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Hot weather and state of charge

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 3:37 pm
by floydster
Hi folks,

My SOC meter is only showing my battery bank as being 89% charged when by now in conditions like today I'd expect it to have reached 100% well before now.

It's a 12volt system with 6*110Ah batteries 300W turbine and 100W of solar panels to charge it. The turbine's spinning well in 14kts and the sun's been shining all day with no clouds. the batteries are at over 13 volts and I've checked and the charge controllers are working fine and pumping out power into the batteries.

It's currently 26C outside and probably even warmer in the shed where the batteries sit. I know the temperature makes a difference but could it affect charging this much?

Also, my SOC meter doesn't have a shunt, it's a smart guage which seems to have been working OK until now :(

Thanks,

Floydster

Re: Hot weather and state of charge

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 10:10 am
by ChrisB
Could be that the SOC meter has just lost sync with the batteries, are the batteries flooded or AGM ??

What currents still being taken by the batteries ?? could it also be that they have sunk down a little low and and are now making up for lost time, for 100%SOC I'd expect the volts to be up near or just above 14.2-14.4 volts , 13 or above aint quite enough really.

If they are flooded units I'd wind up the volts and give'em a bit of a gas, if they are sealed AGM's or similar just push the terminal voltage a bit higher for a while.....just dont go too high :wink:

ChrisB

Re: Hot weather and state of charge

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 8:53 pm
by floydster
Must have been some kind of glitch, maybe something was loose and re tightened while testing. Back up over 14 volts in no time at all and meter showing 100% before I fire up the inverter. Will keep an eye on it though.

Thanks for the info,

Floydster

Re: Hot weather and state of charge

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 6:09 am
by ChrisB
Glad its all sorted 8)

ChrisB