View Single Post
Old 03-27-2010, 04:18 PM   #41 (permalink)
rmay635703
home of the odd vehicles
 
rmay635703's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere in WI
Posts: 3,874

Silver - '10 Chevy Cobalt XFE
Thanks: 495
Thanked 863 Times in 650 Posts
Well these Greensavers seem to be working fine in the van, they are VERY odd. Their voltage recovers rapidly even when deeply discharged and now that we have our field reduction easily switchable our top speed is great.

Funny part is we actually use only 50amps on the flat at 27mph with field reduction as compared to 65amps without, very odd.

Although expensive ($200/6v) the Greensavers appear to be a legitimate alternative to AGM, the harder you draw on them the higher their voltage seems to be, I really can't explain it. Our range driven gingerly "appears" to be 40 miles trouble is the batteries keep coming back so it is difficult to determine real range, the batteries are 250ahr (180ahr under 100amp load supposedly) but I definately don't want to crap them out on a hunch, not sure how to test them as they seem to hold about the same lowish (40%dod) voltage forever. They are rated at 80% DOD which is very nice, though I never go that far.

My main concern now is that they really like to jump in voltage randomly at near the end of the charge cycle meaning some get to the overcharge area briefly (then I unplug)

My AGM charger is problematic in that it likes to go too high on the charge voltage if there is any imbalance in the batteries (even a few hundreths) so I am still not sure how to handle the things. They all end up at full charge (or a little above resting) so I really need to tone the charger down, I plan on using a timer to match up charge time to capacity used (event though my charger is automatic). Speaking of which old chargers had an 8 hour wind up timer the crappy pull the tab 24hour jobs burn up too easily anyone know where I can get an old timer cutoff.

Lots of watching the pack because of this. Bleh, otherwise good, I am hopeing for a very long life like others, hopefully I don't murder the things early.

Also I ordered an overpriced $140 Kaneka GSA60 60watt 60v solar panel for the top of the van, fits perfectly in the roof rack, I AM REALLY KICKING MYSELF I DIDN"T GET IN ON THE GROUP BUY A FEW MONTHS BACK AT $60 a panel

Now the trouble is how to build a high voltage cutoff for the solar panel so I can't overcharge. (and no I don't want a 60amp 120v MPPT charger that uses half an amp to handle my 1 amp panel trickle charging my batteries)

Cheers
Ryan

  Reply With Quote