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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: SOC
    Posted: 21 Jul 2020 at 5:37am
Wow. That's a cool idea. Why waste all that energy?

New charge controller will be here Friday. As well as temperature probe. Should be interesting. I can find no way to reset or change controller parameters.
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jul 2020 at 5:31am
Those are exactly what you would expect. Your batteries and loads are fine. You're just consuming energy making O2 and H2 out of water. Look at it this way, once your batteries are charged you don't care what happens to the additional energy, its wasted anyway. The issue is battery maintenance and longevity, not energy consumption or production. 

If you wanted to do something interesting you could make a diversion charge controller which instead of shutting off the solar output diverted it to run the fridge once your batteries reach full charge. Off grid homesteaders often do that sort of thing with excess solar or wind energy. 
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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jul 2020 at 5:22am
Thanks offgrid. I'm not ready to throw in the towel.

BTW, 12 hours since I disconnected solar. No loads in pod save CO detector.

Voltmeter shows 12.68v
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jul 2020 at 5:18am
Originally posted by fwunder

Just a late nite comment...

I have a friend who refuses to try solar. He says it's tooo much voodoo. He's not totally wrong. We still need more standards and understandings. That said, I'm gonna figure this out, ....

Not at all. Solar is the simplest energy source you can have, Aim it at the sun and it makes electricity. That's it. Lasts forever. No fuel or maintenance. 

Try that with anything else. I'm rebuilding an old Black and Decker wood chipper right now. Magneto coil, ground connections, spark plug gap, carb with a choke, throttile and an air vane governor. Tiny little carby and it has about 8-10 mechanical connections coming off it with springs and levers and cams. Can't remember where they all go and can't find an assembly diagram. StarAnd that's without even going into the engine itself. Talk about voodoo.

Solar has tons of codes, regs, and standards. It's has its own whole article in the national electric code. Its own UL listing standards. And a whole array of international reliability and safety standards. I know them well and was a co-author on many of them. Solar is pretty much regulated to death actually. New technologies generally are. Do you think Thomas Edison could get the light bulb socket approved for residential use if he invented it today? Way too big a safety hazard, it would have to be redesigned to pass the UL articulated finger test.  LOL


The issue you're having right now is a battery issue not a solar issue. Lead acid batteries do contain a bit of voodoo for sure. I don't think there is anything actually wrong with your system other than you should see if you can reset the charge voltage cutoff lower, 14.7 is too high. I have the same problem with my WFCO converter, it overcharges my batteries as well. 
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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 8:31pm
Just a late nite comment...

I have a friend who refuses to try solar. He says it's tooo much voodoo. He's not totally wrong. We still need more standards and understandings. That said, I'm gonna figure this out, ....
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Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 6:22pm
Ok! Let's just step back a bit an let everything try to get back to some kind of baseline.

I've disconnected solar and converter/charger is disconnected. I'll monitor voltage and in a day or two I should have hydrometer and new controller. We'll go from there.

You guys are great! It will fun trying to figure this out! 
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Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 5:39pm
Hold on a bit. I don't think charging at 14.7 is ok, especially in hot weather. The voltage should be lower. 

Read this: https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery/subscribe_thx

I just said that is what I think is happening. If you look at the energy budget it takes a lot of energy to dissociate water, 51 MJ per Kg to be precise. 30AH at 14.7V is 441 WH which is 1.6 MJ. So one day's worth of overcharging would result in dissociation of 0.07 lbs of water. Not even noticeable. You'd have to go a couple  weeks like that or longer before you needed to add water. 

You will never get actual boiling of electrolyte in a battery, what you see is always just gassing. A little is good because it keeps the electrolyte mixing, too much is too much. 
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 4:46pm
Thanks Old Dawg! I'm going to disconnect solar shortly and just let everything sit for day or two without charger on and fridge on AC. Let's see how the batteries end up after 24-48 hours. If there is a phantom draw, it should show up.

Meanwhile, I just opened up the batteries and, sure enough, they are bubbling. Not boiling, but bubbling. Measured with IR they are currently @ 92.5 degrees.
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Olddawgsrule View Drop Down
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Posts: 1014 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 4:39pm
Originally posted by fwunder

I think offgrid hit on it. It's not the pod or batteries. It's the controller thinking it's giving the batteries what they want. They are just farting out what's being pumped in and going about their business. As long as they are not boiling over and electrolyte level is good, it's OK.

Will be interesting to test side-by-side with new PWM controller and temperature probe I have coming.



Once again, OG and I have a different approach.. nothing new. That draw should not be taken lightly, no matter what I or anyone else states as 'okay'. Do your diligence and find the draw 

The stock rPod converter/charger has it's issues, yet haven't heard of this one till now. The battery will only take what it can, resistance comes into play. I'm of a belief that amperage is consumed, not distributed aimlessly. Current can not travel without an appliance to receive. 

I'd set all else down and start with just the batteries. Shall we see where the short is? 
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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2020 at 4:23pm
I think offgrid hit on it. It's not the pod or batteries. It's the controller thinking it's giving the batteries what they want. They are just farting out what's being pumped in and going about their business. As long as they are not boiling over and electrolyte level is good, it's OK.

Will be interesting to test side-by-side with new PWM controller and temperature probe I have coming.
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
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