Charge Divert [RE-wrenches]

[Kurt Nelson, SunWise]

Ray Walters wrote:
Thanks for your response Ray,
I am working on this system this afternoon and will let you know for
sure, but it seems as though this generator does not apply a charge to
the starter battery even while running.  The manual is pretty poor, but
the generator is designed as a big RV generator and I guess they think
the vehicle battery is going to be used??  They don't seem to offer a
"charger kit" for this model either.  We'll see, but a don't think a
trickle charge will keep it up if no support from the generator -- Kurt 


> Hi,
> 
> Seems like the slight amp hour drain of the starter (possibly 10 seconds
> once or twice a month)wouldn't require more than 150 mA trickle charge.
> Check out the 1.5 watt module for $35 at A.E.E. whoops Applied Power. It
> more than offsets the self discharge rate of the battery (even in cloudy
> weather) and doesn't need a controller.
> 
> Ray Walters
> 
>  At 05:07 PM 12/8/00 -0800, you wrote:
> >Greetings Wrenches,
> >
> >Any thoughts out there on good charge controllers that offer a charge
> >divert option?  I'm putting a PV panel on the starter battery of that
> >Onan Emerald 6,300 (thanks for your help there).  I am oversizing the
> >panel to the little starter battery becasue I want to make sure the
> >gen-set battery is there when needed (cloudy periods), but am
> >essentially considering this to be a PV addition to the home
> >system/battery.  In the past, I have used SunSelector's relay based
> >charge controller when wanting to divert charge to another
> >battery/load.  They seem to spend a lot of time switching back to the
> >(starter) battery.  Just wondering about thoughts out there on good
> >divert options.  I am also considering a "Simple Switch" that would
> >simply hold the PV to the starter battery until voltage hits full charge
> >(14.8ish?) and then have it switch to the house PV input circuit until
> >further current to the little battery is actually needed (opps, seasonal
> >temp swings).  Maybe the addition of a small cheap panel wired directly
> >to the small battery so that the sunselector/simple switch doesn't bring
> >the larger PV panel back to the starter battery unless the gen-set was
> >run enough to pull down the starter battery or it has gotten really
> >cloudy?  Sorry, I guess I'm sorta thinking on-line.
> >
> >Thanks - Kurt Nelson
> >

- - - - - - -
To send a message:
 RE-wrenches at topica.com

The archive of previous messages: 
 http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

To unsubscribe send a message to: 
 RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

To check out the other RE-Wrench participants:
 www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine: 
 www.homepower.com

For info contact list moderator by email:
 michael.welch at homepower.com

___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  http://www.topica.com/t/17
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics