[RE-wrenches] Additional Battery Charger

[Mick Abraham]

I definitely like to require the generator to work hard for every hour in
which we must listen to it, feed fuel to it, etc. (This presupposes that we
have plenty of battery to accept genset wattage <minus altitude derations>
<minus charger inefficiency> <minus a bit of breathing room for the engine>)


Also: that 50 hour oil change interval...or 100 hours...or whatever...comes
around right regular and we want to wring out lots of watt-hours between
service dates.

******************************

There's an old...dare I say it...wive's tale about diesel machines actually
suffering shorter lifetimes if they are not heavily loaded. I think this
belief goes way back to WWII days and may not be valid with current engine
designs. It's something about the load torque requirement helping to
maintain engine compression. Opinions from the List on this theory would be
welcomed.

*******************************

Once you have plenty of charger load to throw on the generator, tweak up on
the "AC input amps" setting in the Outback Mate or Magnum Remote while
listening to the engine. (The battery must not be highly charged during this
tweak or else the chargers will be in throttle back mode.) Dial up on the AC
input amps setting while also causing major household loads (such as the
water pump, washing machine, etc.) to kick in & out. Up, up, up until the
generator engine can be heard to struggle beneath the load, then dial back
down on the AC input amps until the gennie sounds happy with its work again.


Jolliness,

Mick Abraham, Proprietor
www.abrahamsolar.com

Voice: 970-731-4675


On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:13 PM, benn kilburn <benn at daystarsolar.ca> wrote:

>  mick, bob,
>
> funny you should mention using a magnum as the 'additional charger', the
> system owner just happens to still have a MS4448 on the wall from his
> original system  (we had upgraded his system to a FW1000 with 2 x VFX3648's
> back in the fall).
>
> i hadn't even thought of using the magnum only as a charger, and the price
> is right!
> thanks for the suggestion, i'll look into this as a possibility.
>
> Any other comments on my question about generator efficiency when fully
> loaded vs say half loaded?
>
> cheers
> benn
>
> DayStar Renewable Energy Inc.
> benn at daystarsolar.ca
> 780-906-7807
> HAVE A SUNNY DAY
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: reellison at gmail.com
> To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
> Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:19:03 -0400
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Additional Battery Charger
>
>
>  Look into the Magnum inverters as 2nd chargers, very good chargers with
> generators.
>
>
>
> I have done this many times, in the case of failure of the other inverters
> for some reason, run wires and be back up and running.
>
> I think the 4448 inverter is 60 amps @ 48 volts with an input of 16 or so
> amps AC.
>
>
>
> Later,
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> *From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:
> re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *benn kilburn
> *Sent:* Thursday, June 17, 2010 7:22 PM
> *To:* Wrenches
> *Subject:* [RE-wrenches] Additional Battery Charger
>
>
>
> G'day Wrenches,
>
>
>
>  I'm looking for an additional charger(s) to increase the charging capacity
> from the back-up 12 kW Onan generator into the 1200 Ah battery.  Right now
> the generator's full potential output is limited by the charging capacity of
> the two VFX3648's which have a max charge output of 45A each.
>
>
>
> The idea here is to use the generator to its full charging capacity when it
> is running, taking in to consideration that the generator will feed any AC
> loads before charging the battery.
>
>
>
> Iota and IBE chargers have been suggested.  Any comments on these or other
> makes?
>
>
>
> Do all generator types (diesel, propane, LNG, gasoline) run more
> efficiently when fully loaded?  or is this only the case with diesel (so
> i've heard)?
>
>
>
> thanks,
>
> benn
> DayStar Renewable Energy Inc.
>
> benn at daystarsolar.ca
>
> 780-906-7807
>
> HAVE A SUNNY DAY
>
>
>
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