Battery problem

mryimmers
mryimmers Solar Expert Posts: 117 ✭✭✭
Hi Everyone, Well I got my system up and running saturday, and it seemed to be okay, it was a cloudy snowy day so it was hardly making any power. Yesterday I was at cabin later in the day and all seemed well, CC said it had made almost 500wh of power.
Today I was there again, and I noticed very erratic readings on the remote temp sensor. The readings were changing constantly and reading very high, up to 36C and all over below that. I could also hear batteries bubbling pretty good, more than I expected, as array was not putting out that much power.
Not long after CC was showing a fault F104 - too high battery temp or incorrectly set charge points or shorted battery, are listed as the possible problems. Well, its been very cold here (-30C last night) and it was almost -20C when I was standing there looking at it, batteries are in an insulated box, but it was cold in box too.
Charge points are all to trojan specs. So I'm left with.... shorted battery????
Then I realized the gassing sound was only one battery and upon further investigation I found that the gassing battery's partner in the string was frozen. I just picked these batteries up a few days before Christmas, I checked voltage then and three were 6.28 volts and one was 6.29 volts, so I thought that was OK right? I kept them in the garage at a just barely freezing temp, I had my Iota charger on them for several hours 2 days in a row and they seemed to be charged as my kill- a -watt meter said charger was only drawing about 35watts, so I thought they were good. I had not checked SG yet, as I wanted to do it after they had been charged and equalized on CC.
I took SG readings this afternoon when I discovered this, and the frozen battery was reading 1.150, 1.150 & 1.125 not good right? It's partner in the string said 1.290-1.295 (it seemed to have gotten over charged?) the other string of batteries all were right around 1.275. (These are not temp compensated numbers, I've not got that far yet as per figuring that out).
I am at a loss as to what to do. Is this battery shot? I figure trojan will blame me and I'm afraid it's just going to be a bunch of grief. I expected I would be asking you guys some questions, but I wasn't expecting this right off the bat. Sorry for rambling on, but this has got me kind of frustrated. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. I'll get on the phone tomorrow I guess. Thanks.
510 watt pv, TS-MPPT 60, Exeltech XP1100, XP600 & XP250 @ 24V, 4x Trojan 105RE, Trimetric 2030, Yamaha EF2400i gen.

Comments

  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    Welcome to the forum mryimmers.
    Very sorry to hear of your problems. The frozen battery is most likely frozen toast, ruined. The other battery has been overcharged, but hopefully not damaged enough to worry about. Time will tell.
    What do you have for batteries? Make and model?
    What is your battery system voltage?
    How many batteries do you have?
    Is, or was, there any lower voltage load taken off at the midpoint between the two batteries?
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    They should warranty it without question. If it had held the charge it shouldn't have frozen.
  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem
    They should warranty it without question. If it had held the charge it shouldn't have frozen.
    Assuming they were properly wired and no center-tap was draining power off one of the batteries.
    If it had held it's charge, it wouldn't have frozen. Question is WHY didn't it hold it's charge.
  • mryimmers
    mryimmers Solar Expert Posts: 117 ✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    Hi Waynefromnscanada, I have 4 trojan T105RE @12volts, I don't even have my inverter hooked up yet, no power has even been drawn from these batteries yet. I just got system up and running the other day (the charging part)
    Blackcherry04, I sure hope they do, but these things have a way of becoming a huge pain. The batteries shipped from california I believe, I'm in northwestern ontario, I hope they don't expect me to send it there for them to check, I guess I'll find out.
    510 watt pv, TS-MPPT 60, Exeltech XP1100, XP600 & XP250 @ 24V, 4x Trojan 105RE, Trimetric 2030, Yamaha EF2400i gen.
  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    OUCH! Wishing you good luck getting the battery replaced. Hopefully they will do the right thing and replace it.
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem
    mryimmers wrote: »
    Hi Waynefromnscanada, I have 4 trojan T105RE @12volts, I don't even have my inverter hooked up yet, no power has even been drawn from these batteries yet. I just got system up and running the other day (the charging part)
    Blackcherry04, I sure hope they do, but these things have a way of becoming a huge pain. The batteries shipped from california I believe, I'm in northwestern ontario, I hope they don't expect me to send it there for them to check, I guess I'll find out.
    I would think you could get a dealer up there to help you out on it. My story would be it was part of a package deal. It's a problem shipping batteries around. Start with the dealer and then go to Trojan. They surly have a dealer up there somewhere where they can swap it out for you.
  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem
    I would think you could get a dealer up there to help you out on it. My story would be it was part of a package deal. It's a problem shipping batteries around. Start with the dealer and then go to Trojan. They surly have a dealer up there somewhere where they can swap it out for you.
    A surly dealer may not be all that helpful. :-)
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.
  • mryimmers
    mryimmers Solar Expert Posts: 117 ✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    Hahaha, I just got that now:p
    510 watt pv, TS-MPPT 60, Exeltech XP1100, XP600 & XP250 @ 24V, 4x Trojan 105RE, Trimetric 2030, Yamaha EF2400i gen.
  • mryimmers
    mryimmers Solar Expert Posts: 117 ✭✭✭
    Re: Battery problem

    Hopefully I have my battery problem solved, I charged the offending battery by itself at 6 volts for 14 hours and after that it now seems to be acting normal. SG is up the same as the rest, and I put it and it's partner on a small inverter and load for a number of hours and they recharged normally, so I hope that problem is behind me. I put them back in service yesterday. Other wise the system seems to be working very well, I'm very happy with it. My dealer and Trojan were very helpful also and working with me to try to fix the situation. I learned that I have a "master distributor" locally, and he says he will fix me up if this battery continues to be a problem.
    510 watt pv, TS-MPPT 60, Exeltech XP1100, XP600 & XP250 @ 24V, 4x Trojan 105RE, Trimetric 2030, Yamaha EF2400i gen.