Hi David, Bummer that your first trip had trouble.
Something to check also- is your emeter (assume you mean a Xantrex Link10)wired so it is always on? The directions say is should be wired this way; if so the meter power will probably come from just 2 or 3 of the six volt batteries. The meter power consumption is very low but over the course of the winter it is enough to substantially discharge the 2 or three cells. DAMHIKT.
I'd check the voltage of each individual battery - you may find 2 or 3 that are much lower than the rest. A solution is to charge each low battery individually with a 6v charger until they are all at the same level; then you are good to go with the 48 v charger.
A permanent solution is to power the meter with a 48:12 transformer so the meter current comes equally from each battery.
One the other hand, at 13 years of age, the batteries don't owe you anything. You are lucky they lasted this long.
Good luck.
Denny Wolfe
www.wolfEboats.
PS: You have a great website and an interesting business. I hope all your trips are sold out this summer.
----- Original Message -----
From: Myles Twete
To: electricboats@
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 2:54 PM
Subject: RE: [Electric Boats] batteries
David-
It would help to know what your charger is, how you charge (e.g. plug in
nightly or only when depleted below some level) and other factors.
The fact that your AGM batteries are 13yrs old, like me (my floodies are 7
and 10yrs), you're probably due to replace them.
However, to suddenly experience no stored energy when the Emeter says the
bank is full is suspicious.
Checking your website, I see you mention having had solar panels added
recently.
If true, this could be a key factor in explaining why your batteries
suddenly have no energy yet your meter shows they are full.
Your solar panels could be wired to the pack incorrectly.
They should be connected such that the energy from/(to?) them is monitored
by the Emeter.
But that may not have been done in your installation and instead, they could
have been wired direct to the batteries.
If so, and if your boat has sat indoors in the shade and dark for some time,
it's possible (and ironic) that the solar panels have drained your battery.
And they would have done so without the E-meter tracking it.
I'm no solar cell expert, but when not delivering power, solar cells look
like a resistor in series with a leaky diode.
String enough of these cells together to just barely be above your pack
voltage during solar charge, then when the light goes away, your battery
pack sees that string as a load.
Your battery string will continue dumping power until the battery voltage
reaches the diode string voltage, then continue to deliver less power thru
shunt leakage of the panels.
So, not being on Long Island, from Portland Oregon, I'd suspect the solar
string connections (unless none of this has been done yet).
Also, be sure your batteries and connections are all clean and that when
your system is OFF, your system is really off and no phantom loads are
present.
Your charger can't really be to blame for drawing residual current after
charging has ended since your emeter would've tracked it.
You may want to also be sure that your emeter is still correctly connected
after your solar installation.
-Myles Twete, Portland
From: electricboats@
On Behalf Of dberson1
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 8:20 PM
To: electricboats@
Subject: [Electric Boats] batteries
Friends: Here is the problem: I have an elco 30 foot classic called Glory
that I have been running as a tour boat for ten years. Powered by AGM
Batteries that this year are 13 years old. Well anyway had the first trip of
the season today-full boat and out of the slip into the bay I lost power.
With the throttle all the way in foward the needdle gague read that I was at
42 volts as opposed to the 48 that the system runs on. The E meter said that
I was at full charge. All other systems looked as if they were working. I am
buying new batteries -8 0f them at 3600 bucks. Elco is no longer in business
and I'm in Greenport on the east end of Long Island. Who can I get to the
boat to troubleshoot the system. I haven't put a load tester on the
battereis yet but I am informed that the batteries are probably so old that
they are not holding a charge. I have a full season of business booked and
am almost nervous. Help. Thank you, David Berson Glory greenportlaunch.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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