Author Topic: Farewell dear friends  (Read 4776 times)

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wpowokal

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Farewell dear friends
« on: January 29, 2011, 08:16:15 AM »
Bit of a sad day here, boxed up some of my dearest friends, unfortunately it comes to all of us at some time.

They are of course batteries that have served me well and are now to be recycled, 71 of the original 104 Fanure X 650 amp H batteries palatalized and ready for the next stage of their life.

I took guardianship of these friends back in late 2001 or early 2002, in their previous life they were connected as a 220v bank to provide emergency oil pumps to four Parsons 60 MW steam turbines, sized to supply those eight pumps for 30 minuets after which they would be flat, but long enough to bring the turbine to rest, then the fun would have begun but not going there.

They were retired because on some batteries one of the two pole posts were broken through the lead going spongy with age, now at something around 800 amps this is important but not at my draw. So I was permitted to "salvage" them for the princely sum of $20 OZ. So they were duly carted home and arranged in 8 banks @ 24 Volts to serve me very well for 9 odd years, making them over 20 years old now, I still have 33 in service or on standby, but as the plates expanded and caused the plastic casings to split it became a marathon to keep up with repairs.

I have put aside funds for a new bank but I am sure I can squeeze another six months out of the remaining batteries.

some of the early failures

First 24  ready

Four pallets ready

The whole battery shed has become an acid cesspoo

This dozy supervisor had his tail run over by the fork lift.
l

 
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zap

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2011, 09:36:07 AM »
Boy that is kind of sad :'(

But for a dollar a year... wow... good investment!

hayfarmer

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2011, 09:59:22 AM »
Electric forklift? if so do you use its battery in your system?

that's what I intended on a ez-go 48v electric truck.

hayfarmer

tanner0441

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2011, 01:33:12 PM »
Hi

DC 220V at 650 AH Working on that would need focused attention. How big was the air gap on the switches or were they oil quenched.  Mind you the turbine generators would want some respect, I used to occasionally work on some 11,000V Vickers dirty water pumps and when we shut one down we had to leave it 48 hour to discharge before taking the covers off.

It is a very impressive battery bank, I take it your off grid or I am going to be sick jealous if it is a hobby set up.

I bet the dog keeps well clear of the lift truck now.

Brian.

wpowokal

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2011, 06:23:24 PM »
Hayfarmer my forklift is petrol.

Bryan, all battery banks at that power station were fused positive and negative  and isolated by a combined fuse switch (CFS) which is not oil quenched, all isolation's were done to a schedule written before you left the office, it was very rare for a battery bank to be isolated and if they were their load would be supplied by the charger or a second bank.

Yes that set up is off grid by choice, supplies the fruit packing shed, even the remaining two banks can run the cool room through the night.

Allan

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Boss

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2011, 09:28:35 AM »
Great pics, and story, albeit super sad. Did Bandit lose his tail over the ordeal?
What is causing the plates to expand and contract so much? Is that normal and the plastic is just getting old, unable to handle the expansion.
I can only imagine the toxic mess when the cases broke. Are you going through a lot of baking soda?
 
Brian Rodgers
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DamonHD

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2011, 10:56:32 AM »
Yep, I'm glad I'm not wading through lead-tainted sulphuric acid!

Rgds

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wpowokal

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2011, 05:50:43 PM »
Brian, The dog survived in tact, the casings crack as the positive plates expand in all directions with age (like humans expand around the middle) not the best photo, but here you can see the positive plates protruding past the lighter negative ones they ultimately short out.



Baking soda/lime both work, I do look forward to having a clean room with new batteries, the original shed was timber framed and the white ants have made a home in it, I expanded the battery side in steel so I can migrate batteries, inverters and switchgear to that side when new batteries are installed.




Somewhere on this board is another diary on when I migrated the batteries from 4 up and 4 down to 8 banks down at floor level, they weigh 60 Kg and became a bit much to keep lifting down for repairs.

Allan
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Boss

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2011, 09:44:16 PM »
That is interesting that the ants don't mind the acid fumes. I wonder if it has to do with their digestive systems? Acid breaks down the cellulose in a similar  fashion?
Brian Rodgers
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Tritium

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2011, 09:54:32 PM »
That is interesting that the ants don't mind the acid fumes. I wonder if it has to do with their digestive systems? Acid breaks down the cellulose in a similar  fashion?


Ants do carry around a supply of formic acid in their sting. Fire ants have a particularly strong dose. That may give them a certain resistance to other acids.

Thurmond 

wpowokal

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2011, 04:00:51 AM »
Well away they went today, a few pics to record the event.




Pic of bulging positive plates


Four pallet loads of batteries later Allan received $1430, not bad for 10 years power storage and a $20 inverstment.

Allan
« Last Edit: January 31, 2011, 04:06:16 AM by wpowokal »
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zap

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2011, 10:18:24 AM »

Four pallet loads of batteries later Allan received $1430, not bad for 10 years power storage and a $20 inverstment.

Allan
Very nice!!!
The average stock market rate of return for the last 10 years is somewhere around 3%... you bested that by a long shot with over 53% return! 

And that's without adding in anything for the work they did for you... but it's also not accounting for any of the work you've done on them.

TomW

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2011, 01:49:24 PM »
So who is the crusty looking fellow running the lift truck?

Hope you counted the beers before and after he was there!

Nice investment on the lot!

Tom

ghurd

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #13 on: January 31, 2011, 03:26:56 PM »
So who is the crusty looking fellow running the lift truck?

Hope you counted the beers before and after he was there!

Not sure I'd mention it if there were beers missing!
The lift truck pic is not very clear, but that guy looks a LOT like someone I saw in a documentary from Down Under,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDTDUPZrag

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Madscientist267

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #14 on: May 07, 2011, 08:48:35 AM »
A little late on this, but it kinda got at me a little...

Wow, disposal isn't always something I think about when it comes to large battery banks, although the last 8D I returned as core should have been a clue that it happens.

I think I almost felt a tear coming on this one. Bitter sweet it is, I'm sure.  :'(

That's a serious amount of storage there... and from the looks of things they definitely were nowhere near trivial to keep them going.

Guess what strikes me the funniest is the ratio of acquisition vs disposal cost... LOL Very nice. ;)

Where's the pics of the new ones?

Steve
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wpowokal

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Re: Farewell dear friends
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2011, 09:27:28 PM »
Steve  that system is still running on two banks of those same batteries, the residual of the original 8 banks.

As I have sold the property I can only hope the new owners carry on with the renewable energy as installed but I rather suspect they will not. Off to new adventures next week.

Allan
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