EPEVER AGM Settings

[Sutty]

Hello All

New to solar charging, and a new user here, and I may or may not have messed up with my purchases, but it's too late now, so I'll have to make the best of it, and I need some help in doing so.

I contacted EPEVER to ask why there is no AGM charge profile, for my new Tracer 2210-AN charge controller, and, in its absence, what should be the user settings for my AGM batteries? They replied, 'contact the battery manufacturer to confirm, as we cannot be responsible, etc, etc, but, the default profile for sealed should be fine for AGM batteries'.

I also contacted my battery supplier, who gave me the following advice, 'The only settings you need to alter, to suit your AGM batteries, would be to set bulk and absorption to 14.7V and to set float to 13.7V.'

Having spent the last few days reading here, and having found one or two relevant posts, I think I've gleaned that the above advice is largely correct, though I worry if the battery supplier's suggested bulk setting might be a tad high, having read a post in here about gassing? I also wonder if my float is a tad low, having a permanent, average, 6W load. (Nearly always almost exactly 6W), plus the default float value for 'sealed' on the controller is 13.8V anyway.

One further thing I spotted from my reading is that equalisation is not required for AGM, but even if I left that on, it only happens once per month, and the default value is only the same as the supplier's suggested value for bulk anyway, or boost, as I think EPEVER seem to call it, so I can't see how it would matter that much, if at all?

If my understanding is correct, I'm planning, 14.6V for boost, and 13.8V for float, (I read a post in here that 13.8V may help with "top off"). I'm also going to turn equalise off, even though it probably doesn't matter?

I'm also going to go with a slightly conservative LVC for the load output of 11.9V, compared to the default of 11.1V, because if I do end up dragging the batteries down, with my permanent 6W load, at night, perhaps after a few sunless days in a row, I'd rather them not go down as low as 11.1V before disconnecting my load. I'd rather lose my load supply early, than cause damage to the batteries, because turning off my few permanent devices, router, etc, wouldn't be a disaster, as long as they come back automatically, which they will, at the reconnect voltage.

Anyone here see anything wrong with my plan, for when I deploy next Tuesday?

 

[mikefitz]

Seems OK.
Durring the bulk stage the battery voltage will rise to absorbtion boost, volts level, so regard this voltage as a 'target '.
Once boost volts is reached, the charger will hold the voltage constant for the boost duration. The default duration of 2 hours may not be long enough to get to 100% charge, but the float of 13.8 will help.
Ignore Epever SOC readout.

Mike

 

[Sutty]

That's reassuring Mike, thank you very much. I could extend the timed boost phase to 3 hours, if you think that might help. Epever told me themselves to ignore their SOC indicator, lol, but yes, thanks for the confirmation. I also read in here that they told someone else that too, but that they plan revisions to address it.

Most of the time I will be remote from the site, but I have a way to check what will practically be the rest voltage, by use of a mobile phone that I have running up there, which is part of my normal continuous load. Most of the time, the phone connects via my WiFi router, and I control things that way, but if I turn on mobile data, I can still connect to the phone, run the app, and turn off the load, whilst the phone keeps running on battery. If I do this, at sunset, two hours later, I can check in, and get the rest voltage, just to check on things, before turning the load back on, and mobile data off again. It would give me perfect unloaded voltages, but because there is the charge controller itself, it will be pulled down a little in that time. I expect it will be near enough though, because the charge controller itself says it requires less than 12mA, so I wouldn't think that will have too much impact.

I'll go with those planned settings then, and 3 hours for boost duration, if you think that might be worth doing?

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers

Sutty

 

[mikefitz]

If the load is only few watts then boost duration may not need extending. If you can monitor the charge process during the boost duration period, a useful indication of full charge is when the charge current falls below 1 amp per 100Ah of battery, whilst the voltage is at boost volts.

 

[Sutty]

Excellent, thank you. I can check, and once I'm all set up, next week, I'll do that, a good few times, mid morning-ish, to see when I'm getting there. I suppose I'll need to do that on sunny days, which sadly we've had a shortage of recently, lol.

 

[littleharbor2]

If there's an equalize setting on the controller then disable it.
Not all AGM batteries are equal. They have relaxed their limits from earlier versions.
Here's an example. Check the recommended settings for cyclic use.

 

[Sutty]

Thanks, yes, I'm going to disable equalise, as I mentioned in my first post. Probably got lost in the rest of my babble, lol.

 

[Sutty]

Quick update on my installation. All went well, and I seem to be getting enough energy, even on rainy days to keep the batteries topped up, but more time is needed, I suppose. I had asked EPEVER a few questions, some that were also asked here, and one might be helpful for others who are curious about AGM batteries and equalise. I said, "Thank you for the ongoing support. Have I understood you correctly, that GEL battery selection does not enable equalise, and he replied as follows:"

From EPEVER
"You are welcome.
Yes sir, that is correct, the GEL battery type will not enable the equalize charging mode. If you use another battery type, or user, you just need set the boost charging voltage and the time to the same as equalize charging voltage and time, which will also disable the equalize charging mode. If your battery supplier tell you the battery don't need equalize charging please don't let battery enter equalize charging mode."

I think what actually happens, in terms of why equalize is disabled when you set it to the same time and voltage as boost, is that when equalise runs, monthly, it actually does so in place of the normal boost phase. My assumption is that this effectively still happens, but because the settings for equalise are now exactly the same as boost, you simply get your boost phase back, that would otherwise have been dropped. I bet if I watched, or had some way of logging it, the app would still report that equalise was running, albeit with the values appropriate for boost.

I don't know, but that's my guess.

I still couldn't directly use the GEL suggestion he made though because boost is too low for AGM, so I had to go with USER anyway. He also sent the following table, which shows equalise as missing for GEL, but curiously, choosing GEL, still populates both the time and the voltage in the app, but he assures me it does not run for GEL, as you can see above.

Table below:

Hope this helps others, and thanks again for all the help received here.

Cheers

Sutty