[RE-wrenches] Battery Charger

[Brian Teitelbaum]

Orion,

If the Generac generator is running at 58Hz, it means that the engine speed is about 120rpm too low (on a 3600rpm genny; half that for a 1800rpm unit). There should be some sort of adjustment to the engine governor on the unit, but I'm not familiar enough with the newer Generacs to know where it is, or even if there is an adjustment. If it's electronically governed, rather than mechanically, you may need to replace the electronic unit.

Or, you may just be overloading the generator. You might try turning down the charge rate on the OutBacks.

All this is still not a  guarantee that the OutBacks will sync up.


Brian Teitelbaum
AEE Solar



From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Orion Thornton
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 11:43 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Battery Charger

Wrenches,

We recently installed a grid-tie battery backup system using two Outback GVFX 3648 inverters.  The client has an existing Generac backup generator, 8 kW @ 240VAC.  From the beginning we told the client that the power quality from the Generac may not be within tolerance to integrate with the grid-tie inverters and charge batteries.  This assumption was confirmed today when we commissioned and tested the system.  The output frequency of the Generac was 58 hz.

To get to the point does anyone have a battery charger they recommend for this application?-8 kW @ 240VAC generator output to 48VDC battery bank.  Or maybe another suggestion to be able to integrate the generator into the system, we are also planning on manually transferring the generator output to power the critical loads if an inverter goes down.

It also seems that the dc genset controls through the mate would be the best way to control the battery charger-any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Orion Thornton
Project Manager
Independent Power Systems
NABCEP Certified PV Installer
(W) 406.587.5295
(C)  406.249.9912
www.solarips.com<http://www.solarips.com/>




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