5 - Troubleshooting / Q&A
1.
Why is the battery bank suddenly shutting off?
○
Likely, one or more of your batteries are not at the same voltage as the
others. Those batteries are hitting the upper or lower voltage cutoffs
ahead of the others. When those batteries shut themselves off to protect
themselves, the battery bank drops below the operating voltage of the
inverter. Check all of the battery connections. Charge each battery up to
14.1 V. If the problem persists, please contact KiloVault.
○
Your loads (DC load or inverter) have exceeded the current capacity of the
batteries bank. KiloVault batteries can handle 150 A continuous and 500
A very briefly. If your known loads are close to 150 A continuous or have
very high surge loads like pumps or HVAC systems, your loads may
simply be too high for your bank. Please contact KiloVault about adding
an additional parallel row of KiloVault batteries to your bank.
2.
Why aren’t the battery voltages staying equal over time?
○
The battery cables are not of equal length or are damaged. Check to
make sure that all battery interconnects are of equal length, gauge and
are in good condition.
○
Cable terminal hardware is not tightened properly. Check to make sure
that all terminal hardware is tightened to
88.51 to 97.36 in lb (10 - 11 Nm).
Check to make sure all of the crimps on all cables are tight and solid. Use the
Ohms (
Ω
) setting on a voltmeter to measure the resistance of the battery
interconnect cables. They should all be within 0.1 ohms of each other.
3.
Why has the battery reversed polarity?
○
Verify the voltmeter probe orientation.
○
The battery has dropped into the low voltage protection range and the
BMS has shut down the battery. If so, you can wait for the battery to reset
or you can connect the battery to a 14.1V charge.
4.
Why is the battery turning off and off when it is connected to a small DC
device or inverter?
○
The KiloVault® batteries have an automatic standby mode where they will
shut themselves down if they do not see a load of more than 200-250
mA. That is about 3 Watts per series battery (i.e. 3 watts for a single 12 V
battery, 6 watts for 24 V series, and 12 watts for 48 V). In the standby
mode the battery turns back on about every 15-20 seconds to search and
KiloVault
®
LLC • 330 Codman Hill Road, Boxborough, MA 01719 • +1 (888) 218-5924 •
•
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