charging battery from generator
What wood be the fasted way to charge battery Generator to battery Generator to batter charger to battery Generator to 5th wheel 7 way plug receptacle Generator is a 2000 watt champion with batter...
Forum Discussion
Charging the wet cell deep cycle batteries is not guess work... The industry has a set plan for safe charging and not boiling out your fluids etc...
This is what PROGRESSIVE DYNAMICS says about how long it take to charge any wet cell deep cycle battery.
This is usually in all of their operating manuals on how long it takes to charge a battery using the DC VOLTAGEs listed below:
"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.
14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.
13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.
13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."
This is based on having 17-20AMPS DC current available for each battery in your battery bank... NOTE That Progressive Dynamics doesn't even list using DC Charge Voltages around the 12.0VC range as this would take alot more than 100 hours to achieve a 90% or 100% charge state.
Where we camp at public places there are a bunch of generator use restrictions in place giving us only a few hours in the day and ocassionally at some place we use the generator from 8AM to 8PM each day. Most of the NAtional Forest places do this.
With this in mind I had to come with a good method to recharge my three 85AH Interstate battery bank when using them in my day/night camping off the power grid. It was all planned on what I would using and having my battery bank drop down to 12.0VDC by 8AM the next morning..
Then at 8AM I can usually get to run my 2KW generator and I cna use two choices of either using a standalone smart mode charger like the B&D VEC1093DBD plugged into my generator or connect my trailer 30AMP Shore Power Cable directly into the generator using a RV30A-14A long adapter cable. Both methods allows me to re-charge my 255AH battery bank from its 50% charge state (approximately 12.0VDC) to its 90% charge state (approximately 12.5-6VDC) in three hours generator run time time. The VEC1093DBD takes a bit long as it it only a 40AMP Charger. My on-board Converter/charger is a 60A charger. (Remember PD says you need 14.4VDC at 17-20Amps for each battery in the bank if you want to get to 90% in a three hour charge period)
Once I get the battery bank back up to the 90% level than I can use the battery bank again for the next day/night. This 50% to 90% charge state does have a limitation however that you can only do this for 12-14 charge cycles before it starts dropping battery capacity performance. When this happens you have to do a full 100% charge state to get the expected capacity back again. Somethings oit takes me two full 100% charge states. For me I don't do more than 8-10 charge cycles from 50% to 90%.
The next easier thing me to do is to install three 120WATT solar panels on my small footprint roof. Doing this I can then just my generator for one hour and when i notice the charging current has tapered back to around 6-8AMPs DC then can I turn off my generator and let the solar panels finish out my charge state until it loses the high sun. A 120W solar panel will only give 6-7 AMPS or so DC Current when in high sun so I can depend on at least 18AMPS divided up between the three batteries to get me to the 90% charge state before the sun goes (hopefully)
Been doing this 50% to 90% charge metod for a few years now and I am still using my same 85AH Interstate batteries installed in late 2008.
I guess I can say it works for me using this method... I know my story is getting old on here but users keep asking the same sort of charging questions. There is no SAFE shortcuts...
Roy Ken
This is what PROGRESSIVE DYNAMICS says about how long it take to charge any wet cell deep cycle battery.
This is usually in all of their operating manuals on how long it takes to charge a battery using the DC VOLTAGEs listed below:
"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.
14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.
13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.
13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."
This is based on having 17-20AMPS DC current available for each battery in your battery bank... NOTE That Progressive Dynamics doesn't even list using DC Charge Voltages around the 12.0VC range as this would take alot more than 100 hours to achieve a 90% or 100% charge state.
Where we camp at public places there are a bunch of generator use restrictions in place giving us only a few hours in the day and ocassionally at some place we use the generator from 8AM to 8PM each day. Most of the NAtional Forest places do this.
With this in mind I had to come with a good method to recharge my three 85AH Interstate battery bank when using them in my day/night camping off the power grid. It was all planned on what I would using and having my battery bank drop down to 12.0VDC by 8AM the next morning..
Then at 8AM I can usually get to run my 2KW generator and I cna use two choices of either using a standalone smart mode charger like the B&D VEC1093DBD plugged into my generator or connect my trailer 30AMP Shore Power Cable directly into the generator using a RV30A-14A long adapter cable. Both methods allows me to re-charge my 255AH battery bank from its 50% charge state (approximately 12.0VDC) to its 90% charge state (approximately 12.5-6VDC) in three hours generator run time time. The VEC1093DBD takes a bit long as it it only a 40AMP Charger. My on-board Converter/charger is a 60A charger. (Remember PD says you need 14.4VDC at 17-20Amps for each battery in the bank if you want to get to 90% in a three hour charge period)
Once I get the battery bank back up to the 90% level than I can use the battery bank again for the next day/night. This 50% to 90% charge state does have a limitation however that you can only do this for 12-14 charge cycles before it starts dropping battery capacity performance. When this happens you have to do a full 100% charge state to get the expected capacity back again. Somethings oit takes me two full 100% charge states. For me I don't do more than 8-10 charge cycles from 50% to 90%.
The next easier thing me to do is to install three 120WATT solar panels on my small footprint roof. Doing this I can then just my generator for one hour and when i notice the charging current has tapered back to around 6-8AMPs DC then can I turn off my generator and let the solar panels finish out my charge state until it loses the high sun. A 120W solar panel will only give 6-7 AMPS or so DC Current when in high sun so I can depend on at least 18AMPS divided up between the three batteries to get me to the 90% charge state before the sun goes (hopefully)
Been doing this 50% to 90% charge metod for a few years now and I am still using my same 85AH Interstate batteries installed in late 2008.
I guess I can say it works for me using this method... I know my story is getting old on here but users keep asking the same sort of charging questions. There is no SAFE shortcuts...
Roy Ken
