Wrenches, DrakeYou may consider contacting "Batcap" and bank if they have a best practice for the battery configuration, this might be it but at least a starting point. I have had multi string batteries that seamed to like being rotated through the bank, sounds like alot of work and it is but this will swap higher resistance strings for lower ones. I'm sure you know this but each battery has internal resistance to charge and even discharge so rotating them reduces the effect and may in time help to improve the battery life. JerrySent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message --------From: Drake <drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org> Date: 11/20/18 8:41 AM (GMT-08:00) To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Batt Cap AGM Hello Wrenches, An owner of an existing system has a bank of twenty, 100 AH, 12 V Deep cycle batteries of the Batcap
brand. The bank is made up of four sets of 5 batteries in parallel to produce 500 AH battery sets at 12 V. These four parallel sets are then wired in series to give a 48 V nominal bank. The battery voltages vary from around 13 to 15 volts. The bank is about 5 years old. The CEO of Batcap told the system owner that these batteries have lasted up to 30 years in solar applications, so he has high expectations for these batteries being around for a while. My first impulse is to rewire the bank in a normal series - parallel configuration. But there are too many strings to do this without a bus bar. Besides, the batteries are likely damaged, and rewiring them might cause the bank to exhibit unsuspected problems. How much money is worth putting into this bank? $0? The owner seems like a reliable guy who likely hired the wrong installer. He could use some help. What would you do in this situation? Rewire the bank, leave it well enough alone or run for the hills. Thanks, Drake Drake Chamberlin Athens Electric LLC OH License 44810 CO License 3773 NABCEP Certified Solar PV 740-448-7328 http://athens-electric.com/
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