Catastrophic Product Failure

Item: First National Battery
Rating: 1
Author: Diederik van 't Hof

Here is a copy of my correspondence with First National Battery. The response I got was that I need to get the batteries tested myself, and get back to them. There was no offer of help, no offer of backup batteries - nothing. After I had the batteries tested, and they were proved faulty - the "Rep" put the phone down on me! This is the company that makes/manufactures batteries for most major vehicle brands in South Africa. ========================================================= Dear Sir / Madam In September 2015 I purchased solar panels, inverters and batteries through a company called ERGS Energy Solutions. The batteries I purchased were 175AH AGM batteries manufactured by yourselves. These products we installed at my premises during the course of September and October 2015. The initial system of 12x 250W panels and 8 x 175AH batteries was sold to me as a complete system with enough capacity to take me off grid. This initial installation however did not perform to expectations. It was installed when one of my geysers was already a solar system, and the other was not. At best this system delivered a power reserve of maximum 4kW/h. Because of the failure of this, I converted every single light in the house to LED, the second geyser was also converted to solar. In addition the geysers were also converted to LPG backup. I was further convinced to purchase more panels and batteries as I was told the capacity of the initial system was not sufficient. This I did. Please see invoices dated 27 Jan 2016 for 6x 250W panels and 16 April for a further 4x 175AH batteries. The panels were installed but still could not charge the initial batteries sufficiently, nor could it charge the now bank of 12 batteries when installed. When I enquired as to why this system is not working, I was given the following answers: 1. You are not getting enough “Bulk charge’ 2. Your panel alignment is not correct 3. Your panel orientation is not correct 4. You are not getting enough charge on the system 5. Late afternoon the indicated Voltage drop on the batteries goes from a fully charged 54v to 45v within an hour. I was told this is normal? I took the following steps to fix these issues: 1. I have tried 7 different configurations of panels on the roof. I have even resorted to mounting 3 panels on West-facing wall in order to power the house by the setting sun because of voltage drop in the batteries during the late afternoon. 2. I have had the panels flat on the roof. 3. I have built mountings for the panels to increase the angle towards the sun. 4. I have re-arranged the placement of the panels. 5. I have spent hours configuring the system as to charge rate, max charge allowed etc 6. I have repeatedly disconnected 8 of the batteries for a day in order to “bulk charge” and desulphonate the remaining battery bank. NONE of the above worked. To give you some info on my house and setup: At “idle” – when the family goes to sleep – we idle at between 95W and 115W. The freezer and gate motor battery are on timing switches – no draw from 19:00 to 09:00. The geysers are solar and LPG. The Max draw indicated on the inverters when the family is active – this is early evening / dinner / watching TV – is around 650W. The family normally retires around 22:00. From 22:00 to 04:50 the house idles at 100W. The geysers will pump water twice during the night for heating phase if necessary – each pump draws 30W for 10min. If I calculate that I work out a maximum usage of around 4,5kW/h to 5kW/h. In theory my battery bank should hold upwards of 12kW/h. Clearly there is something drastically wrong. The panels at peak – 15x 250W (remember the 3 facing West) produce 3,5kW – which is very close to the 3,75kW rating – so I cannot believe that there is insufficient charge. This peak time runs from around 10:45 through to 15:00. The Inverters indicate that the max power is not needed, they go to “float charge” and then reach the point where they start conditioning the battery bank – indicated by rapid up/down symbols on the inverter screen. All this tells me that there is sufficient charge. The only conclusion I can reach is that the batteries sold to me were faulty or really bad quality. The system has never been at capacity. All the batteries apparently come from the same “batch” – the second “phase” of purchasing was delayed as the additional 4 batteries sourced also came from the same batch. These batteries – now a collection of 12 – barely hold 1,2kW/h. This is clearly a major fault in batteries that are 18 months and 12 months old. Currently the batteries, after a full day on charge, cut out by 19:00 / 19:30. This necessitates that my house is run on generator for at least three hours. In theory this should also charge the batteries. At 10:30 / 11:00 we turn off the generator and the power on idle only lasts till 02:00. This gives me 0,4kW/h???? 4 of the batteries have now gone for testing - through ERGS. You were not prepared to help me. I have now reached the end of my tolerance with this situation, and with the multitude of stories being told to me. The situation now is affecting my family, the security of my house, as well as my health. The system does not hold charge for more than 3 hours. My children wake up in the dark and cannot get ready for school, my business is being affected as I cannot work on a PC in the evening, and my health is being affected as I do not sleep worrying about the security of my property. I expect the batteries to be replaced, and I now demand immediate action on this. I have repeatedly spoken to Alva Paulsen who does not bother to phone me back. I have also spoken to a Mr. Peter Smalse (?) who promptly said to me that he was the wrong person to speak to - but that he would investigate for me. AGAIN A DEAFENING SILENCE! I have 4 “loan” batteries from ERGS (200AGH batteries) and they perform better than the complete array of 12 batteries of your manufacture!! Clearly customer support is not one your strongest points. Regards, Diederik van ‘t Hof

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