Green-Trust.Org

Automatic Battery Watering

One of the critical chores in maintaining your off grid battery system is making sure the water levels are kept up. This prevents the plates from being exposed, and ruining a pack before it’s time. Some folks have physical difficulties, or plain forget to water, so we are introducing an automatic watering system that will add a bit of water everytime the batteries hit 100% state of charge. A 5 gallon resorvoir means that it will be months before you have to refill the tank, and no spills means no corrosion. All gases are collected and vented to the outdoors through a tube, so no indoor venting issues. The system is controlled by the relay contacts on the Outback FLEXnet DC, but a Xantrex system could be used as well. A 24 cell system (8 batteries x 3 cells per battery) will sell for about $500, and requires programmable relay contacts (Outback FLEXnet DC or equivalent).

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October 1st, 2008 in battery |

2 Responses to “ Automatic Battery Watering ”

1. # 1 simon mallett Says:
   October 24th, 2008 at 5:40 am

   Hi Battery Monitor and Automatic Watering, wish I had seen the site ages ago, very interesting. I also generate using wind and solar PV but am grid tie (in the UK we don’t have many isolated areas, I’m about as isolated as you can get in Kent).

   What I want to move towards is grid tie as a normal state but with limited battery backup so that as and when we have power cuts – or worse, I can continue with a minimal system. With teh grid tie, as soon as my mains power cuts out, so does all my own generation.
   My site: http://www.solarkent.co.uk

2. # 2 KCouger Says:
   October 25th, 2008 at 11:57 am

   When T. Edison invented the wet cell battery one of the features was to use his battery oil to keep evaporation down. Google “Edison’s battery oil” and see what you come up with–discarding the bottle collector sites.

   Back when, I had a RV that used 4 Deep Cycle “house” batteries. Early on I lowered the electrolyte solution enough to add 4 oz. of mineral oil, to each cell, and then topped off with enough electrolyte to bring the level up to “full” level.

   After four years there was virtually NO corrosion on top an the batteries and I only had to add distilled water maybe once or twice a year.

   Go here for a manufacturer that supplies batteries and supplies (LOTTA information on this site:
   http://www.thermoilbatteries.com/

   Caveat: I have NO affiliation with the Thermoil company.

   Comments anyone?
   Ken C.

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