Max Charging Current of typical GC2 battery
Say the GC2 battery bank has been drawn down to 25-50%, what will be the max current they will initially accept? For sure it's greater than the ~24A max my solar charger has reported as that was l...
Forum Discussion
mike-s wrote:
Note that manufacturers recommend limiting the charge current. Trojan says 3-5% of C20 (so about 11A for a 12V pair of GC2). US Battery says 10% of C20, Rolls and Crown say 10-20%.
Good point. Was wondering about temperature issues at the high charge rates mentioned above. But I won't be going anywhere near that.
In my case there are 4 GC2s in series, charging at 28-30V. Solar charging mostly from 690W on the roof. We often boondock.
But I also have a 120VAC-30VDC Meanwell PS which is only 500W, giving me ~16A max charging current. So far it has self-limited to ~16A without any problems when charging the depleted batteries on shorepower.
But wanted the truck's 220A alternator + two truck batteries to help charging the depleted trailer batts as well. And remembered that I still have the old 12VDC-120VAC 1000W PSW inverter. So am thinking to mount it in the Truck's cab or cap with 6awg to the truck batteries, and run an 120VAC extension cord to the Meanwell in the trailer. The max Meanwell load of ~500W might translate to 40A at the 14V alternator.
No need to purchase any new equipment, other than cables.
Also looked at a cheap 12VDC-30VDC step up converter on Ebay that said the load should always be less than the device's 400W rating ... not self-limiting? Anyway, avoided that.
