Battery Monitor and/or Multiple temperature sensors

mcgivor

Dave Angelini said:

mcgivor said:

Dave Angelini said:

"when in doubt read the manual"  It is in there to use only one sensor for a reason. If you think you are more in the know than the people who designed the system do it. 
There has to be some sanity here, right?
You are doing the right thing Dicky!

Dave strikes again with yet another vieled condescending comment, a common trait it seems

The purpose of a discussion is to discuss, the manual was consulted, if it had said use one and only one remote temperature sensor, then that would be blatantly clear, perhaps my manual is different from others, this is what my manual states.

Get over it, just because I say something in my way, I have just as much right to that as you have to be sensitive. Report me to Bill

There are also problems over the 15 years of XW and hundreds of installations I have seen that are caused by multiple sensors.

There's nothing to get over on my behalf,  they are merely words, I'm not sensitive personally, but others may and have been offended by such comments. Perhaps your statements are misconstrued as personal attacks even though the intention was not, language is very articulate, a misplaced comma can change the whole meaning of a sentence. 

 Familiarization with a given product gives one an advantage, however complacency of said knowledge can often lead to closed mindedness. We are all here to learn from one another, manuals can often be fallacious, the interpretation of what is stated can often be interpreted differently, which opens the dialog of discussion. Schneider manuals are particularly vague in some areas, lacking definitive guidelines, case in point, if one, and only one, remote temperature sensor is required to prevent complications as you claim,  why not say so.

This forum is, in my opinion, one of the most civil in cyber world,  it's a pleasure to interact with members who may have a diminutive understanding of electrical theroy. Helping is one of the greatest gifts one can offer, especially for free, without intention to receive monetary gain in exchange for knowledge. Some may feel humiliation if not treated the way they expect, we're all strangers to on another after all, so never respond in prejudice, is the implication of what I'm attempting to convey.

Dave Angelini

Move on.... Get over that I like monetary gain. I am a capitalist and dislike socialism. I get what you are trying to convey.
  
Don't use multiple sensors unless you have multiple battery monitors. As Waterwheel said this has been expressed differently over the years. The OP here has multiple strings. That is not the same as multiple battery banks.

"Using more than one Battery Temperature Sensor may result in undefined behavior. The system will accept only one BTS and use it for the system. Other devices that have a BTS connected will generally display a value, but the value may not be correct and may not update."

 Peace is best!

icarus

The cost benefit battery argument again...perpetually.  This has been the question for as long as battery systems have existed.  When I built my small of grid house, the choice was between 4 L-16s or 4 T 105s.  I did a calculation that if the T 105s lasted 5 years and the L 16s with years, they would have been roughly equal in price (as well as total KWH used given my loading). I chose the T-105s for a few reasons, cost be one, weight being the other and the L 16s required more PV to optimally charge.  I am now in year 11 on the T 105, and they are bringing to slowly loose capacity.

Fast forward a few years... I built a very similar system for some folks.  The choice was between genuine Trojan T105s (having “proved the value equation above) or simple Costco GC “deep cycle” batteries.  The former coming it at ~$720 for four all in, the latter coming in a ~$360 all in.  Once again, the cheap ones will win if they only last ~1/2 as long as the Trojans.  I am in year three of that experiment.  This is for a seasonal occupancy, with quite small loading, so it is likely (IMHO) that the batteries will die of old age before they die from being cycled.  I need to wait another 2 years to see if I won that bet.

Fast forward another couple of years.  I build another system, this time also with a short seasonal usage pattern, but with probably more draw per day but for fewer days.  With this system, I went to 24 vdc because I am guessing the clients needs will grow, so I wanted higher voltage to the inverter.  (I would have gone 48vdc, but that would have require double the batteries and double the panels and the client didn’t want to spend the money.  I can add panels any time, and within reason double the batteries.I went with 4 Costco’s  on the theory that these people will probably kill them by over drawing even though I have configed  the system to LVD quite early, but the same logic applies.  If the Costco’s last 1/2 as long, then we are even.  

The other advantage of simple GC batteries is that they are available EVERYWHERE and as such are really cheap.  Not to diss Trojan, or Crown or Rolls, but are they really twice as long lived all else remaining equal?  Big draws, 24/7 365, probably.  Lightly used, maybe not so.  I am going to replace my personal year round system with real T 105s, probably this fall, mostly because I know them so well.

Tony

Estragon

IMHO, the only reason to use L16s vs GCs is capacity.  If you can get what you need from one or two strings of GCs, that's the way I'd go.

Tecnodave

If I had stayed with a smaller inverter I would have stayed with golf cart batteries, but I wanted a 3000 watt plus inverter for power tool use and I do not like parallel strings of batteries I have switched to L-16's as that is the largest battery I can lift without being dependent on someone else. Starting over I would go higher voltage and golf cart batteries. But all my inverters are 24 volt. If I buy a Rosie it will be 48 volt and I may go to a different chemistry of battery, LFP looks the best to me at this point.