Care of Trojan L16 batteries (new)

[russ_drinkwater]

I have a the user/care guide from trojan and have set my midnite reg to those specs.
Four L16's wired to 24 volts with 1760 watts hyundai panels feeding a 3 kw latronics inverter.
Runs 2 freezers and one fridge during the day.
One freezer at night usually and if we have a blackout then the batteries just run a 200 watt fan overnight.
The sg's on all cells is 1275 when charged and the battery bank is never below 25 volts of a morning.
Anyone who has used these batteries and have had 10 years or more service from them I would appreciate your advice
and plan for their care.
They are only a couple of months old and I will have another 4 batteries next month to bring the amps up to
870 amps @ 24 volts.
All cells are interconnected with the same length cable and terminals/bolts are clean, greased and kept clean as well as the battery box being ventilated and sun proof. Temps run around 29deg C in summer.
We have no snow here in winter and there are no days with less than 5 hours solar production.
Usable summer solar starts at 6am and runs till 5pm when I switch back to grid tie.
Winter runs from 7.30 am till 3.30pm.
Both dependent on cloud cover of course.
With the extra batteries connect I will add the night-time usage to include 1 freezer and 1 fridge and monitor to see what happens.
I do have an additional 2640 watts of panels and another reg to go up once the outside area roof is extended.

[russ_drinkwater]

So does this mean no-one uses L16 batteries?
Or just follow trojans care plan?

[Halfcrazy]

Well Trojan is about the only brand I have ever used. 10 years may be optimistic but then if you take super good care and do not cycle them deep?

My personal off grid house runs on 16 of the L16's, the first set went about 7 years but they got off to a bad start as I did not have enough PV to properly charge them. My advice is always to follow the manufacturers guides as well as make sure they get a good absorb charge once a week and that the SG is where it should be at the end of that absorb charge.

[russ_drinkwater]

The 4 batteries (24 volt) get pulled down to 25 volts each nite and the classic handles the charge in the morning.
I have set the classic charge regime as per trojans specs.
Am going to order a couple more hydrometers as the one I have here only shows 1260 sg (in all cells) at the highest charge point.
When tested with a multimeter the batteries show the same voltage as what the classic is indicating.
Battery temps in summer here hover around 29.2 deg C.
Is all not well?
They get an equalize once a month.
All fittings are new, tight and clean.

[tecnodave]

Russ,

I did some time at Alaska Husky  Battety and at Trojan......maintaince is the key! I get 12 years average using Trojans, and Interstate L-16's 6 volt 380 amp units

First off high quality distilled water only.....it's not all the same.....I use distilled water for a colloidal silver process and the cheaper waters leave black gunk on my .999 pure silver electrodes,  Arrowhead Puritas Water does not!  Sure batteries are not as sensitive as the colloidal process but batteries do not like impurities in the water!

Constant records keeping...using hydrometer after an hour or two of relaxing after a full charge
Record readings.. Compare, if you have more than .020 difference in the cell specific gravity readings ,time for more maintaince,  at .050 difference it will be very difficult to get good life out of a set

Do equalize the strings separately, I have two completely separate systems nearly identical except one has new Interstate L-16 floor sweeper batts, the other has a set of Rolls -Surette's S-530 Solar batteries salvaged on their way to the recyclers, I have them perfectly balanced running large loads in parallel , but when I am under a kilowatt in usage I separate my systems and use one only and rest the other, I am amazed that this is working so well, I certainly do not recommend trying to balance such different battery strings but this is what continual maintenance can do. I spend an hour or a month on battery maintaince.  I think the time separate is the key to what I am doing, I run my shop very hard several times a month and tax my system not to its max but exercise it very good, but then give it time to stabilize very well

I think your average draw is way greater than mine....my refrigeration is all Digital Inverter Compressor 24 volt DC system.    Way more efficient than a energy star AC powered units, my lighting is all 24 volt DC LED's.  I use only a 1100 watt Exeltech inverter to run my Carver/Klipsch sound system.   All else is DC.

Systems...(Two)  .12 times Sharp NE-165/NE-170. (2kw.)  Classic 150, kid with two Suntech 280, Trace C-40 diversion control

My big loads will be too much for a 400 a.h. Bank.  Magna-Sine recommends a larger batt so this is my solution for now, waiting for some Sol to be put in my system


td

[russ_drinkwater]

I only use distilled water for top ups in mine and my son's batteries.
He was lucky and I found some 1330 amp hour excides from a forum mate (offgridqld) which he let me have for $300
for the remaining 24 volt bank (half of his old 48 volt bank).
Was a long trip to get them (1000 kms round trip) but in hind sight well worth the expense.
What is the best hydrometer to get for measuring SG's?
We have had 1 1/2 weeks of overcast weather here lately.
The classic 150 goes through its charge cycles and the batteries are on float before lunch time every day.
Not sure what else I can do.
I get no loss of fluid from any cells!
Is this normal for trojans?
The excides need topping up every 2-3 weeks on numerous cells (but much older batteries).
I have the reg set to equalize every 4 weeks.
The most I have seen going in is 35 amps, but on the other hand the bank is never pulled down under 25 volts.
Should I load and drain the cells below 25 volts at night every now and again?

[Jacotenente]

I run twelve Trojan L16E-AC in a 24v configuration. I run mine down to 24.4v every night and they get a full charge every day. Trojan states 29v absorb. A few weeks ago I did a EQ charge and checked the SG. All were showing full charge. I do have a few questions about SOC and balancing:

1: Should I invest in a Bogart TriMetric battery monitoring system? Is the Classic's SOC % good enough to go by? My SOC in the morning shows 75% at 24.4v. I know using a refracometer and resting them is the best way to do it.
2. Battery balancer - Does anyone run these? This is to ensure each battery/string gets an equal discharge/recharge.

I would appreciate your insight! Thanks. Chris

[zoneblue]

The bogart does have a more sophisticated SOC algorithim, however i recall reading on teh net someplace that  Midnite and Bogart have previously worked together on at least one project, so im guessing the essentials are taken care of. Since you have SG and rest voltage to cross reference, you can check the classics SOC against those to satisify yourself. Otherwise i see little advantage to addtional battery monitors.

Re balancers, more trouble than its worth. My 2c.

[russ_drinkwater]

Still very little fluid loss in the trojans!
Averaging around 4.5 kw according to the classic most days before switching back to grid tie.
Working the cells in this way can not cause any dramas?
The bank is only 435 amps at 24 volts.
I will have another 4  x 16's in the bank in the next week or so.

[Westbranch]

Still very little fluid loss in the trojans!

Rus can you give us some specifics here.....  The amount of H2O you use is important, to gauge how good a charge you are getting..

[russ_drinkwater]

I just set the classic to the factory charge specs I got from the trojan website.
26.4 volts float, absorb (2 hours) 29.6 volts, equalize (1 hour) 31 volts  , bulk 29.6 volts.
The wiring from the panels to reg and reg from switches to batteries are all 4 guage and are rated at 96 amps.
I have changed nothing in the classic as it goes through its charge cycles (bulk at the moment) starting at approx 6am each day depending
on weather (usually fine).
At the moment there are 8 x 220 watts panels running to the first classic giving a voltage of approx 57 volts and they put in up to 40 amps via the classic.
At 7am there is 51.2 volts showing on the reg and 5.5 - 6 amps going in (overcast this morning) and there is just one freezer running off the inverter atm.
There are only 2 cells out of 12 that I had added any water to and amounted to approx 10 mls to each.
The only time the batteries gas is under equalize and that gassing is not vigorous!

[russ_drinkwater]

Switched all loads off batteries and gave them a 3 hour equalize today.
Hour or so later I checked the specific gravities and all were over 1275 sg.
Late this arvo I turned load back on and battery bank voltage stayed static at 25.5 volts after sunset with a small load.
With the small load of one freezer the voltage is still sitting on 25.5.
So that is a marked improvement over the last couple of weeks as the voltage has been declining quicker than usual.
I am still looking for times for bulk and absorb for the trojans.
Or will the classic do that for me?

[Westbranch]

watch them over the next week for that drop off...  monitor & record your consumption daily and Absorb and  Float times etc, and let us know... 
Sounds like you are not too far off at this point... 

[russ_drinkwater]

Does the classic record that info?
Same again tonight the voltage has held after sunset (now 1945 hrs) and voltage still at 25.4 volts.
Gave the batteries a work out today and the classic says 4.2 kws for the day.
That was with intermittent partial cloud cover as well.
I have cleaned up the connections (they were clean anyways) and covered them all with silicone grease.
Sun is still a killer with Uv this time of year.
Am interested what with happen with the Pv output come the cooler months.
No snow here

[russ_drinkwater]

Added 4 more L16's to the bank and got them charged up.
Gave the whole bank an equalize and all sg were up over 1275 so all good.
It may be my imagination but the system seems to work better with the extra amp hours available to draw from (435 amp @ 24 volts to 870 amps @ 24 volts).
Voltage over night with the light load from one freezer sits on 25.5 volts.
Just need to get the extra panels up and wired when the weather cools off a bit.