Dave B's posts

Here's a bit more on the overall setup.  There are two solar arrays, each routed through an Outback MX60 charge controller and separate DC breakers/disconnects.  Each charge controller is routed to separate ends of the two series strings of the battery array to balance the charging.  The windmill is a Southwest Windpower Skystream 3.7 wired as 240VAC and backfeeding the mains distribution panel through a Southwest Windpower battery charging relay disconnect.  The power panel is Trace/Xantrex configured with two inverters (a SW4048 and a SW5548), a DC disconnect and and an AC disconnect.  There is an Onan RS12000 generator fed in through the Trace AC Disconnect.

I have gone out and used the DC breakers to remove the solar arrays from the picture during nighttime (to make sure there is not a failed panel diode somewhere) - no impact to the TriMetric readings.  I have also removed the wind turbine and it's battery charging relay by completely unwiring the thing at its entrypoint to the mains panel and it's battery voltage monitoring points - also no impact to the TriMetric readings.  I've also isolated out the inverters (and any such AC load sources) also with no impact.

It's installed with the required shunt.  The system has been installed for about 10 years and working fine until the last few months when this "load" started showing up.

I have a 48V battery bank of 16 Trojan L16s (2 banks of 8 batteries connected in parallel), off-grid, serviced by 3600W solar and 1800W wind.  I monitor the bank with a TriMetric 2020 configured for 48V.  Lately I've been noticing a significant load registering on the system via the TriMetric, as much as 20-25A above what I used to get as system idle current draws.  I've disconnected all load sources, inverters, etc. and still see this phantom load appearing.  Obviously, this is undesirable as it significantly discharges my battery bank each night.  The battery bank isn't in perfect condition (~5 yrs old) and has some weaker cells showing, I've tried equalized the bank, rotating battery positions, reworked terminal connections - all no luck so far.  My two possible conclusions are: 1) a faulty TriMetric that is actually creating this load it is detecting, or 2) the differences in battery cell voltages creates a current draw.  Are either of these conclusions likely?  Is there something else I could be looking at?  Thanks.