-=dwh=- wrote:
Well, that also depends on the battery resistance and how much amperage the power supply actually causes to flow through the battery. .
Battery resistance is directly related to the state of charge. Amperage drawn by a battery is in direct proportion to the differential between its state of charge and applied voltage. A battery charger can only "cause" amperage flow to increase when it also increases the charge voltage above that of the battery. Monitor your voltages! And on a brute force charger with the typical 1/2 wave rectifier do not forget to add both the measured DC voltage and the measured AC ripple voltage together to get the voltage out of the charger.
Wayne has a good explanation for the difference between the synchronous generator and an inverter generator used with a PD?? charger/converter. But, that still does not explain why I can run my 2000i satisfactorily with my PD and another camper using the same converter and generator has nothing but problems - so much so that he feels that his dad's 2000i will only handle 1,000 watts thru the RV's PD converter/charger. I do not doubt his results - I just wonder what we are missing that is different.
I have six solar panels on my camper. Thus, I use a "smart" solar controller between the panels and batteries. I also own a
XANTREX C40 controller that will handle 40 amps of current and can be adjusted for 12, 24 or 48 volt output. Hooking a conventional battery charger through the controller works well. I currently use it on my golf cart which is 48 volts (six 8V batteries). I have a surplus 77 volt 72 watt solar panel on the top of the golf cart. I run the output of my home-brewed brute force golf cart battery charger into the controller rather than directly to the batteries.
I also own a 20A Variac
(similar to this one), or auto-transformer, that I can use for adjusting the supplied AC line voltage from 0 to 140 VAC. When I want to charge an 8-volt battery out of the cart I use the Variac between the household AC and the big brute force charger I shared a photo of earlier. I select a 12 volts option on the charger and dial back the input voltage to the point where my charge voltage is just under 10 volts. After about an hour I reset it to 9.2 Volts and finally "float" at 8.6 volts.
I have also found that I can use the Variac between the generator and a switching charger to improve the power factor loss by 10-15%. But, the Variac is big and I do not often carry it on off-grid camping trips. If I did, I could really expand my generator/charging options:B
Again - everything relates back to the CPE2000i inverter as it is often a prime source for recharging RV batteries. If it doesn't work, is there an alternative? What does the alternative cost? Is it worth it to me? If you don't have answers or solutions you can expect problems. It is just the way the system works!
