Charger: Meanwell 10a or Iota DLS 15?
This is a followup to the thread I posted a couple weeks back. I want a capable portable charger for a 100ah AGM battery bank, mostly fed by solar. The constraint is that my generator is limited to ...
Forum Discussion
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Meanwell with owner's IQ control. Use a wind up timer just in case you doze off in the hammock.
Camping is different than boondocking which is different than off-grid which is different than occasional Wal-Mart parking lots, races, tail gate parties, etc.
No way in hell is a "smart charger" more efficient than a MeanWell. No way in hell is a smart charger of the same amperage potential going to charge a battery as quickly as a MeanWell. All it takes is a tiny bit of intelligence to know when is enough "Honey the generator has been running eleven hours - is that enough?
Three state chargers have an appropriate time and place. Unless you have long term generator usage habits, there is no way on the face of the earth a "Smart Charger" can equal a MeanWell. Been there done that, classified, and recorded, and documented it.
Bogart Engineering has come out with a truly SMART solar controller. Why is it SMART? It is fully adjustable by the user.
But plugging into a power pedestal regularly or just zapping the batteries one or six times then returning to the driveway allows the use of a halfway decent SMART charger - up to a point.
If the OP needs a home charger than this changes things. But for dry camping I dare anyone to try and beat the efficiency of a straight switching charger, an adjustable switching charger.
About 2 weeks of being up around Yellowstone with the 30 Amp MegaWatt switching power supply, dry camping, confirmed this. Start up generator, warm up generator for 2 or 3 minutes in "Eco" mode, turn Eco mode off, turn on the MeanWell, wait 6,7, 8 minutes, turn the Eco mode on again. 30 to 40, 45 minutes, and my T-1275 is ready for the top off charge and the portable solar panel and charge controller, it too set at 15.0V. Works like a charm, the MeanWell and generator does the heavy grunt work getting the charge up to 80-85 or 90%, and the solar panel finishes it on sunny days. Run out of sun that day and solar panel doesn't get it done? Run the MegaWatt for an hour or so, the last hour before 9 pm, while you also have the TV lights, maybe the microwave on.
For me, it's about efficiency. A switching power supply is exceedingly efficient, for amount of time your gas generator is running, for the first hour or two, from 40% SOC up to perhaps 85-90% SOC, for amount of fuel consumed.
Yes, I run 15.0V. Yes, on an industrial grade battery, it's a non issue. Yes, it gets the job done quickly and efficiently. And yes, perhaps I sacrifice a small amount of longevity on the battery doing so. It's a tradeoff I can live with compared to amount of fuel saved and amount of hours on my Honda generator. YMMV.
