Inverters - are they realy off?

[russ_drinkwater]

The other thing which puzzles me is the fixation on micro draws of current from peoples battery banks!
If the banks are large enough to supply some sort of autonomy over a couple of days then there should be no problems.
If however a small draw is causing drops in available current from the banks, then surely the battery bank needs to be increased to a more suitable size for the applicaion!
Just my thoughts.
Seems like a lot of hand wringing over not much.

[TomW]

Russ;

No hand wringing, just a technical discussion of facts.

Personally, I would prefer a low parasitic current over power cycling for reasons that will seem trivial to the lay person, and why I brought it up. Connecting and disconnecting DC under anything but trivial loads can pit,burn and weld together the switch or relay contacts from the arcing and plasma.

With low parasitic draw, it should be figured into system sizing when done properly. People do non standard stuff all the time for their own reasons.

Sorry if technical discussions make you uncomfortable.

Tom

[russ_drinkwater]

Not really uncomfortable. From a lot of the reading here a lot of people have under sized systems and are trying to save every milliamp where possible. I look at electrical appliances and other types of systems with the idea if you need a 2.2kw to do a job then buy a 3 or 3.5 kw system because running any electrical/computer based applications at its limit is not good for the service life! I fully understand about DC current arcing across contacts under load if powered up. Not being critical of this thread in any ways. It just seems to me that for many a slightly larger storage bank/panels etc would solve a lot of phantom load problems.
Sorry I am a bit more laid back about small things in life, lol.
MOFWIW.

[tecnodave]

Russ,

I'm with you on that thinking....I do have some devices in my system that use more power than I could use. My system is way overkill...even only one by itself. I have no problem with sudden foul weather as I have built my system to account for such things. Being from the back 40 (what we Alaskans call the "Outback") you learn to plan for such things. When the Great Alaska Earthquake happened it sure weeded out the newcomers...they left in droves, leaving everything behind.

Gotta plan for things, nature just won't line up to your design.

On inverters , I leave all mine powered on, unless I will not be using that house, camper or whatever for 60 days or more, but I do have very high quality breakers on everything.

Does anyone worry about the very hard to measure leakage current across the top of the batteries?
Need proof.....use a sensitive voltmeter from the negative post to areas on the tops of the batteries.....you will see voltage there.....maybe 15-25 ma or so leakage in the wet film on the tops of FLA batteries....not enough to worry about if you have sized correctly.

David

[CDN-VT]

Does anyone worry about the very hard to measure leakage current across the top of the batteries?
Need proof.....use a sensitive voltmeter from the negative post to areas on the tops of the batteries.....you will see voltage there.....maybe 15-25 ma or so leakage in the wet film on the tops of FLA batteries....not enough to worry about if you have sized correctly.

David

Or keep them washed clean & it lessens the draw way down to almost zip .
Use only water , NEVER NaHCO3 or Baking soda or Bi sodium carbonate  Na2CO3 (washing soda ) that will neutralize a cell , kill a battery quick , good to have on hand to clean the floor afterwards .
VT

[russ_drinkwater]

All my trojan cells get is a wet washer to clean them up. (wash it out quick and well before the wife sees what i am doing!) I find if I do this on a regular basis there is no need for sody bic or the like!
Because we are isolated where I live we have multiple backup systems finalising with 3 geny's and a new one I am piecing together.
A 20 hp kubota diesel to a 10kw lister geny head. It will never need to produce 10kw as a 6kw handles our loads without a/c.
And if that was a need I would crank up the 3 cylinder lister with the 30kw geny head!
Always have 2,000 liters of diesel on hand just in case.