Interpritation needed

Fe-Wood
Fe-Wood Solar Expert Posts: 96 ✭✭
So I'm looking at the charging chart from Crown Batteries for my specific batteries and trying to adjust my Magnum Energy Inverter Charger and have some interpretation questions.

*Is Constant Current Charging the same as Bulk Charging or Absorb Charging?
*Is Charge Factor the same as Charge Efficiency?

Reading the 2 manuals is like reading Italian and spanish...

How do I obtain the Per Cell Voltage? I'm assuming I stick the positive test leed into one cell and the negative leed into the next one?

Thanks fort he help-

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Interpritation needed

    Bulk is constant current charging.

    Absorb and float are constant voltage charging.

    Instead of a chart of 12/24/48 volt set of charts, they just give you volt per cell numbers and you multiply by 6/12/24 series connected cells for the bank charging voltages and temperature offsets.
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Fe-Wood
    Fe-Wood Solar Expert Posts: 96 ✭✭
    Re: Interpritation needed

    Thanks Bill!
    I didn't ask my question about the per cell voltage right- I want to know how to test the batteries themselves- each cell.
  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Interpritation needed
    Fe-Wood wrote: »
    I want to know how to test the batteries themselves- each cell.
    Don't stick probes, wires etc into the battery fluid, check the voltage only using the normal terminals on the battery for total battery voltage.
    To check battery state of charge, or for a possible bad cell, check the electrolyte SG. If the SG of all cells is not equal, then if it's a flooded battery, do an EQ, then check SG again. A bad cell will show up with bad SG.
  • Ralph Day
    Ralph Day Solar Expert Posts: 1,019 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Interpritation needed

    Don't expect every cell to read the same. The distribution of materials (lead and H2SO4) make for small variations from cell to cell. At least that's been my experience.

    Ralph