ron_jeremy
New Member
I have plans to be out of the country for 6 months but am concerned about leaving the battery bank unattended. While I'm away there will be zero loads and the Trace SW4024 inverter will be turned off, and I will also put a full charge into the batteries (via generator) & top them off with water just before I leave.
Current system is made up of:
I am planning on turning off the Xantrex charge controller and only using the Victron being fed by 3 x 350W panels. My thought is to set the Victron charger to 27.2 volts across all charging parameters (bulk, absorption, & float). Would this be enough to prevent unnecessary gassing of the batteries? Should I use an even lower voltage and go further and limit the charger output to say something around 10A?
Thoughts?
Below is some basic info on my batteries (from manufacturer):
Table 1: Recommended Voltage and Current settings for recharging Davidson Batteries
Safe Operating Voltage
Another result of the special formulation and design of these long lasting deep cycle batteries is that they tend to operate at lower voltages than most higher specific gravity batteries, thus the safe operating voltage range of Davidson batteries is lower than most other batteries.
It is quite normal and safe to operate your batteries as low as 2 Vdc per cell5. They should always be recharged when they reach a standing voltage of less than 1.975 per cell6. Table 2 shows the conversion of Volts per cell settings to 12, 24 and 48 Vdc values.
Table 2: Converting Volts per cell to battery bank voltage.
Current system is made up of:
- 12 x 2V 960AH FLA batteries (approx. 17 years old)
- 3 x 350W panels connected to a Xantrex 150V/60A charge controller
- 3 x 350W panels connected to a Victron 150V/60A charge controller
- Trace SW4024 24V inverter
I am planning on turning off the Xantrex charge controller and only using the Victron being fed by 3 x 350W panels. My thought is to set the Victron charger to 27.2 volts across all charging parameters (bulk, absorption, & float). Would this be enough to prevent unnecessary gassing of the batteries? Should I use an even lower voltage and go further and limit the charger output to say something around 10A?
Thoughts?
Below is some basic info on my batteries (from manufacturer):
Table 1: Recommended Voltage and Current settings for recharging Davidson Batteries
Safe Operating Voltage
Another result of the special formulation and design of these long lasting deep cycle batteries is that they tend to operate at lower voltages than most higher specific gravity batteries, thus the safe operating voltage range of Davidson batteries is lower than most other batteries.
It is quite normal and safe to operate your batteries as low as 2 Vdc per cell5. They should always be recharged when they reach a standing voltage of less than 1.975 per cell6. Table 2 shows the conversion of Volts per cell settings to 12, 24 and 48 Vdc values.
Table 2: Converting Volts per cell to battery bank voltage.
