Battery Equaliser test.                   KENDAL POWER STATION      19/06/01

Unit 1. P.A. System.

Battery Type:                                                          YHP 21. 1200 A/Hr 26 Volt Bank.

Charger Type:                                                         ‘Static Power’ 30Volt 150 A/hr.

Purpose of Test:

• To establish the power consumed from the AC power supply to maintain the battery in a similar state of charge without and with the addition of the Battery Equaliser formula.
• Secondary test, to establish any battery performance improvement with the use of the additive.

Step One.

Record the charger readings.

Using a ‘Fluke’ 36 Tong Tester, the AC ampere current was measured on each of the 3 phase wires leading to the ammeter.

First phase:               1.3 AC Amps.

Second phase:         1.0 AC Amps.

Third phase:             1.2 AC Amps.

Float charge: 9 Amps DC output. 30 Volts.

Step Two.

The charger was deactivated at exactly 11.00 Am.

The cells were allowed a 20 minute settling period before readings were taken.

Step Three.

In order to prevent damage to the battery plates, it was established by Battery Equaliser International, that a load of 100 Amps for a period of 5 hours be drawn from the battery to establish a base line test. This would allow the battery to be placed back into immediate service without causing any complication to the stations emergency requirements.

Although there was a large amount of scale present within the cells, there appeared to be no evidence of positive plate growth or ‘buckling’ of the plates.

BASE TEST.

CONCLUSION

The initial individual cell voltage was low, but acceptable. The initial specific gravity readings were indicative of an undercharged battery.

The unit if float charged at approximately 0.5% of its capacity, which on initial inspection, does assist with voltage. This however, did drop several points rapidly

When placed on a 100 Ampere open circuit load.

Step 4.

The cells were treated with the Battery Equaliser Fluid.

Step 5.

The battery was placed on charge at 17.30 hrs. The initial charging amps climbed to 150 Ampere per hour. The charge had tapered down to 7 Amps at 8.00 hrs the next day.

Step 6.

At exactly 9.30 hours, Wednesday the 20^th of June, 01, the charger ammeter wires were checked for AC current draw.

The results were:

First phase:               1.4 AC Amps.

Second phase:         1.0 AC Amps.

Third phase:             1.2 AC Amps.

Float charge: 7 Amps DC output. 30 Volts.

Step 7.

The charger was deactivated at exactly 9.55 AM.

The cells were again allowed a 20 minute settling period before readings were taken.

No true conclusion can be drawn from the initial discharge test incorporating the Battery Equaliser additive at this time.

The interesting point is that, although it is clear from the Specific Gravity readings, that the battery is not yet fully charged, voltage readings on open circuit are notably higher than the initial discharge without the treatment.

Step 8.

Initial charge DC output was back up to 150 Amps/ 30 Volts at 14.00 hrs.

It remained there until approximately 16.30 hrs when it tapered down to 50 Amps. At 08.00 hrs, on the 21^st of June, the charger was float charging at 7 Amps.

Step 9.

Standard float voltage will be checked again on Friday 22^nd June to verify any increase thereof.

The next examination of results has been established for Wednesday 27^th June.

Wednesday 27^th June.

The battery charger was checked at approximately 10.30 hrs. The battery was on full voltage and the charger output requirement had dropped to 2.5 Amps.

From the previous month’s records and the initial ‘Base Line Test’ records, this reflects an enormous drop in charge requirement to approximately 20% of the power requirement to maintain charge levels. This is almost an 80% reduction in power draw.

Not only is the charge requirement affected by the addition of the Battery Equaliser product, the voltage retention under load, shows a clear improvement of the batteries overall condition.

Step 11.

The battery was allowed a 50 minute settling time to establish if the charging voltage would drop any further than that reflected in previous reports.

The results are as shown.

As evident in the completed charts we may conclude the following:

1.    The power consumption to maintain float charge has been reduced by almost

Eighty percent.

2.    The cell voltage has improved overall.

3.    The initial load of 100 Ampere did not spike or drop the cell voltage as before.

It was also noted that during both charge & discharge cycles, that the cells had reduced in plate gassing quite substantially.

This battery bank & charger will continue to be observed and monitored for a further six months on a regular basis.

The engineers at Kendal Power Station keep accurate records of all of the batteries (8000+ cells) and the charging rates. Using the past twelve months as a base along with the initial check at the beginning of this test, we were able to establish that, in order to maintain the battery at the required voltage for emergency usage, a constant charge rate of 9-10 ampere was being fed into the battery.

After the addition of the product 'Battery Equaliser' into each of the cells, the required charging current to maintain the acceptable voltage was automatically reduced to 2.5 ampere. This reduction was not made by manual resetting of the charger, it was an automatic reaction.

Because the product was able to reduce the battery's resistance to charge, the charger was doing less work to generate 'acceptable voltage'. Thus the charger required less current from the power supply to obtain the same result.

UPDATE:  July 9^th, 2001

Most recent investigation (this week) shows that the charger is still operating at 2.5 Amps.

Battery Equaliser International wishes to thank the following members of the Kendal Power Station ‘Power Electronics’ team for their assistance and cooperation throughout the initial test period.

Messieurs: Leon van der Merwe, Johan Havenga, Chris Ntuli and Rod Young.