What is a working definition of a 100%full SEALED battery?

Buy a double cemetery plot. In a hundred years when the battery quits you will have company.

First off, I have a very heavy, unique Teleco Surplus battery... It was new and in service probably in December of 2014, and I picked it up around August 1st, 2015. Previous history is an unknown.

What I think I know is this... I take 35-40 amps out of it in a 24 hour period. You can take probably 12 amps off of that as parasitic drag in the day time when solar panel is charging as best it can from 7.5 to 8.8 amps/hr. Solar panel is a 150W 12V job.

Charging with the Mega Watt, I've taken at most 12 amp hours out of the battery, and at 14.43V setting at the Mega Watt terminal, not at the battery, I've seen at most, 20 amp hour take rate for charging, intially.

Having charged it 3X now, fully, here is what works for my Acid Rich 1.300SG very thick lead plated 10 year warranty battery... If my V on MegaWatt is set at 14.40V, I will continue to charge until I see a C factor of "0.01" or 1% factor of amp hour ratings. That means if my battery is rated for 150 amp hours, when I see 1.5Amps/hr charge rate "take" rate by the battery, I am done.

Deka, the manufacturer of my battery, however, recommends a float voltage of 13.48 -13.52V. When I dial back the Mega Watt with the 10 screw pot to 13.50V, immediately after the charge above, a float voltage, if you will, 3x now, the amp charge rate will be at the suggested 1/2 of 1% charge take rate, or .75 amp/hr.

My battery does not seem to drop to 0 amps taken. Finished voltage for my battery, depending on external temps, after 72 hours, runs 12.88V at 95F and 12.86V at 83F.


YMMV, my battery is unique in it's charging needs, but it's designed to last a long, long, long time.

Buy a battery and ask the manufacturers's engineer with a phone call, what to expect, and take notes, and write them down and engrave them on your brand of battery.

My battery usage, and charging seem to indicate that I do not get deeply discharged very often. If I stay in the 70 to 75% SOC range each morning, the MegaWatt really doesn't seem to get much "grunt" going on at start up, in terms of having the battery slurp a lot of amps out of the Mega Watt. Why this is, and why my battery charges slower than most AGMS, is, my guess, a function of design, and low number of heavy, thick lead plates. Not alot of plate surface will yield lower charge rates.

1) 100%

2) Enough to know it isn't charged so I refer to my kWh meter

3)31C

4)You'll find that in the Lifeline PDF manual. Voltage versus charge percentage is a farce. Voltage calculated with amperage acceptance is not a farce.

5) I've never looked for the MegaWatt power factor spec because it does not concern me. I'm sure John Marles at Megawatt knows that information. Size the genset for inrush rather than search for a non existent inexpensive power factor corrected power supply. The precise adjustment from 10 volts upward makes PF correction less of an issue.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I should be getting an answer back from Lifeline this coming Thursday or Friday. Depending on the CEF 102% to 104% returned is a good analog indication that full charge parameters have been met.

But I went a few steps further. If an X number of usable cycles can be rendered from 100% recharging, then percentage wise how many cycles will be lost if the battery is constantly recharged to say, 90% total capacity? A genuine engineer is working up results of the analysis. Perspective is the name of the game in battery management. "Negatively Affected" is not a viable answer in my book.

What is the % charged when the rate reaches 0.5% of the rated AHs?

Lifelines charging formula estimates charge time if you know your missing AHs. When your Lifeline is resting at 13.06V, how many AHs are missing? What was the battery temperature? What is the temperature adjusted Voltage capacity?

What is the power factor of the mega-well-mean-watt power supply?

Numbers please. :)

HTH;
John

I dew believes we is missin some numbers here. Type of battery age of battery ceiling voltage yaddah yaddah.

My Lifeline has a similar ceiling at 14.54 volts. But reducing voltage limit to 14.4 incurs a .5 value much sooner than it does at 14.54 volts. How low does this ceiling occur and what is the Charge Efficiency Ratio? Mine is 1.044 at a 54 ampere hour starting point. What voltage limit have you arrived at?

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I can take my Lifeline at 13.06 volts rested and install 5.1 amperes at 14.44 volts. Is it fully charged. Obviously No.

I say my sealed (AGM) batteries are "full" when I can't install any more amperes into them - per my three-digit ammeter - using any charger I own and regardless of what voltage winds up on the batteries' terminals from any of those chargers.

But who am I to say - I only use batteries - not design them ... and sometimes common sense may make no sense.

I can take my Lifeline at 13.06 volts rested and install 5.1 amperes at 14.44 volts. Is it fully charged. Obviously No.

Some of you are beating poor "E" to death. Voltage by itself is useless as er ah well, you-know-what on a frog.

"Say how fast are you driving? The tires are squealing!
Relax, we'll be there in an hour!"

C2 would be pretty discharged. Or else I don't understand what you mean by C2.

I should be getting an answer back from Lifeline this coming Thursday or Friday. Depending on the CEF 102% to 104% returned is a good analog indication that full charge parameters have been met.

But I went a few steps further. If an X number of usable cycles can be rendered from 100% recharging, then percentage wise how many cycles will be lost if the battery is constantly recharged to say, 90% total capacity? A genuine engineer is working up results of the analysis. Perspective is the name of the game in battery management. "Negatively Affected" is not a viable answer in my book.

Some flooded starting batteries are sealed, and Gel batteries are also sealed, So lets consider this AGM only.

I use lifeline's guide of 0.5amps per100AH of storage capacity at the 20 hour rate, as to when 100% charged is reached, at 14.4v and 77F.

I have left my meanwell at 14.4v on My Northstar AGM overnight and seen the battery taking 0.0xx? amps in the morning at 14.4v, so whether 0.5c is indeed full, or full enough, or if hitting a hard stop at absorption voltage is then truly 100% charged, I can't say.

My Northstar is a group 27 and rated at only 90AH, though I believe this figure to be closer to 100, as resting voltage with 45AH removed is still over 12.2v.

The Screwy31 is alive, it is not well. It can power my 12v led lights, fans, and a small 12v TV in my workshop, but I don't really give it any loving. It self discharges fast, drops to 12.2v under a 3 amp load when fully charged, and the one cell closest to the (-) stud still heats excessively at the bottom at higher than an 8 amp charge rate.
It could not handle being discharged 45 to 60AH per night, as my Northstar deals with 4 nights a week minimum.

But I require a 12v source in my workshop and the screwy31 fits the bill, and I might not even use it as a core charge on my future T-1275 as long as it has not shorted a cell by then