Hi all,
Firstly some experience and secondly a question on lead carbon batteries, as it seems to be very hard to get a straight answer on these things!! Quick background is that I have been living totally off grid for 5 to 6 years and have relied on 2 2x6 volt 430 ah FLA battery banks in series to get 12 volts which I have then inverted to 240 to run computer and lights, I also run three camp fridges but they all have their own circuits.
Now that the money situation has eased somewhat (dont get divorced peoples) and I had been looking to upgrade my systems a bit, here in Australia there is a company called Commodore Solar that are selling their own branded 2v 1000ah lead carbon batteries which are a drop in replacement for my FLA system (did not want lithium as I would have to replace the whole system) Sooo I went ahead and purchased 6 of these to create a 12 volt bank to run my little abode, now first of all WOW I now have real power!! Second, I have them hooked up to 2 x 250watt 24v panels through a cheapy (Kickass) MPPT charge controller with the intention of connecting another 2 panels that I have as my charge controller can theoretically take 1050 Watts of 24v panels but as I have been watching what is going on I may have to change my mind.
The charge controller is rated at 40amps and the other day where I had run the batteries hard for the first time overnight the next day the charge controller was showing it was pulling 32amps off the 2x250 watt 24v panels!!..........First of all is that even possible?? And second of all I have noticed that on a regular basis I am getting anywhere between 26 to 28 amps charge rate showing through the charge controller and to the point it was heating my wiring up from the solar panels to the controller (which I have since replaced)
Now here is the question, are these batteries capable of pulling more power in to recharge than a FLA? Because I have an identical set up on one of the FLA banks and the most I have ever see it pull was 18 amps with a total of 102amp hours for the day whereas the lead carbon bank was pulling a maximum of 32amps and 177 amp hours for the day then it hit float charge with another hour or so of sun to go!
I have the charge parameters set manually for the lead carbon bank as a gel battery bank as that appears to be the closest charge rate match but again this took quite a while to even get that information (come from the victron forum) Are these batteries really the super capacitator batteries as they have been touted as? I have to say I have only had these now for a month or so but their performance is eye opening compared to my other system especially their ability to "pull in power" and it looks like I am going to have to upgrade the charge controller before I add the other panels otherwise things could get a little messy!!
Firstly some experience and secondly a question on lead carbon batteries, as it seems to be very hard to get a straight answer on these things!! Quick background is that I have been living totally off grid for 5 to 6 years and have relied on 2 2x6 volt 430 ah FLA battery banks in series to get 12 volts which I have then inverted to 240 to run computer and lights, I also run three camp fridges but they all have their own circuits.
Now that the money situation has eased somewhat (dont get divorced peoples) and I had been looking to upgrade my systems a bit, here in Australia there is a company called Commodore Solar that are selling their own branded 2v 1000ah lead carbon batteries which are a drop in replacement for my FLA system (did not want lithium as I would have to replace the whole system) Sooo I went ahead and purchased 6 of these to create a 12 volt bank to run my little abode, now first of all WOW I now have real power!! Second, I have them hooked up to 2 x 250watt 24v panels through a cheapy (Kickass) MPPT charge controller with the intention of connecting another 2 panels that I have as my charge controller can theoretically take 1050 Watts of 24v panels but as I have been watching what is going on I may have to change my mind.
The charge controller is rated at 40amps and the other day where I had run the batteries hard for the first time overnight the next day the charge controller was showing it was pulling 32amps off the 2x250 watt 24v panels!!..........First of all is that even possible?? And second of all I have noticed that on a regular basis I am getting anywhere between 26 to 28 amps charge rate showing through the charge controller and to the point it was heating my wiring up from the solar panels to the controller (which I have since replaced)
Now here is the question, are these batteries capable of pulling more power in to recharge than a FLA? Because I have an identical set up on one of the FLA banks and the most I have ever see it pull was 18 amps with a total of 102amp hours for the day whereas the lead carbon bank was pulling a maximum of 32amps and 177 amp hours for the day then it hit float charge with another hour or so of sun to go!
I have the charge parameters set manually for the lead carbon bank as a gel battery bank as that appears to be the closest charge rate match but again this took quite a while to even get that information (come from the victron forum) Are these batteries really the super capacitator batteries as they have been touted as? I have to say I have only had these now for a month or so but their performance is eye opening compared to my other system especially their ability to "pull in power" and it looks like I am going to have to upgrade the charge controller before I add the other panels otherwise things could get a little messy!!