SAFIERY UNIVERSITY
HEALTHY ALARMS
THREE TYPES of BATTERY ALARMS.
This technical article is designed to give value to the reader through more knowledge on alarm management.
Firstly, there are 3 different types of ALARMS:
- Those that signal a “pre-condition”; to give you time to control the situation.
- Those that signal a problem to react to!
- Those that signal a “healthy” condition; to allow change in operation.
Here are examples:
1. Battery “Pre-condition” ALARMS:
-
“State of Charge” (SOC) ALARM
This ALARM sets the State Of Charge (SOC) level that will trigger an ALARM. For AGM Batteries, setting this at say 60% will give you time to adjust battery usage before you reach the 50% Depth of Discharge level.
-
“Time to Go” TTG ALARM
This ALARM sets the Time to Discharge or Time to Go (TTG) hours that will trigger and ALARM. For your lifestyle, setting this at say 4 hours will give you time to adjust battery usage before you reach the critical voltage level of 20% SOC.
This type of alarm is really a “HEALTHY” Alert to you.
2. Battery ALARMS:
-
“Battery Voltage” ALARM
This ALARM sets the Voltage level that will trigger an ALARM.
For AGM Batteries, if there is a major current draw from an inverter, the voltage can drop while the inverter is operating and then bounce back once it is off.
Setting a control condition to turn the battery supply off based on battery voltage can be unwise in this situation. For this reason there is a “delay” that can be set in case the battery voltage recovers after a low condition.
However, in the end this is the condition to let you know that your battery condition is critical.
2. HEALTHY ALARMS:
-
“ALARM HIGH” on SOC and TIME to GO
If you are charging your battery with a generator, it can be very helpfull to know when your batteries are full or nearly full. By setting the ALARM HIGH on the State of Charge to say 95% or even 100%, you can get an alert when this is reached.
This is more helpfull and reliable than the Battery Voltage. There is no guarantee based on the battery voltage alone that the batteries are fully charge. This is even more important with Lithium batteries.
GEO-FENCING and REMOTE MONITORING
The other type of Pre-condition Alarm can be generated using “geo-fencing” on a GPS connected COMMS-X device.
This device will also monitor your battery healthy, your geo-position and another alarm input like “AC Power has dropped out” or “intruder alarm”. This means that if you have your RV in Storage or your boat on shore power at a marine, you can monitor these events.
Screenshot appears below.
Other Alarms are available for:
-
Tank Alarms: low and high
-
Temperature Alarms: low and high
Video on Alarms:
SCREENSHOT of Remote Monitoring Display on Phone:
