Standby battery bank discharge test
Standby battery bank discharge test
(OP)
We have standby battery banks to provide DC power for our generating stations. Recently we started a monthly discharge test where we turn off the battery charger for five minutes to test the capacity/condition of the batteries. There has been some conflicting ideas on whether this is a good practice or not. Any insight?






RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
How old are your batteries ? What type ?
What was your previous discharge test frequency ? How deep of a discharge did you do in terms of % of its nominal terminal voltage ? How long before you got to the roll off voltage ?
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
Capacity test (capacity test) should be done
▪ at the installation (acceptance test)
▪ Periodically. Intervals should not be greater than 25% of
the expected service life or two years, whichever is less.
▪ Where impedance values has changed significantly
between readings or physically changes has occurred
▪ annually when the battery shows signs of degradation or
has reached 85% of the expected service life. Degradation
is indicated when the battery capacity drops more than
10% from its capacity on the previous capacity test or is
below 90% of manufacturers rating.
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
You may want to look at Impedence testing, using something like Maggers EBITE system. Works great for monitoring condition of your cells.
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
so far that procedure have not changed along with monthly visual inspection to ensure battery are either not being overcharged and floated properly and no visible sign of sulphation.
megger battery what ?
RE: Standby battery bank discharge test
I started in the UPS industry back in about '87. The only way to properly test a battery bank back then was to do a fairly deep discharge and monitor the voltage across each cell. Nearly 30 years later it still hasn't changed :)
Yes, an impedance test can certainly tell you that a battery has failed, or is about to, but it is still nowhere near the certainty that a discharge test will provide.