but as soon as the bout of loadshedding passes they go back to their lives with Eskom, rinse and repeat.

People will continue installing back up systems to reduce the inconvenience but that's pretty much it, truth is most people like their luxury of not counting every kWh, moving off grid is just too much responsibility and discipline for most people.

It's not about moving completely off grid. The people installing a few panels is costing Eskom and will continue to increase. These are the people that actually pay and are big electricity consumers.

Ever single watt in solar panels installed is less revenue for Eskom and municipalities. Be it a single 300w panel to recharge your batteries or 3 000w to take care of daytime loads. It all adds up. Didn't you just buy some panels to recharge your batteries during the day?

I wonder what solar panel sales are currently looking like? I just bought another 1 800w in solar panels to add to my existing bank.

 

[JamesBoy]

Always use user defined. The default settings suck, especially when using lead acid.

Don't worry if you don't know but what settings would you recommend for when using a 24V system with 2 AGM batteries?

I've been using the default settings but recently with these 2.5 hour sessions I've found that the batteries don't appear to re-charge fully because now we're getting an alarm to switch it off after just under an hour while pulling a load of around 300W during that time where before we could use it for over four and a half hours before the power came back on.

 

[johnjm]

Don't worry if you don't know but what settings would you recommend for when using a 24V system with 2 AGM batteries?

I've been using the default settings but recently with these 2.5 hour sessions I've found that the batteries don't appear to re-charge fully because now we're getting an alarm to switch it off after just under an hour while pulling a load of around 300W during that time where before we could use it for over four and a half hours before the power came back on.

Ah? How old are they?

If they aren’t fully charged when you utilise them again for lodshedding you decrease their capacity and you never get it back. Happened to me.

 

[wingnut771]

Don't worry if you don't know but what settings would you recommend for when using a 24V system with 2 AGM batteries?

I've been using the default settings but recently with these 2.5 hour sessions I've found that the batteries don't appear to re-charge fully because now we're getting an alarm to switch it off after just under an hour while pulling a load of around 300W during that time where before we could use it for over four and a half hours before the power came back on.

Have a look at the specs on the side of the batteries, charging volts and charging amps. Too many amps can also damage batteries when charging.

The reason for user settings is so you can set cutoff voltage to 50% (24V) (default setting is dead battery which causes damage (probably something like 21V)), but also to set correct amps and voltages.

So batteries are probably already stuffed.