Top Ten Battery Do's and Dont's

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Here's a list I found on the Independant Power & Lighting website. The comlete article is at:

www.independent-power.com/battery_dos.html

Any comments to add (or subtract)?

---------------

Do

  1. Size the battery bank to store from 4 to 20 days of average power use.
  2. Recharge batteries to 90% full regularly (every four to seven days).
  3. Perform equalization charge (100% full charge) every 30 days
  4. Use a good metering system. One that is convenient to read and understand.
  5. Use a good quality (glass, temperature compensated) battery hydrometer to occasionally check for full charge and equalized cells. Keep hydrometer clean.
  6. Practice safety: wear rubber gloves, safety goggles, remove jewelry and be very careful of metal tools around batteries (insulate wrenches with electric tape).
  7. Protect people from batteries and batteries from people with a vented battery box or other vented enclosure.
  8. Keep the battery tops clean. Grease posts after cleaning. Rotate end cells to the middle of battery bank and check tightness of all connections once per year.
  9. Keep the batteries at room temperature when practical and use temperature compensation with charging sources.
  10. Replenish electrolyte by adding distilled water after equalize charge.
  11. Consider using a battery DeSulfator. Eliminates sulfation problems.

 

Do Not

  1. Size battery bank too small, or too large. And do not undersize your conductors (battery and inverter cables).
  2. Use batteries not suited for deep cycle use, or your application.
  3. Use more than 80% of battery storage capacity.
  4. Let your batteries stay in a deep discharged state for more than a day. Lead sulphate crystals will begin to harden on the plates. They will become "sulfated" (unless promptly driven off by a full charge) and your batteries will lose storage capacity. See Do's #11
  5. Assume that your batteries are charged by just reading the voltage.
  6. Be afraid to use the battery hydrometer if you really want to know what's going on inside your batteries.
  7. Compromise your systems performance by using undersized connectors and wiring.
  8. Compromise performance by sloppy installation workmanship.
  9. Forget about the safety rules under Do # 6. Also no sparks, or flames near batteries.
  10. Overfill cell electrolyte by adding too much distilled water. See Do's #10.


-- Zach Anderson (z@figure.8m.com), October 30, 1999

Answers

DO NOT
5. Assume that your batteries are charged by
just reading the voltage.

Actually that is the best way for daily use.
I use the hydrometer only occasionally.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 30, 1999.


I would add:

DO buy a set of Hydrocaps for each battery. these are not vented and convert the hydrogen and Oxygen back into water. You can go for MONTHS without adding any water, also you get virtually no Hydrogen vented into whatever the "battery room" is.

Also- the guy from Hydrocap said the ONLY time you should equalize your batteries is when you initially hook them up in series or whatever arrangement you have planned.

so, DON'T equalize them every 30 days. He said that was a big no no. And since all he does is make and sell these Hydrocaps, I would guess he knows what he's talking about. The place I bought the batteries from sure didn't know.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), October 30, 1999.


plonk,

You do need to equalize the batteries any time
the hydrometer test shows a discrepancy between
the batteries. Equalization occurs when the
batteries begin to gas. This occurs at about 14.3
volts.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 31, 1999.


spider-

Equalization charge for batteries (deep cycle) does not occur at 14.4 volts.

It starts at 2.5 volts per cell (15 volts on a 12 volt system)

My Trace Inverter is factory default set up to BULK charge the batteries at 14.4 volts, until they reach that voltage, then the charge tapers off during the absorbtion stage.

A separate "Equalization" charge setting is available which charges the batteries to 15.5 volts.

I'm merely relaying the info I got about not always Equalizing your batteries from someone who deals with the actual charging and discharging of lots of arrays of batteries (the guy from HydroCap).

However, if your batteries sit idle alot, the plates can sulfate to some degree and yes, you would then have to do another Equalization charge.

Also- Equalization charges should ONLY be done on DEEP CYCLE batteries, not on gel cells, ni-cads or SEALED lead acid batteries

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), October 31, 1999.


Some good tips here...and some bunk ones....

"Recharge batteries to 90% full regularly (every four to seven days)".

Happy batteries are charged to full EVERY DAY if possible....Sulfation is the enemy of batts and I want ZERO sulfate crystals on my plates at some time each day. I generally DON'T do equalization charges too often. Instead I try to overcharge my batts by 2% each day...true equalization does put wear and tear on batts (I equalize about 4X per year). I threw my hydrometer away long ago (they are a major opportunity for contaminents to enter the cells) and got a cumulative ampere-hour meter (E-Meter) so I know exactly how well charged my batts are. I also run hydrocaps; by feeling the top of the caps you can tell if one cell is "lazy" by it's relative temp....the caps warm as they convert hydrogen back to water and if one cell isn't gassing the cap remains cool. BTW, hydrocaps are vented caps but remove them (and install the originals) before you equalize (otherwise they will overtemp and melt).

DCK Home Power Mag, www.homepower.com

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), October 31, 1999.



Don, Instead I try to overcharge my batts by 2% each day...true equalization does put
wear and tear on batts (I equalize about 4X per year).

What do you mean by true equalization?
Also I find fully charging my batteries everyday
to be too expensive. I'm looking for a reasonable
middle ground. My first set lasted 11 years and
could have gone longer except that I wanted to
be on top of the new year. :-)

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 01, 1999.


Okay, well what's a "true" equalization is rough to define so I go with Richard (our fearless leader at Home Power) reccomends:

charging an already full battery at a C/20 rate (battery ampere-hour capacity divided by 20 yielding an ampere rate) for 5-6 hours to a voltage of 15.5 or higher (I regularly see 16+ volts when I do this).

If I don't think the weather will give me enough sun to fill the batts I may start the genny for a half hour or so in the morning so that my PV panels can finish the charge and completely fill the batts.

DCK

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), November 01, 1999.


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