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Power, solar, battery and inverter issues?!


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We recently left the boat unattended for a week.

During this week away one of our leisure batteries has fried itself, returned to horrible egg smell. So I disconnected it and now have a 2 battery bank instead of 3. I will replace them all in due time.

It was incredibly hot and sunny while we were away so I assume it just over charged our bank. But surely that shouldn't have happened?

 

Now we have another issue arise with our inverter... It's a waeco sinepower msp702.

Basically, it's been beeping and flashing randomly when it is OFF?!! Once on it works fine, but when off it is still seeming to be a nuisance.

 

Any guidance greatly appreciated as this is beginning to do my swede in! Should I disconnect the solar when im going away? I have a mppt fitted, a 210w panel, 2x 110ah batteries. Everything was fine until the boat was left for the week ?‍♂️

Edited by purple8
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3 hours ago, purple8 said:

We recently left the boat unattended for a week.

During this week away one of our leisure batteries has fried itself, returned to horrible egg smell. So I disconnected it and now have a 2 battery bank instead of 3. I will replace them all in due time.

It was incredibly hot and sunny while we were away so I assume it just over charged our bank. But surely that shouldn't have happened?

 

Now we have another issue arise with our inverter... It's a waeco sinepower msp702.

Basically, it's been beeping and flashing randomly when it is OFF?!! Once on it works fine, but when off it is still seeming to be a nuisance.

 

Any guidance greatly appreciated as this is beginning to do my swede in! Should I disconnect the solar when im going away? I have a mppt fitted, a 210w panel, 2x 110ah batteries. Everything was fine until the boat was left for the week ?‍♂️

 

I wonder if the mppt controller had gone wrong and is supplying the batteries with too high a voltage?

 

That could account for the fried battery and also the inverter bleeping when off caused by a high battery voltsge alarm. When the inverter is on, the load will supress the battery voltage slightly, maybe causing the high voltage alarm to stop.

 

Try disconnecting the solar panels and see if the inverter alarm stops. If so measure the output voltage of the mppt controller. If it is higher than say 14.7 volts it will be faulty.

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When the solar panels are disconnected the inverter stays quiet.

But I'm unsure if it is an alarm as it has no pattern, it randomly beeps and lights flash differently in different sequences each time?!

Using a multimeter the output was at 14.47. then we turned on the inverter and fridge and it is now currently at 13.4.

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The batteries are under the stern deck with the engine. Then wired thru the bulkhead into the boat where the inverter is positioned. They are nearby but in separate areas ?‍♂️

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How old is the battery bank and how often do you inspect and check the water level in the batteries. The battery that "fried" could easily have developed a shorted cell because of old age. I would always be very wary about leaving old batteries, swollen batteries or batteries that need lots of topping up on charge unattended.

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Hi Tony.

The batteries were new 2 years ago. And I must be honest here, but I have never checked the water levels in them ?

But they are sealed batteries, so I'm unsure u can even top them up anyway?!

 

U may remember us tbh Tony, as when I wired up my panels and new battery bank u were there to assist us near reading at the cunning man pub. Do U remember? You did us a huge favour that day and I still cannot thank you enough ✌️

 

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11 minutes ago, purple8 said:

Hi Tony.

The batteries were new 2 years ago. And I must be honest here, but I have never checked the water levels in them ?

But they are sealed batteries, so I'm unsure u can even top them up anyway?!

 

U may remember us tbh Tony, as when I wired up my panels and new battery bank u were there to assist us near reading at the cunning man pub. Do U remember? You did us a huge favour that day and I still cannot thank you enough ✌️

 

Yes, I remember and no you can't top them up.

 

I seem to remember you planned to live aboard and if so two years may be a reasonable life for batteries unless you have some form of battery monitoring and know how to use it.

 

You have just found one of the drawback to sealed batteries. There is no way inspecting them can tell you anything apart from bad sulphation causing loss of capacity if the ends have bowed out.

 

There its no way for us to know if its a MPPT fault, a faulty battery or an inverter problem.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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I kinda thought as much tbh.

But would a dodgy old battery really make the inverter act strangely like this?

 

So my next plan is a set of new batteries.

 

Any recommendations? Or stick with a disposable cheap sealed option? I'm wary of spending a huge amount if I could just as easily fry an expensive one ?

 

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36 minutes ago, purple8 said:

Hi Tony.

The batteries were new 2 years ago. And I must be honest here, but I have never checked the water levels in them ?

But they are sealed batteries, so I'm unsure u can even top them up anyway?!

 

U may remember us tbh Tony, as when I wired up my panels and new battery bank u were there to assist us near reading at the cunning man pub. Do U remember? You did us a huge favour that day and I still cannot thank you enough ✌️

 

If they were say 90 quid each and you have used em for two years then thats about 50 pence per day for a set of four. Bloody good value for a disposable item in my opinion.

Just looked and you have two batteries? so 25 pence per day then?

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5 minutes ago, purple8 said:

I kinda thought as much tbh.

But would a dodgy old battery really make the inverter act strangely like this?

 

So my next plan is a set of new batteries.

 

Any recommendations? Or stick with a disposable cheap sealed option? I'm wary of spending a huge amount if I could just as easily fry an expensive one ?

 


I would say not sealed simply because they are difficult for a typical boaters to diagnose, especially if they have no battery monitoring equipment. Wet open cell batteries form.

 

The inverter might be complaining about over voltage especially if the MPPT decided to an equalisation charge at the time but your  voltage readings suggests this is not the case. 14.7 volts dropping to 13.3  suggests to me the batteries are discharging fairly fast and is pulling the MPPT voltage down because of the current. If the inverter can "see" 13.3 volts it should not be giving either and over volt or under volt alarm. Is there any chance it is complaining about a high ambient temperature?

 

The battery voltage on my MPPT is showing 13.3 at the moment and a charge of 4 amps but I have the computer car power supply plugged in. The fridge is off at present. No other loads. 3 x 115 Ah wet open cell batteries.

 

 

 

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3 batteries at £65 each. So 26p per day. Look at it like that and it is a bargain. But a huge strain on the environment with batteries being thrown away every few years ?‍♂️

Edited by purple8
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Just now, purple8 said:

3 batteries at £65 each. So 26p per day. Look at it like that and it is a bargain. But a huge strain on the environment with batteries being thrown away every few years

Sell them back to the 'scrappies' get £10 each for them (reduces your daily cost) and they will get 90% rec-cycled - one of the few things that are not much of a strain on the Environment.

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1 minute ago, purple8 said:

3 batteries at £65 each. So 26p per day. Look at it like that and it is a bargain. But a huge strain on the environment with batteries being thrown away every few years ?‍♂️

 

But.... The question now is...

Why does my inverter make crazy beeping noises and mad light flashes randomly when it's off?

Is it off or in stand by.

Try disconnecting the 12V negative feed to the inverter and see if the flashing stops, if it does then the thing may well be in some kind of standby mode.

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3 minutes ago, purple8 said:

3 batteries at £65 each. So 26p per day. Look at it like that and it is a bargain. But a huge strain on the environment with batteries being thrown away every fers ?‍♂️

Yes, I was just putting it in context. Boat running costs can be quite substantial but batteries lasting two years is very good value for money innitt :cheers:

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2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Is it off or in stand by.

Try disconnecting the 12V negative feed to the inverter and see if the flashing stops, if it does then the thing may well be in some kind of standby mode.

I stand corrected.

It is in stand by mode.

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There is nothing about it in the troubleshooting section or any other section of the manual. It was my first port of call before canalworld.

And it is something it has never done in the 3 years of living aboard. It even does it at night when there is nothing coming into the panel?

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5 minutes ago, purple8 said:

There is nothing about it in the troubleshooting section or any other section of the manual. It was my first port of call before canalworld.

And it is something it has never done in the 3 years of living aboard. It even does it at night when there is nothing coming into the panel?

 

But it still actually works, does it?

 

My solution would be take the cover off, find the buzzer/beeper thing and cut the wires to it. 

 

Ever the pragmatist, moi.... :)

 

 

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4 minutes ago, purple8 said:

There is nothing about it in the troubleshooting section or any other section of the manual. It was my first port of call before canalworld.

And it is something it has never done in the 3 years of living aboard. It even does it at night when there is nothing coming into the panel?

If it does it at night then that rules out the MPPT causing it or over voltage.

 

These things tend to be specialised computers so my first thought would be to physically disconnect it for half a hour or so to force it to reboot on reconnection. If that fails then I suspect it is the inverter but as long as it works with the correct output I would just turn it ff properly unless I needed to use it.

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4 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

If it does it at night then that rules out the MPPT causing it or over voltage.

 

These things tend to be specialised computers so my first thought would be to physically disconnect it for half a hour or so to force it to reboot on reconnection. If that fails then I suspect it is the inverter but as long as it works with the correct output I would just turn it ff properly unless I needed to use it.

Thanks Tony

And thanks everyone else for ur input.

 

We will be updating our battery bank asap and will go from there. Hopefully it's a simple glitch in the matrix and the inverter being shut down and rebooted will hopefully do the trick.

 

Thanks again everyone.

I will update in a week or so once the new bank is in and running.

 

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27 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'm most curious about where you found batteries that cheap.... Best I could do the other day when I needed one in a hurry was £105!!

£59.95 inc delivery.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-110AH-LEISURE-BATTERY-HEAVY-DUTY-LOW-HEIGHT-100-AH-AMP-110-AMP-DUAL-PURP/301581095653?hash=item4637a252e5:g:vVIAAOSwpbVbU0yO

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