Post by malewithatail on May 22, 2022 12:35:02 GMT 10
Just a heads up to those who need to use a generator to charge their battery's in this wet weather.
If you are using an inverter/charger, then it will probably do a bulk charge, then switch to the absorption level. This is a constant voltage charge and the battery is slowly brought up to full charge. Unfortunately, when using a generator, this results in the genset running at light loads for potentially hours at a time, not good as the engine will wear out faster, especially air cooled types. (They wont be at operating temperature).
If operating a inverter/charger from the grid as a backup power supply, the grid will keep the battery's full.
Be aware that not allowing the battery's to reach full charge, IE: float, will result in them gradually discharging lower and lower, even with a bulk charge every day or so. And after a few weeks, the battery's could be getting to a sulphation stage.
Solar, or hydro etc, on the other hand, can bring the battery's to full charge.
Its good practice to run the generator of a morning for a few hours as required, allowing any sun to 'top off' the charge. This is especially important with so called sealed, or re type battery's, as any overcharging can damage them and reduce their life span.
Then a run just after dark to operate any loads on then will help as well.
The alternative to above is to have such a large solar array that it can charge the system to full in overcast weather, not very cost effective, and can result in to much charge in sunny times. (The battery's come up to cut off or float voltage too quickly, before they are actually charged as the solar brings the terminal voltage up and the battery's can only accept a certain amount of charge before the terminal voltage rises and the charge rate falls off.)
Be wary of unregulated chargers, like the Dialomatic types, as they can overcharge your batteries and cause damage. Monitor the battery voltage, especially when nearing full charge.
There are several other parameters that are needed to be considered, such as Pekernans constant (the quicker you discharge a battery, the less its capacity is), and so on, but generally, the default values in the regulator will be OK.
We spent over $25 K on our battery's, so keeping them in good shape is vital.
Must get into constructing another gasifier unit, petrol is nearly $2 liter.
