I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where users share their mistakes/lessons learned with others.
One of the mistakes I made was fairly simple but had serious consequences. Looking back now there were some big clues I was missing but it took me too long to discover the source of my problem. ..
I have dual Midnite 150 charge controllers on my residential off grid system. In the evenings I would get home and check my battery bank. I would see acid had leaked out of some of the vents. I checked my absorb time settings on each controller and they matched and were correct. The controllers were not in follow me mode at the time but the midnite controller tech support said they should still work in sync if the battery voltage calibration was set to ensure they were each measuring the same voltage of the bank.
So, I focused on the vent caps and got crown battery to send me new ones. That didn't do it. I called them back and asked if they had a different type because the new ones leaked acid just like the old ones. They said I may be overcharging my batteries. Again, I looked at my absorb time setting in each controller and it was set at 3 hours as recommended. I did believe they were overcharging due to higher battery temps. At the time I was not familiar with reviewing the charge controller logs so I had little info on what was going on during the day when I was away.
To make a long story shorter I finally found my problem. The time of day setting on the two controllers was off by 12 hours. They are on a 24 hour clock so if one read 10:00 the other read 22:00. Amazingly I had checked the time settings of each unit but never at the same time to notice my mistake. Each day one charge controller would complete the 3 hour absorb cycle, then a short time later the other controller would hit "12:00 AM" think it was a new day and would perform it's 3 hour cycle. This mistake resulted in overcharging of my batteries for quite some time and reduced their life.
Dual charge controllers? Make sure the time of day in each is set to the same time!
One of the mistakes I made was fairly simple but had serious consequences. Looking back now there were some big clues I was missing but it took me too long to discover the source of my problem. ..
I have dual Midnite 150 charge controllers on my residential off grid system. In the evenings I would get home and check my battery bank. I would see acid had leaked out of some of the vents. I checked my absorb time settings on each controller and they matched and were correct. The controllers were not in follow me mode at the time but the midnite controller tech support said they should still work in sync if the battery voltage calibration was set to ensure they were each measuring the same voltage of the bank.
So, I focused on the vent caps and got crown battery to send me new ones. That didn't do it. I called them back and asked if they had a different type because the new ones leaked acid just like the old ones. They said I may be overcharging my batteries. Again, I looked at my absorb time setting in each controller and it was set at 3 hours as recommended. I did believe they were overcharging due to higher battery temps. At the time I was not familiar with reviewing the charge controller logs so I had little info on what was going on during the day when I was away.
To make a long story shorter I finally found my problem. The time of day setting on the two controllers was off by 12 hours. They are on a 24 hour clock so if one read 10:00 the other read 22:00. Amazingly I had checked the time settings of each unit but never at the same time to notice my mistake. Each day one charge controller would complete the 3 hour absorb cycle, then a short time later the other controller would hit "12:00 AM" think it was a new day and would perform it's 3 hour cycle. This mistake resulted in overcharging of my batteries for quite some time and reduced their life.
Dual charge controllers? Make sure the time of day in each is set to the same time!
