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Source for Equalization

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Madscientist267:
Equalization is very 'wasteful' in the sense that a lot of energy goes into the battery that doesn't get stored for later use.

Because so much extra energy is needed to complete the process, not every RE system is up to the task, and may require a supplemental source of power while the batteries are being equalized.

Where do you get this energy from when you equalize your bank?

Please only include energy for the purposes of equalization in your response.

RE includes anything that does not come from the grid or fossil fuels.

Alcohol (if you produce it yourself), woodgas, and biodiesel, as well as pedgen, hand crank, or even gerbil (if it works!) - all fall under RE.

If I've left something out, feel free to add on. ;)

Steve

DamonHD:
I use gel SLAs, so don't equalise.  There's always gotta be one!

Rgds

Damon

Madscientist267:
LOL yeah, many possibilities... It's hard to think of them all for a poll... I spent like a day trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to word it to get the best results.

On that same note, ATM, after 5 days, there's only 11 voters.

Surely, there are more than 11 FLA banks out there in use...  ;)

Steve

dnix71:
I just kept adding panels until I hit float every day except under really bad conditions. Then I added batteries to get me over the weak days.

Madscientist267:
LOL I think that's the 'disease' part of all this hahaha

Since money is tight ATM, I have fallen into a nook of squeezing every nanowatt out of what I got.

I even went as far as to make a little mod to my (now) primary dump controller so that I'm wasting as little as possible.

I put a switch in it to select between the traditional dump load and an external 'dump gate' as I call it. Rather than just siphoning off the extra juice and getting rid of it as heat, I dump it into the 8D. My general direction over the past couple of weeks has been to use a smaller battery for primary storage so that full charges are more of a daily occurrence. A 220AH battery is a little bit much for just 60W of panel; 36AH is much better suited, not to mention fits into the 'portable' category a bit easier. :)

In the event the 8D does fill completely up, which does happen, a secondary dump controller gets rid of the surplus.

It has a minor drawback; as the 8D approaches 13.8V, and beyond, its ability to clamp gets less and less as the internal impedance rises. The result is that the 36AH set floats a little high (14.65V), even though the controller is set to 14.3V. This is down from 14.4 since summer is essentially here, and they are of the SLA variety (2x18AH).

Steve

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