Voltage balancing for PbA Chemistry

We do not have a device that will balance cells in the PbA voltage range. Most PbA batteries are a 6S configuration where the internal nodes are not accessible, so cell balancing is not practical.

Thank you very much Thomas for the reply.

However, some doubts remain.

As BQ34Z100-G1 is intended for use with PbA chemistry also, I assume there are some intended use cases. What are they?

For example, many industrial applications, battery bank is made up of high capacity single cell batteries. In this case each unit is a cell and there is no need for cell balancing.

Please guide.

Thanks and regards,
Sreekumar

Sreekumar,
We have customers using the bq34z100-G1 in several different applications with PbA cells. A lot of them are home power back up systems. Others include high capacity applications, various smaller capacity backup systems, battery monitors, etc.
Tom

Thomas,

My understanding is summarized follows:

1. bq34z100-G1 can be used for monitoring PbA single cell unit based power banks, with one battery monitor per cell
2. bq34z100-G1 cannot be used for monitoring multi-cell assemblies (e.g. Six cell assemblies .. 12V etc.) .
This is because:
i. There is no voltage balancing device available for PbA chemistry
ii. PbA multi cell batteries do not have individual cell terminals available for voltage balancing

Pls. comment/ confirm.

Also pls. comment on the accuracy of bq34z100-G1 when used with multi cell assemblies without voltage balancing

Thanks and regards,
-Sreekumar

We have a lot of users using the device with 6S PbA packs. The accuracy will be impacted if the cells are not balanced, but the gauge is considered to be a 5% gauge and this is part of the accuracy estimate.

I can confirm that using the gauge on lead acid packs we have seen around 5% accuracy from 100-around 65% SOC and below we are seeing 1-2 % accuracy and my US collogue has done a lot of testing and balancing PbA cells is not practical