Solar and Lifeline
Hi y’all First thanks to all who have tried to help with this project I finally got my Renogy system up and running. 4 -100 watt panels on the roof. 30amp mppt controller, 2000w pure sine wave inve...
Forum Discussion
Always enjoy reading posts here, a fine cast of 'character's' for sure:)! (That, was intended as a complement!).
I won't repeat the full story of my opportunity to learn (Burn as you learn! (Or in my case: Burned as I learned!), with my bank of X's 4 L16's Lifeline. Many of the posters in this thread, and a few members of IRV2 too, helped me thru the phases of:
-What the heck happened?
-No, this can't be true?
-What do you mean Smart Chargers, are not all that smart!
-Realization that I was lucky to only have two feet, or more would had been blown off by 'operator error'.
-Ouch, this is going to be expensive!!!
The short of it, is I walked my bank of L16's down by constantly undercharging. My bank was oversized enough for day to day needs, that it was not until they'd walked down quite aways - that I started to see 'Something ain't right!'. (Combo of doing what I thought was the right thing, based upon the info I had at that time. And a willingness to trust the logic programmed in by the engineers on my specific Smart Charger...). End result, with good tech support from Magnum and Lifeline (And sanity checks and pearls of wisdom from here and IRV2.) - it was determined the bank were shot at about 5 1/2 years. Lifeline made me an offer I could not refuse, and showed the character of the company in doing so, and I replaced the bank with exact duplicate!!
OP - You have what you have. And it does sound like you have not damaged them beyond reasonable recovery. Lifeline calls equalizing - conditioning. So I'd agree with earlier input to get your battery bank back up to where it is truly fully charged. Take out and take home and use a stand alone old fashion charger if needed. Get them to fully charged, then run a full Conditioning run on them, to shake off any sulfation build up.
You already have your solar panels. Sure you might be able to add more. But I also agree with the input here, to not give up on the bank of batteries you have, and or your desire to go use your rig. Do watch Craigslist for a good buy on a smaller generator. Honda, Yamaha - whatever.
Do get yourself one more good quality purchase of a stand alone charger, the one MW recommends is fine. And yep, do run it. If maybe not a night, and you have some good sunshine, perhaps get a good bulk/absorb charge into the battery in the AM - and see if the solar can top things off. If not, then hit the bank again in the evening. (Many people seem to due so when running AC to cool things off in hotter climates, or to say cook and use a microwave.).
Do make it habit of investing the costs of fuel, to run that generator enough to get back to fully charged on a periodic basis. The 3 days to as high as you can get it, and then the 4th day to fully charged - would be for sure better then what you have been doing:)!
------
Going back to me, and what I've done differently. I've reset the Magnum MS2812 parameters to the best options I can, based upon software limitations. (Both for usage while out and about in the RV, and also for while in storage and 'maintaining' mode.). I've also tuned my MidNite Classic 150 Controller, and have enabled the WhzBngJr module's capability to end charge based upon Finishing Amps.
The changes to the MS2812 and Classic 150 have been working well so far.
But the final change I made to my maintenance of the new bank, is to 'goose' the bank every 4-6 weeks (Depending upon usage. If going park to park and not really drawing down on the house bank. I do this every 4 weeks. If boon docking and 'cycling' the battery bank, I move it out to 6 weeks.) I run a conditioning cycle.
MW mentioned the 90% of premature failure of AGM's, is due to consistent undercharged conditions. This a common theme of my research from 'How the heck did I ruing my bank!'. On a combo of RV/Boating/Offgrid homes/cabins forums. I've also read many threads about a certain poster here, who has kept his Northstar AGM (Thin plates, as I recall:)!) healthy and supportive of his usage - much longer then is the norm of most of mere mortals....
Lithiums? Sure, in the future (As much for reduction of weight, as in the ability to not fully charge.). Probably Drop In's, but who knows, may go with a custom cell by cell built bank that fits the eventual space I determine will be utilized. (If Drop In's. Will go in the existing basement, which will be well insulated and protected from cold, and have already determined how I can install a few pancake fans to push/pull Air Conditioned air from inside of the coaches rear bedroom. If not drop in's, will face the wrath of the DW, and place them under out bed, and out of the way of the rear slide out mechanism. But, this is directly over the engine, and heat gain is a reality - that mid size block of diesel engine, heat mass does take along time to cool down. So, not sure yet where or what I'll install.) But I'm hoping this is another 5-7 years away. Things are consistently evolving on the Lithium world, some price drops too - so we'll see what is going on when the time comes!
I wish you good luck on your bank, and have some fun too! Best to you, and all,
Smitty
I won't repeat the full story of my opportunity to learn (Burn as you learn! (Or in my case: Burned as I learned!), with my bank of X's 4 L16's Lifeline. Many of the posters in this thread, and a few members of IRV2 too, helped me thru the phases of:
-What the heck happened?
-No, this can't be true?
-What do you mean Smart Chargers, are not all that smart!
-Realization that I was lucky to only have two feet, or more would had been blown off by 'operator error'.
-Ouch, this is going to be expensive!!!
The short of it, is I walked my bank of L16's down by constantly undercharging. My bank was oversized enough for day to day needs, that it was not until they'd walked down quite aways - that I started to see 'Something ain't right!'. (Combo of doing what I thought was the right thing, based upon the info I had at that time. And a willingness to trust the logic programmed in by the engineers on my specific Smart Charger...). End result, with good tech support from Magnum and Lifeline (And sanity checks and pearls of wisdom from here and IRV2.) - it was determined the bank were shot at about 5 1/2 years. Lifeline made me an offer I could not refuse, and showed the character of the company in doing so, and I replaced the bank with exact duplicate!!
OP - You have what you have. And it does sound like you have not damaged them beyond reasonable recovery. Lifeline calls equalizing - conditioning. So I'd agree with earlier input to get your battery bank back up to where it is truly fully charged. Take out and take home and use a stand alone old fashion charger if needed. Get them to fully charged, then run a full Conditioning run on them, to shake off any sulfation build up.
You already have your solar panels. Sure you might be able to add more. But I also agree with the input here, to not give up on the bank of batteries you have, and or your desire to go use your rig. Do watch Craigslist for a good buy on a smaller generator. Honda, Yamaha - whatever.
Do get yourself one more good quality purchase of a stand alone charger, the one MW recommends is fine. And yep, do run it. If maybe not a night, and you have some good sunshine, perhaps get a good bulk/absorb charge into the battery in the AM - and see if the solar can top things off. If not, then hit the bank again in the evening. (Many people seem to due so when running AC to cool things off in hotter climates, or to say cook and use a microwave.).
Do make it habit of investing the costs of fuel, to run that generator enough to get back to fully charged on a periodic basis. The 3 days to as high as you can get it, and then the 4th day to fully charged - would be for sure better then what you have been doing:)!
------
Going back to me, and what I've done differently. I've reset the Magnum MS2812 parameters to the best options I can, based upon software limitations. (Both for usage while out and about in the RV, and also for while in storage and 'maintaining' mode.). I've also tuned my MidNite Classic 150 Controller, and have enabled the WhzBngJr module's capability to end charge based upon Finishing Amps.
The changes to the MS2812 and Classic 150 have been working well so far.
But the final change I made to my maintenance of the new bank, is to 'goose' the bank every 4-6 weeks (Depending upon usage. If going park to park and not really drawing down on the house bank. I do this every 4 weeks. If boon docking and 'cycling' the battery bank, I move it out to 6 weeks.) I run a conditioning cycle.
MW mentioned the 90% of premature failure of AGM's, is due to consistent undercharged conditions. This a common theme of my research from 'How the heck did I ruing my bank!'. On a combo of RV/Boating/Offgrid homes/cabins forums. I've also read many threads about a certain poster here, who has kept his Northstar AGM (Thin plates, as I recall:)!) healthy and supportive of his usage - much longer then is the norm of most of mere mortals....
Lithiums? Sure, in the future (As much for reduction of weight, as in the ability to not fully charge.). Probably Drop In's, but who knows, may go with a custom cell by cell built bank that fits the eventual space I determine will be utilized. (If Drop In's. Will go in the existing basement, which will be well insulated and protected from cold, and have already determined how I can install a few pancake fans to push/pull Air Conditioned air from inside of the coaches rear bedroom. If not drop in's, will face the wrath of the DW, and place them under out bed, and out of the way of the rear slide out mechanism. But, this is directly over the engine, and heat gain is a reality - that mid size block of diesel engine, heat mass does take along time to cool down. So, not sure yet where or what I'll install.) But I'm hoping this is another 5-7 years away. Things are consistently evolving on the Lithium world, some price drops too - so we'll see what is going on when the time comes!
I wish you good luck on your bank, and have some fun too! Best to you, and all,
Smitty
