Alternator and LiFePo battery question
What percentage of an alternator's rated output is it safe to run at a steady charge rate? 50%?
Forum Discussion
S Davis wrote:50a in/47a out, is excellent. It's obvious you have very little voltage drop.
@ortfun
What size wiring from your alternator? I have about 10’ of 1/0 DLO cable that might make a difference. The Redarc does boost the voltage to 14.5 so I think that is the 3amp difference.
We ran approx. ~20 ft of 2 gauge from our truck's battery to the 40a Renogy in our truck camper. 43.5a in/40a out. Going with larger cable would have only reduced our current loss about 1.0 - 1.5a and cost us considerably more. 2 gauge offered us the biggest bang for the buck.
The premise of my post was not so much voltage drop or efficiency, it was how Redarc appears to put a priority on stabilizing input current, whereas Renogy favors stabilizing output current. Interesting difference.
