What To Do In Case Of An Alarm During Discharging; The Battery Balancer - Victron energy SmartShunt 500 A Manual

The problem may be due to systematic undercharge. In this case more frequent charging or an equalization
charge is needed. Please note that only flooded deep cycle flat plate or OPzS batteries can be equalized. Better
and regular charging will solve the problem.
In case there are one or more faulty cells:
In case of series-parallel connection disconnect the midpoint, parallel connection wiring and measure the
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individual midpoint voltages during absorption charging to isolate batteries or cells which need additional
charging.
• Charge and then test all batteries or cells individually.

9.6 What to do in case of an alarm during discharging

The individual batteries or cells of a battery bank are not identical, and when fully discharging a battery bank, the
voltage of some cells will start dropping earlier than others. The midpoint alarm will therefore nearly always trip at
the end of a deep discharge.
If the midpoint alarm trips much earlier (and does not trip during charging), some batteries or cells may have lost
capacity or may have developed a higher internal resistance than others. The battery bank may have reached the
end of service life, or one or more cells or batteries have developed a fault:
In case of series-parallel connection, disconnect the midpoint parallel connection wiring and measure the
•
individual midpoint voltages during discharging to isolate faulty batteries or cells.
• Charge and then test all batteries or cells individually.

9.7 The Battery Balancer

A consideration can be made to add a Battery Balancer to the system. A Battery Balancer will equalize the state
of charge of two series connected 12V batteries, or of several parallel strings of series connected batteries.
When the charge voltage of a 24V battery system increases to more than 27.3V, the Battery Balancer will turn on
and compare the voltage over the two series connected batteries. The Battery Balancer will draw a current of up
to 0.7A from the battery (or parallel connected batteries) with the highest voltage. The resulting charge current
differential will ensure that all batteries will converge to the same state of charge. If needed, several balancers
can be paralleled.
A 48V battery bank can be balanced with three Battery Balancers, one between each battery.
For more information see the Battery Balancer datasheet located on the Battery Balancer product page:
https://www.victronenergy.com.au/batteries/battery-balancer
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