Tellico
New Member
On March 21 we received our new EG4 rack with six 100 amp hour 51,2 volt modules. We replaced 8 six volt 430 amp hr L16 style flooded lead acid batteries. Shipping from Texas to Tennessee was fast and via R&L Carriers, the best in the business from my experience. All items were well packaged with no damage.
We have been off-grid since 2015, with 9000W PV feeding two Outback FX3048 inverters which are not connected with comms to the new EG4 batteries. We are now running our generator through the 100A EG4 Chargeverter so that we no longer are subjecting our loads to distorted generator power.
We are relieved to at last be free of the nightmare of lead acid batteries. We run more over-night loads than most off grid folks because of our 3D printers which often need to run 24 hrs straight.
We often lamented the need to switch from clean inverter power to dirty generator power. This problem was resolved by the new Chargeverter. We are now running our generator at max power which delivers 90 amps Chargeverter output. Any higher setting trips the 5700W generator circuit breaker.
The Lifepower4 cells appear to be well balanced and high quality. It took 5 days to dial in our two Outback FM80s so that the high voltage alarm would not trip. The BMS reduced the State of Health from 100% to 99.8% during this time. If the BMS is protecting the batteries, how can this happen?
The only abnormal behavior of these new batteries is the wildly drifting SOC readings, currently 22% spread and getting wider by the day. All the 96 cells have closely matched voltages and we have no reason to believe that we have any hardware issues. The integration in the software seems to be the problem. What happens when 50% state of actual charge hits 0% indicated? I have emailed Sig Sol with attached screen shots with no response. I also called and talked to a rep who suggested I rotate the modules regularly. I don't think a physical solution is correct for a software problem.
Unless we receive guidance from SS we will watch voltages and ignore SOC readings. Our current policy is to run the generator when the modules fall to 52.0 volts, which correlates roughly to 40% SOC AFAIK. Other than this SOC issue, I would 100% endorse these new batteries. I would suggest that most customer issues could be resolved with a more comprehensive owners manual. Instead of ramping up customer service, SS should hire a technical writer to flesh out the current skeleton manual.
We have been off-grid since 2015, with 9000W PV feeding two Outback FX3048 inverters which are not connected with comms to the new EG4 batteries. We are now running our generator through the 100A EG4 Chargeverter so that we no longer are subjecting our loads to distorted generator power.
We are relieved to at last be free of the nightmare of lead acid batteries. We run more over-night loads than most off grid folks because of our 3D printers which often need to run 24 hrs straight.
We often lamented the need to switch from clean inverter power to dirty generator power. This problem was resolved by the new Chargeverter. We are now running our generator at max power which delivers 90 amps Chargeverter output. Any higher setting trips the 5700W generator circuit breaker.
The Lifepower4 cells appear to be well balanced and high quality. It took 5 days to dial in our two Outback FM80s so that the high voltage alarm would not trip. The BMS reduced the State of Health from 100% to 99.8% during this time. If the BMS is protecting the batteries, how can this happen?
The only abnormal behavior of these new batteries is the wildly drifting SOC readings, currently 22% spread and getting wider by the day. All the 96 cells have closely matched voltages and we have no reason to believe that we have any hardware issues. The integration in the software seems to be the problem. What happens when 50% state of actual charge hits 0% indicated? I have emailed Sig Sol with attached screen shots with no response. I also called and talked to a rep who suggested I rotate the modules regularly. I don't think a physical solution is correct for a software problem.
Unless we receive guidance from SS we will watch voltages and ignore SOC readings. Our current policy is to run the generator when the modules fall to 52.0 volts, which correlates roughly to 40% SOC AFAIK. Other than this SOC issue, I would 100% endorse these new batteries. I would suggest that most customer issues could be resolved with a more comprehensive owners manual. Instead of ramping up customer service, SS should hire a technical writer to flesh out the current skeleton manual.
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