Hi Bruce,

Please explain "feeding it properly". Charging any lead acid battery slowly 
actually preserves battery life. As long as you are achieving the recommended 
charge voltage (temperature compensated) for long enough time, and reaching 
100% SoC regularly, you are caring for the battery.

At 82kWh battery capacity and 6.5kW PV, the customer may have a hard time 
getting to 100%. You did not mention, but I HOPE you have a battery capacity 
meter in the system. It's mandatory if they want to care for the battery. Since 
the customer has a small generator, they need to realize the limitations and 
reduce their loads during generator time so you can use the full output.

Larry

On Feb 7, 2014, at 11:46 PM, br...@willpowerelect.com wrote:

Hi All,

3 VFX 3648
2 FM 80
6.5 kw solar
12 kw generator
PSX 240 on generator output and VFX stacking
Mate 3
HUP 1690 ah

System design considering 45 amp charge current from each VFX totaling 135 
amps. (135 x ~55v = 7.42kw)  Potential charge current from 2 arrays and FM 
80's, 90 - 100 amps. On a good day, reasonable to expect 200+ amps?
Have not been able to exceed 90 amps for more than 30 minutes, with the 
generator putting out about 9 kw before it's 70 amp 2pole breaker trips. L1 42 
amps, L2 37 amps. 5 amps neutral. Load banked to 12.3 kw (51 amps @ 240v) 
resistive without breaker trip.
I have had to dial back the maximum charge current in the Mate 3 to 12 amps 
each on two of the inverters (L1 and L2) and 8 on inverter 3 to keep the 
generator from tripping out when customer turns on the microwave or coffee pot. 
In effect, 42 amps charge @ 240 v = 7.6 kw. At the battery, I'm only seeing 80 
amps of charge current. Running loads are typically less than 1 kw but there 
has been a of construction going on with chop saws and compressors creating 
annoying spikes that are easily handled by the inverters when the generator is 
off.
I don't want to kill this new battery by not feeding it properly! I would have 
put in a larger generator, but the owner bought the 12 kw before deciding on 
the new battery. I thought the 12 would be merely adequate, but not so....
Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Bruce Fiero-RMI

<sigimg0.jpeg>



"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope 
we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." T. 
Edison, 1931
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