[RE-wrenches] Charging a 108V battery bank

bob at midnitesolar.com bob at midnitesolar.com
Thu Jul 1 16:54:31 EDT 2021


Normally you definitely do not want to tap a high voltage battery for 
use at  say, 12 or in this case, maybe 48V when the top end is
108V nominal.

But with a separate charger for the house inverter, (48V ?),  and the 
60V side, it would work a lot better than just using
a single 108V charger and tapping down at 48V.  As long as there is 
enough charging power for both battery sides the
two halves should stay balanced.

boB



On 7/1/2021 9:00 AM, Dave Tedeyan wrote:
> Dave,
> This is for a boat that will stay mostly on the finger lakes and in 
> the Erie Canal system in upstate NY. Definitely not an ocean boat. But 
> the plan is to convert it to a full time residence, potentially in the 
> winter as well.
> Cheers,
> Dave
>
> On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 11:52 AM Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar 
> <offgridsolar at sti.net <mailto:offgridsolar at sti.net>> wrote:
>
>     Less is more offgrid. On a boat, if it is oceangoing, it is a life
>     or death kind of world. A fire at sea probably will happen at
>     night in bad seas. Not sure if this is your clients scenario for
>     their use. An all electric boat sounds a bit scary. How will they
>     get ashore? I use to give the owner a schematic that showed the
>     location on the boat of electrical devices, wiring, and disco's.
>
>     Hopefully this is for a lake sailor. Although one of the round the
>     world guys I know tells me that he was never as scared as he was
>     on a lake one day...Good Luck!
>
>       
>
>     *Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar "we go where powerlines don't"
>     http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
>     <http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/> e-mail offgridsolar at sti.net
>     <mailto:offgridsolar at sti.net> text 209 813 0060*
>
>     On Thu, 1 Jul 2021 11:21:51 -0400, Dave Tedeyan
>     <dave at sungineersolar.com <mailto:dave at sungineersolar.com>> wrote:
>
>>     Bob,
>>     This is a very interesting idea to have two separate battery
>>     banks in series. I find it odd though that this particular
>>     motor's datasheet calls for 9 12V batteries. I suppose that I
>>     could have one charge controller set for 48V and the other set
>>     for 60V. Although this will also pose the problem of trying to
>>     run the house loads - if I have two 48V inverters that still
>>     leaves one battery that will get loaded less than all the others.
>>     And it seems that everyone else is pointing to the fact that it
>>     seems important to keep the neutral and ground internally
>>     separated in the inverter in a boat, so I'll stick to marine
>>     inverters for this one.
>>     Cheers,
>>     Dave
>>
>>     On Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 5:30 PM bob at midnitesolar.com
>>     <mailto:bob at midnitesolar.com> <bob at midnitesolar.com
>>     <mailto:bob at midnitesolar.com>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>         If you can't find a single compatible charger, what also
>>         works it to use 2 (two) separate
>>
>>         MPPT charge controllers each with a separate PV array inputs
>>         and connect each CC's
>>         battery to half of the battery bank.  This has worked fine
>>         for both OB and MNS controllers
>>         in past years and should with others as well I would
>>         imagine.  Set each for slightly higher
>>         voltage than 48V of course.
>>
>>         One thing you may not be able to do might be connecting the
>>         chassis grounds together
>>         depending on how those grounds are tied to the battery
>>         negative and positive lines internally.
>>
>>         Sometimes the internal SPD MOVs can get in the way if their
>>         voltage isn't high enough to handle
>>         the two PV voltages that are seen as in series from the MOV's
>>         standpoint.  But those MOVs are
>>         usually sized voltage wise to handle much higher voltage
>>         than, say, 300V which would he the maximum
>>         voltage both CC's would see for 150V max input controllers.
>>
>>         You also cannot use the same remote controllers if they are
>>         not isolated from battery minus except for
>>         the controller that is on the bottom side of the battery bank.
>>
>>         I have seen this method used many times now for 120V battery
>>         banks and also for higher voltage
>>         electric boats.   There is quite a bit of this kind of wiring
>>         out there as I remember.
>>
>>         There are some other standards for marine inverters like,  UL
>>         458 marine supplement and ABYC ratings.
>>
>>         This includes neutral ground switching like in mobile apps
>>         too IIRC.
>>
>>         Of course, just adding the word "marine" has to increase the
>>         price not matter what the product is.
>>         😁
>>
>>         boB
>>
>>
>>
>>         On 6/30/2021 12:50 PM, Dave Tedeyan wrote:
>>>         Hi All,
>>>         I am going to be working with someone who plans to
>>>         completely electrify a boat. The electric motor is meant to
>>>         run on nine 12V batteries, or 108V. The motor manufacturer
>>>         recommends a charger that can run on 120V or 240V. But has
>>>         anyone seen a charger that can take solar power and directly
>>>         charge a battery bank of 108V? The alternative that I see
>>>         here is to have two separate battery banks, one for the
>>>         motor, and one for house loads. Then we would have the solar
>>>         charge a 48V battery bank, and then use an inverter to
>>>         charge the 108V battery bank. It seems inefficient, although
>>>         that may be the only choice.
>>>         A separate but related question: what is special about a
>>>         marine inverter? If there is a 5kw charger for the battery
>>>         bank, we will need a large inverter to handle this plus
>>>         other AC loads, and I am not sure if there are "marine"
>>>         inverters this large. And so other than concerns about
>>>         getting wet, is there harm to putting a Radian, or a Sol-Ark
>>>         on a boat?
>>>         Cheers,
>>>         Dave
>>>         -- 
>>>         Logo <https://www.sungineersolar.com/> 	
>>>         Dave Tedeyan, P.E.
>>>         Owner | Sungineer Solar
>>>         p: he | him | his
>>>         a: 1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
>>>         w: www.sungineersolar.com <http://www.sungineersolar.com/>
>>>         c: (607) 288-2898
>>>
>>>
>>>         _______________________________________________
>>>         List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>>>
>>>         Pay optional member dues here:http://re-wrenches.org  <http://re-wrenches.org>
>>>
>>>         List Address:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org  <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>>>
>>>         Change listserver email address & settings:
>>>         http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org  <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org>
>>>
>>>         There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the other:
>>>         https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/  <https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/>
>>>         http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org  <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org>
>>>
>>>         List rules & etiquette:
>>>         http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm  <http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm>
>>>
>>>         Check out or update participant bios:
>>>         http://www.members.re-wrenches.org  <http://www.members.re-wrenches.org>
>>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Logo <https://www.sungineersolar.com/> 	
>>     Dave Tedeyan, P.E.
>>     Owner | Sungineer Solar
>>     p: he | him | his
>>     a: 1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
>>     w: www.sungineersolar.com <http://www.sungineersolar.com/>
>>     c: (607) 288-2898
>>
>     _______________________________________________
>     List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
>     Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>     <http://re-wrenches.org>
>
>     List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>     <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>
>     Change listserver email address & settings:
>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>     <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org>
>
>     There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work,
>     try the other:
>     https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
>     <https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/>
>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>     <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org>
>
>     List rules & etiquette:
>     http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>     <http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm>
>
>     Check out or update participant bios:
>     http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>     <http://www.members.re-wrenches.org>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Logo <https://www.sungineersolar.com/> 	
> Dave Tedeyan, P.E.
> Owner | Sungineer Solar
> p: he | him | his
> a: 1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
> w: www.sungineersolar.com <http://www.sungineersolar.com/>
> c: (607) 288-2898
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches_lists.re-wrenches.org/attachments/20210701/afdfedc0/attachment.htm>


More information about the RE-Wrenches mailing list