[diyguy]

My Qualis battery was not cranking and recently while driving through flood waters (about 2 foot of water), the battery warning light came on. It's kinda cold in Chennai too this time of the year. So I got the battery water filled- took up almost 900ml of water and have now hooked it up to my home inverter to charge. The shops will be closed today so decided to do it myself.
So far it seems to be charging well.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by diyguy

My Qualis battery was not cranking and recently while driving through flood waters (about 2 foot of water), the battery warning light came on. It's kinda cold in Chennai too this time of the year. So I got the battery water filled- took up almost 900ml of water and have now hooked it up to my home inverter to charge. The shops will be closed today so decided to do it myself.
So far it seems to be charging well.
Attachment 1449744

Keep monitoring the battery, as it is of a much lower rating than the inverter battery. Check for excessive water bubbling - that indicates overcharging. You can stop charging after four or five hours, and use it to start the car.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Aroy

Keep monitoring the battery, as it is of a much lower rating than the inverter battery.

Thanks will do right away. It's been four hours already.

[sgiitk]

I have a 7.5kVA Eicher DG set which I bought in September 2015 with a Two year warranty from SP Sales Kanpur an authorized dealer. The unit was delivered and installed. I found the fuel level was not showing, so I complained to their national helpline in Chennai. Sure enough a man came and then replaced the indicator.

Things were rosy, with two services on schedule. In May thi year, when we had massive power failures across Kanpur, we found that the fuel filler hose had burst. This was a period of four days when we had no power, and were running the DG set almost continuously. So I complained on 26 May and also bought a hose from the local market and kept it going. I got a call the next day, and trying to be helpful told the person (Mr Pradeep) than he can take a few days and check and change the hose in case it is sub standard. Nobody ever showed up.

On the 7th July I was unable to crank the engine. Complained to the central umber and a man (Mr Krishna Murari) showed up within three hours. He found the battery dead, and wanted me to pull the battery our of my car to check. I refused. I asked him as to why, since the mains charging circuit was also connected. He was obviously unaware of the panel, since he claimed it was wired into the wrong place (done by Eicher people). Finally, it turned out the the charger was bad and blowing fuses. I got my mains charger used for cars and had him connect it to the battery. In his report he clearly mentioned that the charger was to be replaced. He also said it was available locally and he will replace it in a day or two. Nothing happened.

Today I again called up Chennai, and they had reported 'no problem found' and no mention of the charger. The chap took down a fresh complaint.

Now the problem may be due to the Service Centre (AS Agencies) being with the second dealer, and some internecine issues.

Be warned about the service from Eicher if you buy your DG set from them.

[lurker]

Mahindra Powerol and Kirloskar have the best ASS from the domestic manufacturers for the type of DG Gensets you are looking at.

[audioholic]

I need some suggestion related to the battery of our Kirloskar 30KVA DG. In our area power cuts are quite rare. If that is a good thing, it happens somewhat once a week and that too for a small amount of time, around 10-15 minutes. Due to this, the generator is also run for similar amount of time manually by the security guard. However, the short running times make the battery lose charge. The battery will have enough juice for one crank and if the generator fails to fire up at the first crank, the battery would not be able to give enough current for the next crank. I feel this is due to insufficient charging of the battery. If we jump start the generator it fires up well.

Before we consider changing the battery, I was thinking of adding a charger permanently to the generator so that the battery can be charged time to time even if the generator is not used. We have told the security to run the generator daily for around 10-15 minutes but I have a gut feeling this is nowhere sufficient enough to charge the battery well. At least if there is an external charger connected, it will keep the battery in top shape at a lesser cost and lesser need for intervention.

Has anyone done this? Any suggestions for any brand of charger or any automated ones which will do top up regularly? This would be of great help.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I need some suggestion related to the battery of our Kirloskar 30KVA DG. In our area power cuts are quite rare. If that is a good thing, it happens somewhat once a week and that too for a small amount of time, around 10-15 minutes. Due to this, the generator is also run for similar amount of time manually by the security guard. However, the short running times make the battery lose charge. The battery will have enough juice for one crank and if the generator fails to fire up at the first crank, the battery would not be able to give enough current for the next crank. I feel this is due to insufficient charging of the battery. If we jump start the generator it fires up well.

Before we consider changing the battery, I was thinking of adding a charger permanently to the generator so that the battery can be charged time to time even if the generator is not used. We have told the security to run the generator daily for around 10-15 minutes but I have a gut feeling this is nowhere sufficient enough to charge the battery well. At least if there is an external charger connected, it will keep the battery in top shape at a lesser cost and lesser need for intervention.

Has anyone done this? Any suggestions for any brand of charger or any automated ones which will do top up regularly? This would be of great help.

Get a "Trickle charger" suitable for the battery capacity. That will charge the battery at a low rate and can be kept on all the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle_charging
http://www.carsdirect.com/car-repair...rickle-charger
http://www.amazon.in/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw...l_46rm9ylcxp_b

http://www.amazon.in/Generic-Trickle...ttery+chargers

[bluevolt]

Power situation in our area has improved a lot in last 5-6 years. There is hardly any power cut except for planned outages or snags. This too happens once in a blue moon. So our 11 years old Luminous invertor Home UPS 600VA was lying idle with a dead battery since last 2-3 years.

Since I need 24*7 connectivity at home at times, I decided to replace the current 135 ah battery with a 90ah battery to support wi-fi routers/phone/PC, a couple of tube lights and fans in case of very occasional cut off that we have once or twice in couple of months.

I got 90ah Luminous LIVFAST brand for Rs. 4000 after exchanging my old 135 ah battery. I hope I got a good deal that will serve my purpose.

PS - Can tractor batteries be used in invertors? I believe the LIVFAST sub brand of tractor batteries from Luminous.

[HillMan]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

PS - Can tractor batteries be used in invertors? I believe the LIVFAST sub brand of tractor batteries from Luminous.

It might work well for your situation of rare power outage and for short durations. For general UPS/invertor use automotive batteries are not recommended, reason deep discharge. It has to do with the internal design of the battery.

[ashokrajagopal]

Hi,

I stay at a rented place with no power backup. The outages are not unbearable, and they are not of long duration either. But I would still like to have basic power backup for a modem, a couple of mobile chargers, 2 fans, a couple of lights etc; the basic power backup.
My priority obviously is lower cost and some setup that wouldnt involve rewiring. If it is portable that would be great.

From my calculation, it looks like I wouldnt need anything more than an 800VA setup, and for safe side, 1000VA would be apt. Which company should I go for ?

Any pointers ? Also, any contacts who do sets up this sort of thing in Koramangala area in B'lore ?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by lurker

Mahindra Powerol and Kirloskar have the best ASS from the domestic manufacturers for the type of DG Gensets you are looking at.

At a recent trade exhibition, I was looking at both these.

During power cuts we can, at a pinch, live with one lamp and one fan. We are not at all looking to keep the "whole house" powered. Now, an inverter and a decent battery will do this. Ours has kept us going today through one of those nine-to-five maintenance outages. Luckily, it has not been a hot day, and I did not turn on the PC. Kept the modem and wifi on, and used the phone.

I had been thinking of buying, as a luxury, one of those portable Honda units that is enough to keep one AC going. Those things really are portable. Cost over 1 Lakh.

I was surprised to find out that it does not cost very much much more to go for the "portable" diesel genset from the above makes. Portable? Well, wheelable, I suppose, but that is not an issue.

This would keep us cool when they do this power-cut stuff to us in May. But... There is no point in buying it if it does not also keep us... dry.

It must be able to support our submersible drainage pump.

C.R.I. CSL-PV15-CS

1.5kW, 2.0HP; single phase; Max Current 7.5A.

I wonder if I can be sure that that 7.5 amp includes the start-up-under-load peak? Well, it does say "Max!" and this thing comes with an ordinary mains plug, not even the higher-rated ones used for AC machines. My hunch is that it will.

The Mahindra people at the expo said they would send a man with a meter. They never called back, which is not a good sign. I don't think I'd trust my cheapish multimeter to catch a fleeting start-up load.

[rdst_1]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I wonder if I can be sure that that 7.5 amp includes the start-up-under-load peak? Well, it does say "Max!" and this thing comes with an ordinary mains plug, not even the higher-rated ones used for AC machines. My hunch is that it will.

That's strange. My 1.5HP single phase submersible borewell pump comes with a proper starter with a built in voltmeter and ammeter. The startup current goes to 11-12A even if just for a second. It settles at 6-7A, so in your case too, 7.5A should be the running current and not the start-up peak current.

[lurker]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

At a recent trade exhibition, I was looking at both these.

.

hi,

I am presently using a 2 KW solar off-grid solution. It has 8 panels of 250w each.
8 batteries of 150 AH.

This can run a .5 hp motor pumping water. 2 refrigerators, 1 deep freezer, one .75 ton AC for 12 hours.

During peak sunlight hours between 9AM - 3PM, this panel generates around 16.5 amperes for 3 hours and 32 amps for 3 hours. For low sunlight or cloudy conditions power generated in 5-6 amps.

I paid around 1.4 lakhs for everything and around 10 k for installation because my roof if east west facing sloping design and if I wanted govt subsidy then the panels must face south.

Since I was getting govt subsidy under rooftop solar scheme, I received 8 batteries (exide solar tubular 150AH) worth 20K each (that itself comes to 1.6 lakhs) and 8 Tata-BP solar panels all included in the cost including the aluminum frame for installation. One Tata-BP solar inverter and one 40 amp MCB + grid meter. There is 5 year warranty on battery and 20 year warranty on solar panel.

After the batteries go kaput, I am planning to install more solar panels and increase solar power generation in place of batteries.

If you want to go fully solar off-grid, just opt for a 5 KW system. And be done with it. This system will even run your inverter AC throughout the day.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

That's strange. My 1.5HP single phase submersible borewell pump comes with a proper starter with a built in voltmeter and ammeter. The startup current goes to 11-12A even if just for a second. It settles at 6-7A, so in your case too, 7.5A should be the running current and not the start-up peak current.

Mine is a "portable" wastewater pump, not a bore pump. It does not have to raise water tens of meters. I put portable in quotes, because it is, with a handle on top, but it is not one of little ones that one could swing along walking down the street. It's hard work even to lift it.



Not clearly visible in the picture is the float switch. No more rushing about in night-time cloudbursts, struggling with starting engines and priming (OK, starting the little Honda is easy, once having got it going the forst time after it has had a few months rest: getting it to suck, not always so easy). The submersible just works. By design, obviously never needs priming, never gets a clogged up foot valve or a leaky stuffing box, simply chews up (although it is not a grinder model) leaves, mud etc and spits it out. Although both rated "2hp," it shifts way more water than its petrol-powered cousin. It's wonderful. We can watch the garden not even getting flooded from the window.

As long as we have electricity.

Part of the thing there is that it is permanently installed. Actually, due to local idiocy, we have to pump out even our house waste water, as the road is now higher than the house/garden. Consequently, it is always ahead of the weather. This, as opposed to watching the water creep up the drive and then realising perhaps I ought to get out there and do something about it.

Originally Posted by lurker

I am presently using a 2 KW solar off-grid solution. It has 8 panels of 250w each.
8 batteries of 150 AH.

I'd love to go solar! I was really planning a small system a few months back, but a financial mishap screwed up my plan.

After December '15, wife is justifiably nervous (and so am I! In fact: whole city still in PTSS?). Fact: nothing can save us from a similar quantity of water. But we can save ourselves from minor flooding. I think solar would do very nicely for many of our needs, and make a substantial dent in our high EB bill (whereas a generator just adds diesel to the household budget), but worst-case requirement is to be able to run that motor, day and night, for several days.

[lurker]

since there is less likelihood of water ever reaching your rooftop. Solar will be a good solution. A diesel genset has its own set of benefits like operating your heavy loads and charging inverter batteries once depleted.

But it will not reduce the electricity bill.

Our consumption is roughly 10 units aka 10 Kwh per day. Last months billing cycle despite maximum number of cloudy days due to monsoon, this was reduced in half. Instead of 700 units in 2 months, now I am at 350 units in 2 months. This will come down further when sunlight is more plentiful.