Gassing
Do flooded wet cell batteries only produce gas when being charged? Can they be charged outdoors and then placed inside a camper for use powering fans, etc. safely?
Forum Discussion
Calcium calcium can be used on an engine starting battery under the following conditions
a) Not more than 10% parasitic discharge in 60 days
b) Discharge cycle must not exceed 20% and then, only very occasionally.
Calcium does not corrode terminals -for the first few years terminal degradation the lack of, rivals AGM.
There is no antimonial migration (poisoning) of the negative plates.
Calcium has 15/14ths the watt capacity of 1.75% antimony construction.
Obey the calcium/calcium gods, long taboo list and these batteries survive for a long time.
BUT BUT BUT (caveat city) The engine alternator must support safe for the battery voltage values. No up and down cycling in protracted traffic jams after sundown with the A/C on. Ca/Ca despises even 5% cycling when done thousands of times. Waiting at the border for instance, my battery 5% cycled over one hundred times. One trip. Two hours of creep and stop. Done 5 days a week it would be a Ca/Ca death knell.
I mentioned the Delco 1116405 pulse width modulated voltage regulators for the 15 SI Delco (1970's and 80's) alternator. The set point for the regulator was 15.0 volts, but 5c cold starts had it soaring to 15.4. Delco got cute and designed its alternator for it's Calcium Calcium Delcotron battery with the MAGIC EYE. Much to Delco's chagrin the eye didn't wander between green and black (specific gravity. Owners were soon staring at RED eyes (dead cell) and YELLOW eyes (low water).
Lugging a forty pound battery for 20 ampere hour usage raises my eyebrows. If the batteries were free, that offsets much of that question.
Truly paranoid operation of the calcium battery in my toad has allowed it to not die in 4-years. Absolutely zero accessory-on, utilization.
The toad has a dinosaur three-phase delta stator Bosch "40-90" alternator. A 3.0 ohm rotor bobbin. And a rotor stator air gap a thrown cat would fly through.
Upgrading to a Mitsubishi 50/120 alternator like LY has is an option. But an ultra low VFr schottky external rectifier would be incorporated. A 500 amp model. It would tweak the idle 50 amp rating to 60 and the high end 120 to 135 or so.
Matt, I would have to say the garden variety 3-step voltage regulators on sailboats are just a tad more reliable and accurate. Plus, battery storage ambient temperatures are a lot friendlier and unless things get bumpy, engines and below decks get a lot of ventilation. Swinging on scope, I have yet to see a cruiser not open deck hatches when recharging. The "Black Swan (Drool)" is my fantasy sloop. But Daryl probably replaced the L16's with AGM or Lithium by now.
It takes near a full on CCA grade discharge to cause gas evolvement with a Ca Ca battery. And I was remiss in not being direct with BFL about my opinion of being OK. I hope he does not poke and prod the -20% rule...
a) Not more than 10% parasitic discharge in 60 days
b) Discharge cycle must not exceed 20% and then, only very occasionally.
Calcium does not corrode terminals -for the first few years terminal degradation the lack of, rivals AGM.
There is no antimonial migration (poisoning) of the negative plates.
Calcium has 15/14ths the watt capacity of 1.75% antimony construction.
Obey the calcium/calcium gods, long taboo list and these batteries survive for a long time.
BUT BUT BUT (caveat city) The engine alternator must support safe for the battery voltage values. No up and down cycling in protracted traffic jams after sundown with the A/C on. Ca/Ca despises even 5% cycling when done thousands of times. Waiting at the border for instance, my battery 5% cycled over one hundred times. One trip. Two hours of creep and stop. Done 5 days a week it would be a Ca/Ca death knell.
I mentioned the Delco 1116405 pulse width modulated voltage regulators for the 15 SI Delco (1970's and 80's) alternator. The set point for the regulator was 15.0 volts, but 5c cold starts had it soaring to 15.4. Delco got cute and designed its alternator for it's Calcium Calcium Delcotron battery with the MAGIC EYE. Much to Delco's chagrin the eye didn't wander between green and black (specific gravity. Owners were soon staring at RED eyes (dead cell) and YELLOW eyes (low water).
Lugging a forty pound battery for 20 ampere hour usage raises my eyebrows. If the batteries were free, that offsets much of that question.
Truly paranoid operation of the calcium battery in my toad has allowed it to not die in 4-years. Absolutely zero accessory-on, utilization.
The toad has a dinosaur three-phase delta stator Bosch "40-90" alternator. A 3.0 ohm rotor bobbin. And a rotor stator air gap a thrown cat would fly through.
Upgrading to a Mitsubishi 50/120 alternator like LY has is an option. But an ultra low VFr schottky external rectifier would be incorporated. A 500 amp model. It would tweak the idle 50 amp rating to 60 and the high end 120 to 135 or so.
Matt, I would have to say the garden variety 3-step voltage regulators on sailboats are just a tad more reliable and accurate. Plus, battery storage ambient temperatures are a lot friendlier and unless things get bumpy, engines and below decks get a lot of ventilation. Swinging on scope, I have yet to see a cruiser not open deck hatches when recharging. The "Black Swan (Drool)" is my fantasy sloop. But Daryl probably replaced the L16's with AGM or Lithium by now.
It takes near a full on CCA grade discharge to cause gas evolvement with a Ca Ca battery. And I was remiss in not being direct with BFL about my opinion of being OK. I hope he does not poke and prod the -20% rule...
