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http://www.evdl.org/pages/hartcharge.html
1 of 3
23.08.2012 09:37
http://www.evdl.org/pages/hartcharge.html
All this is of course general information. If you have better data from the manufacturer of your particular battery, use it. But I think you will find all of them to be variations on the same theme. If this seems like too much work, now you know why people buy automatic chargers. If it's too much work and you're not willing to spend the money, you can do taper charging. This is basically what all cheap consumer-grade battery chargers do. The designer has picked the transformer and circuit resistance so the charging current just happens to be a safe maximum when the batteries are deeply discharged, and just happens to "taper off" to that 2% figure when the batteries reach 2.4v/cell. Taper chargers are slow, because they spend so much time at lower currents. It will take 8-16 hours to reach full charge with one. That happens to be convenient for overnight charging. If you leave it on even longer, its voltage will continue to rise (and the current continue to fall) and it will do a half-assed equalization. If you leave it on continuously, it will equalize your batteries to death. Thus it is a good idea to include a timer that will shut it off after some reasonable number of hours. A few other things to note. 1. The voltages mentioned above all will change with temperature. Voltage falls 0.003 volts per cell for each degree C increase, and vice versa for a decrease in temperature. If you ignore this, or your "automatic" charger does, you will apply too much voltage to hot batteries and fry them, or insufficient voltage to cold batteries and so not fully charge them. 2. As your batteries age, their end-of charge voltage gradually falls, their end-of charge current gradually rises, and their amp-hour capacity slowly drops. Barring abuse, this is normal, inevitable, and not reversible. If your charger blindly tries to bring old batteries up to the same voltage or current as new ones, it will charge too long, and so overcharge them. So, the best charging algorithms for old batteries are ones that count amp-hours, or look for the voltage to stop rising or for the current to stop falling. Although the makers of snake oil and gadgets would have you believe otherwise, the changes in characteristics with age are usually not due to sulfation. They are caused by : The slow changes in the shape and size of the active material crystals. Migration of the antimony the plates are alloyed with (for extra strength) to the surface; this increases the gassing and lowers the voltage at which it begins. (Sealed batteries typically don't use antimony; they either use calcium, or just plain pure lead.) Impurities (from, for instance, watering with tap water instead of distilled water) being selectively deposited on the surfaces of the plates. Active material that has fallen off the plates and drifted to the bottom of the case. The warping and grid corrosion that slowly progresses from many charge/discharge cycles. 3. Don't waste your money on "battery maintainers." With flooded batteries, if you leave a float voltage or trickle charger on them, they will slowly gas away water. That's not the best way to maintain them, as you could easily come back months later and find cells damaged by the water being below the plates. Your best bet - before storing the EV, charge the batteries at a normal charging current as described above. Charge for 1-2 hours, or until the voltage stops rising. At this point, the battery is fully charged and equalized.
2 of 3
23.08.2012 09:37
http://www.evdl.org/pages/hartcharge.html
Now just let the batteries sit for a month or more. No load, no charging. Open the EV's main breaker and make sure that any other loads, even small ones, are disconnected. (Some chargers and many BMSes can draw current from the battery.) Every 1-3 months (depending on how good the batteries are), repeat this process. For good batteries, it won't even take an hour at 5 amps for the voltage to peak again (i.e. they have a low self-discharge rate).
3 of 3
23.08.2012 09:37