Author Topic: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?  (Read 2149 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

birdhouse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 919
  • Country: us
  • Portland, OR USA
one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« on: October 15, 2012, 10:30:08 PM »
hello-
i went by my ranch neighbors today because he said his inverter keeps spitting offline. 

his 8+ year old battery bank consists of eight L-16's in a parallel/series arrangement for 24V. 

the batteries measure between 6.2 and 6.7, except for one, it measured 3.2.  guessing it's bad.  this bad battery gets the inverter to kick out due to the low voltage cut-off.   

what's best from here, one new L-16 and limp along for another year or two, or replace the whole bank right now? 

adam

Volvo farmer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1026
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2012, 11:14:40 PM »
Same thing happened to me this year, but luckily as spring was approaching. I found a used L16 for scrap price and it lived about three months before it died, then I lost another one of my original bank. I halved the bank and lived off half capacity for another few months before replacing the whole bank at the end of the summer.

Every bit of advice I got told me that a new battery would not play nicely with old batteries, especially in a series-parallel string. The internal resistance of a new battery is much different than the old ones, and the whole bank gets out of balance. However, I never tried it to see what would happen. 

With winter approaching, it is a bad time to be living off half capacity, but if your neighbor wasn't daily cycling his old bank below 25%, he could conceivably live off half capacity ant 50% DOD and have a few spare batteries to substitute in if another one dies. My experience was that I had a cascading string of failures after my first one and I'm glad I didn't buy one new battery to try and extend the life of the bank, because it would have been wasted money.
Less bark, more wag.

phil b

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 304
  • Country: us
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2012, 11:19:55 PM »
If it were my battery bank, I'd trade in the old non-working one for new.

Use the remaining good used batteries in parallel with a new bank.

Just what I would do.
Phil

birdhouse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 919
  • Country: us
  • Portland, OR USA
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2012, 12:03:14 AM »
VF-  i hear what you're saying.  the family doesn't know this from that.  the only person who know anything is the grandfather, and he's getting older.  he was the one that put the system together years ago, and he's becoming a less reliant source on what/when is really happening.  the teenagers use the cabin unsupervised, and i'm guessing they drain it low, then leave...  maybe even in a winter situation where the panels are covered by snow... 

i proposed to them a smaller battery bank with an auto start genset....  set to start at 23.8/9...  a failsafe to an extent...  the bank could even be eight t-105RE's  and do them fine so long as the genset is full of gas!

phil-  i'm not sure it's such a good idea to use old and new...  sounds problematic to me! 

adam

Mary B

  • Administrator
  • SuperHero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3177
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2012, 04:13:29 PM »
Old in parallel with new is okay, but it would have to be a complete bank of 4 old batteries paralleled with the new.

XeonPony

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 903
  • Country: ca
  • Sanity is over rated!
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2012, 01:43:01 PM »
quick fix? Change the locks and smack the kids up said the head for killing the bank, half the batteries and as one's die in the half bank use the remaining good ones till non left, then get some good new ones and toss the generator in, and don't give the kids the keys!
Ignorance is not bliss, You may not know there is a semie behind you but you'll still be a hood ornimant!

Nothing fails like prayer, Two hands clasped in work will achieve more in a minute then a billion will in a melenia in prayer. In other words go out and do some real good by helping!

ghurd

  • Super Hero Member Plus
  • *******
  • Posts: 8059
Re: one L-16 bit the dust, what now?
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2012, 09:36:05 PM »
Might try calling around to the wholesalers, or larger retailers, of real batteries (not wally or car parts stores).

You need a matching-ish battery?  Meaning a used battery would be fairly suitable?

Imagine this:  You buy a whole new bank.  Core charge.  How many of your trade-ins are 'bad'?
A few bucks, a 12-pack, and a replacement core for the core you took might work wonders?
There were times it worked for me.
G-
www.ghurd.info<<<-----Information on my Controller