Battery Efficiency and Ending Amps

Smitty77_7 · February 20, 2017

I've been reviewing some of my settings on our controller, and wanted to ask for opinions on a few settings.

This is a four year old 800AH bank of X's 4 L16's Lifelines. Classic 150 Controller, with he WhzBngJr added.

> Battery Efficiency - I have set at 95%, due to battery age. But thinking I should bump that up to 96-97%? (Input please:)!)

>Ending Amps - I have set to 11.5A. (Using 2% of 800AH would be 16AH, but I wanted to go low enough to allow a bit more charging before the Classic 150 moves to Float based upon Ending Amps. Thinking it would be better to send in more charging then too little, to ensure 100% SOC is reached? (Input please:)!)

Note: Magnum MS2812 is set to Auto for efficiency, and wherever compatible settings are available between the Classic 150 and the Magnum, I set them to the same values. I have the Magnum Charger set to the default Lifeline values. (Which is what Lifeline recommended when I asked them for input.)

TIA for any thoughts, best to all,

Smitty

Yarome · February 20, 2017

Based on the type and age... and the midnight 150... I would keep efficiency set between 94-96%. So you're pretty much right on the money at 95. You "could" bump it to 96, but personally.. I would stay where you are. They have a lot of life left.. but they're no spring chickens. Better low than high.

Ending amps. Anywhere between 8-16 is "textbook". You want to try and push as much as you can during production hours so I might go 8-10. Heat shouldn't be a problem with your L16's, but I would still keep an eye on them the first few charge cycles and then adjust upward if needed.

"better to send in more charging then too little" Correct!

What do your current charge profiles look like? ...and are your set and battery post values the same? There might be some room in there for a little tweaking to ensure you're actually get the best "push" at the terminals.

Smitty77_7 · February 21, 2017

Thanks Yarome.

I've also sent a request for input to Lifeline too. Will share their thoughts/recommendations when I receive it.

On my Classic 150 Controller. I did a full factory reset (Was clearing up a communication problem with the WhxBngJr.) and then went thru the Controller Software Updates to the latest and greatest. Reprogrammed everything. What neglected to do before the factory reset, was download the history. So will be starting over now.

Will monitor the time it takes to reach 100% SOC, and if it is 'timed' Bulk/Absorb or Ending Amps that triggers the shift to Float. Will tune the Ending Hours downward until it the 'timed' to Float is the norm, then adjust EA's until it's triggering Float.

Battery Efficiency by the one to two percentage changes we're talking about, should have minimal impact on the overall charging logic. (Wet Cells in the 84-88% range vs AGM in the 94-98% range are a bit more of a gap.) Lifeline has a recommended yearly test to check/monitor the health of the batteries. Which I admit I've never done. I think when we get back to S&B's at the end of March - I'll follow their steps to determine overall health of this bank. Suspect even at four years of age, they'll test healthier then their age may reflect. They've lived most of their lives in the 75-100% SOC range. One power outage with the heater running and inverter shut off at 55% was the lowest they've ever been. And as I think you, and others, have pointed out. Perhaps the living closer to 100% vs regular cycling, may have caused more impact to them then if I had cycled them frequently down/up to slow sulfating build up. Listening to you vets, I do a monthly drain of power down to about 70%, and let the charging take place back to 100%. Due to our current travel method of more frequent Shore Power to Shore Power traveling. This will change in June, when we'll be using the solar and battery bank boon docking thru much of the Southwest corner of Colorado... Will also be a good tests on the values I end up with on the EA's and BE's settings.

We are again on Shore Power and the MS2812 default Lifeline charging setting. Which when I talked with Lifeline four years ago, they highly endorsed.

One other comment I picked up somewhere along the way. This is an 'art' more then it is a 'science':)! And I'm very much so still a rookie artist in this game...

Best to you, and all,

Smitty

Smitty77_7 · February 22, 2017

Interesting conversation with Lifeline today.

Ending Amps - They recommend .5A per 100A of battery bank. Not the typical 1-2% range mentioned by MidNite (But MidNite does say check with your specific battery manufacturer:)!)

Battery Efficiency - They recommend 94-96%. Felt my current value, now 94%, was fine.

The first gent did stop to consult with another Lifeline pro, when I asked if I should alter any of these values based upon battery bank age? The said not specifically by age, but to monitor my logs and then tweak as needed per my specific battery bank and how it interacts with my controller/panels combination.

So BE 94% and EA at 4A for now. Will have another 4-6 weeks on this trip to monitor how these settings work. Will wait a week, then check the controllers logs to see how things have been cooking:)!

Best to all,

Smitty