Troy Rhodes

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since Feb 17, 2011
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Recent posts by Troy Rhodes

Tommy Wilder wrote:

Jeremy Torquoize wrote:New guy, new year! What's up? Has anyone here heard of the battery life saver? (BLS)
https://youtu.be/wtXhV4Qxk6g
It's said to salvage and maintain lead acid batteries by breaking up the crystal deposits that build up inside. I'll summarise the main points about it from what I've gathered.
•~$100
•Works in parallel with the battery bank (yes, all the batteries, all at once)
•Available for various voltage base Banks: you have to get one that matches the voltage range of your system.
•uses patented square wave technology to break up leftover crystal deposits inside the batteries.
•works upon full charge and discharge cycles
•uses a small amount of the batteries' own power, and often comes with a switch.

"It discharged my golf cart battery in one or two weeks!" Says one review. "We don't even use the golf cart that much." (I'm just paraphrasing)

Here's some Amazon reviews
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-BLS-48N-System-Desulfator-Rejuvenator/product-reviews/B006X26YA4

It has mixed reviews on Amazon, but I doubt they're all educated on how it actually works. One review mentioned frying someone's charger, which makes sense since it pumps square waves into the circuit. At least that's how I understand it.

That being said, I wonder how it would get along with certain kinds of charge controllers and other sensitive moderators. Late mention, I've never done solar in my life. I'm in the research phase, but I have a basic understanding of electronics. The science makes sense and I'm willing to try it. If it can extend the life of lead acid batteries like the claim said, it could be a major game changer.



Jeremy, you might want to research the chemical reactions in lead-acid batteries: it's a bit of a public "secret" that lead-acid batteries are slowly damaged, hence the short lifetime, by never let the battery control thecharging voltage. It is usually limited at 14 - 14.5v. Try hooking up a healthy lead-acid battery to a 12v solar panel and monitor the voltage. (Solarpanel should be able to handle the charge current). You will notice that the voltage rises until often 15.8-16.2v, and then settles around 15v later on. This is super important as at that moment of the top-voltage, ALL sulfate is back into the h2so4 solution, thereby bringing the battery in new condition.

In other words, allmost all chargers are slow killers, including the car charging system. If you could design or buy a charge system which has this option, your lead-acid battery might last you double, if not triple it's lifetime (speculation on my side!)

Happy researching!
Tom



A "controlled overcharge", which is pretty much what Tom described, is certainly a useful tool for prolonging the life of deep cycle lead acid batteries.  But it comes at a cost.  Shoving the last few percent of capacity into a battery becomes inefficient and will consume a disproportionate amount of electricity compared to what you actually store.  Plus, the battery will start to warm up and produce hydrogen gas in excess.  This will generally cause faster loss of electrolyte, so you'd have to watch it carefully.  Pushing too hard for too long can also start to cause material to be lost from the plates.

It's all a big balancing act.  The more sophisticated battery charging systems will have an input to monitor battery temperature for exactly this reason.
6 years ago

Jeremy Torquoize wrote:New guy, new year! What's up? Has anyone here heard of the battery life saver? (BLS)
https://youtu.be/wtXhV4Qxk6g
It's said to salvage and maintain lead acid batteries by breaking up the crystal deposits that build up inside. I'll summarise the main points about it from what I've gathered.
•~$100
•Works in parallel with the battery bank (yes, all the batteries, all at once)
•Available for various voltage base Banks: you have to get one that matches the voltage range of your system.
•uses patented square wave technology to break up leftover crystal deposits inside the batteries.
•works upon full charge and discharge cycles
•uses a small amount of the batteries' own power, and often comes with a switch.

"It discharged my golf cart battery in one or two weeks!" Says one review. "We don't even use the golf cart that much." (I'm just paraphrasing)

Here's some Amazon reviews
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-BLS-48N-System-Desulfator-Rejuvenator/product-reviews/B006X26YA4

It has mixed reviews on Amazon, but I doubt they're all educated on how it actually works. One review mentioned frying someone's charger, which makes sense since it pumps square waves into the circuit. At least that's how I understand it.

That being said, I wonder how it would get along with certain kinds of charge controllers and other sensitive moderators. Late mention, I've never done solar in my life. I'm in the research phase, but I have a basic understanding of electronics. The science makes sense and I'm willing to try it. If it can extend the life of lead acid batteries like the claim said, it could be a major game changer.



If you're starting with new batteries and a modern charge controller, don't bother.  If you want to experiment, and try to salvage some batteries with a ringer and then put them into your system, that would make sense.  I am unconvinced pulsers/ringers/rejuvinators really gain you much in a significantly sulfated battery.  
6 years ago

Ben Zumeta wrote:Good point, and all my rambling aside, I am buildplanning to build a passive solar greenhouse in a cloudy climate and no such plan to do any hydro, so I should just stay on topic



Meh....it's always worthwhile to explore a new idea.  Sometimes they work out.  Sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they change the world.  
6 years ago

Ben Zumeta wrote:I should have specified I meant like warehouse sized roof catchments, or even box stores and their parking lots. But that still has obvious hurdles.



That doesn't actually change the outcome of the math.  The roof is 100 times bigger, and the conditioned space that needs the heat or cold or whatever....is 100 times bigger.
6 years ago

Ben Zumeta wrote:It seems to me micro-hydro, even that which is primarily connected to large roof catchment, might have more potential in wet, cloudy climates. At the least it would be complementary to solar.



If you do the math, there's not much energy to be harvested from roof catchment.

This is an excellent microhydro calculator:  http://www.nooutage.com/hydroele.htm#How%20much%20power

As an example, if you have a head pressure of 10' and you are collecting 7 gallons per minute at a total turbine/generator efficiency of 50% (wildly optimistic for a small setup) it produces 5 watts.

So if it rained 24/7 for a month you could collect 3.6'ish kilowatthours.

6 years ago
So, how did things go over the winter??

How did the stove go, etc etc etc.  

thanks
6 years ago
Youtube has changed the deal. Pray they do not change it further.

Some very big youtube content creators saw their income take a huge cut after the advertising boycott.  This produced an aha moment for many of them.  They were digital share croppers.  While they might be "successful," their continued financial success depended on youtube keeping the same rules in play.  Risky...

So, a number of them, like Cody's lab for example, started a patreon account so they could have a direct relationship with the people who enjoyed their content.  If youtube changes the money rules, it now affects them much less, or not at all.  If youtube becomes unpopular, they can migrate their content to another venue, but the revenue stream still goes directly to them via Patreon.  Youtube never touches the money.

If you get 10,000 people who watch your videos regularly, and 5% of them like it so much they want to send you a couple bucks a month on patreon, that's $12,000 a year.
7 years ago
I would plant it and be done with it (except for watering...).  The more times you move it, the more times you set it back.

Willow water wouldn't hurt anything.

In my experience, the faster they go in the ground, the better they do.

7 years ago
For sure, you need to remove at least 1/2 of the leaves.

I would even cut the top half off, and then remove some leaves.


If you can give it 75% shade the first week or two, along with regular watering (but not overwatering).


7 years ago
Yup, it's normal if the water is hard and/or has iron in it.

The Berkey will not remove hardness.  That takes reverse osmosis filtration.


Every pay extra for the fancy mineral water in the bottle?   Guess what's coming out of your tap...extra fancy mineral water.

Not all mineral water is good for you, but most of it is.  

If you have any concerns your public health department likely has inexpensive water testing for the common problems.

7 years ago