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Charging batteries by generator and generator recommendations


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17 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Do we know how often you have to take lead carbons up to 100%? David John on cruising the cut fitted them in the spring but hasn't given an update since......unless I missed it.

Northstar recommend a 100% charge every 2 weeks if permanently running partial recharges for their lead carbon. I have a set of the Leoch 100Ah batteries, less than one year old so too early to comment on longevity.

Edited by PeterF
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1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

Nah, go for 2nd hand Li's.

Far more fun!

Hmm... at the end of the day I think I'd rather be an early adopter of an expensive product that may underperform, than of an expensive product that may be unsafe if not carefully integrated into a management system installed by someone with a good deal more expertise than me.

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15 minutes ago, PeterF said:

Northstar recommend a 100% charge every 2 weeks if permanently running partial recharges for their lead carbon. I have a set of the Leoch 100Ah batteries, less than one year old so too early to comment on longevity.

Do you have any sense of how the 'super fast charging' claims stack up, Peter? I don't know if the claim is just that these batteries are capable of taking an unusually high charge up to 80% or 90%, but slow right down for the last bit just as standard lead acid batteries do; or if they're actually supposed to take a higher charge even as batteries get close to full capacity.

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15 minutes ago, magictime said:

Do you have any sense of how the 'super fast charging' claims stack up, Peter? I don't know if the claim is just that these batteries are capable of taking an unusually high charge up to 80% or 90%, but slow right down for the last bit just as standard lead acid batteries do; or if they're actually supposed to take a higher charge even as batteries get close to full capacity.

I have my absorption voltage set at 14.2V, which is at the lower end of the 14.2 - 14.6V range. I normally use around 30-35% of the 400Ah capacity and on starting the engine the current goes up to 100A at 14.2V, alternator already being limited by the regulator and after 3 hours I am down to steady tail current levels of 5-8 Amps is then maintained without reducing any more if I am travelling for more than 3 hours. They exhibit a drop off in charge rate towards a tail current as standard LAs do and this period also seems to be faster than LAs. This fits with the claims of about 6 hours for a full charge from 100% DOD at 14.2V with 80A bulk charge for a 400Ah pack. You can get faster recharge by going to 14.4V or 14.6V, but at reduced life, I have not felt any need to set my voltage higher to use the remaining 20A or so my alternator will produce at cruising revs when warm.

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1 hour ago, PeterF said:

I have my absorption voltage set at 14.2V, which is at the lower end of the 14.2 - 14.6V range. I normally use around 30-35% of the 400Ah capacity and on starting the engine the current goes up to 100A at 14.2V, alternator already being limited by the regulator and after 3 hours I am down to steady tail current levels of 5-8 Amps is then maintained without reducing any more if I am travelling for more than 3 hours. They exhibit a drop off in charge rate towards a tail current as standard LAs do and this period also seems to be faster than LAs. This fits with the claims of about 6 hours for a full charge from 100% DOD at 14.2V with 80A bulk charge for a 400Ah pack. You can get faster recharge by going to 14.4V or 14.6V, but at reduced life, I have not felt any need to set my voltage higher to use the remaining 20A or so my alternator will produce at cruising revs when warm.

Thank you. Three hours to 'fully charged' (tail current c. 2% of capacity) from 35% DOD does sound pretty good. 

 

If I thought a set of lead carbon batteries were going to thrive through the winter on a 90-minute-ish charge from 50% to 85% every day, plus a minimum 3-hour full charge once a week, I'd certainly stop looking at generators and put that £300 or so towards the batteries. And the £100+ I'd expect to spend on fuel for the gennie every winter. Hmm.

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11 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I would prefer not to run any engine at 'max revs' - it doesn't do it much good, it doesn't contribute towards longevity and it is noisy. I would rather run (say) a 1600w generator  at 54% than a 900w at 96% (40a x 13v x divided by 0.6  = 866w)

 

Agreed. The larger generators tend to be quieter and actually consume less fuel at half load than a smaller generator going flat out. The other thing is that with some spare capacity available you can always run other mains appliances at the same time. I have a Honda EU30 (2600w rated output) and run 70 amp charger and if I want to I can use the spare capacity to run my 1600w washing machine at the same time.

 

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3 hours ago, tree monkey said:

My profile was hacked by the other half, apparently assisted by star coaster

Sigh

:)

Pull the other one monkey boy, you could have changed it back by now.

 

Anyway, what do you expect, I bet your password is tree, or chainsaw, or Gränsfors or Heinnie Haynes or summit.

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7 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Pull the other one monkey boy, you could have changed it back by now.

 

Anyway, what do you expect, I bet your password is tree, or chainsaw, or Gränsfors or Heinnie Haynes or summit.

It makes her laugh even now, so it stays, I am a nice kind and thoughtful boyf...

 

Also safe In the knowledge she hardly comes onto the forum anymore to contradict me :)

 

Its sharpshineythings but don't tell anyone

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1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

Pull the other one monkey boy, you could have changed it back by now.

 

Anyway, what do you expect, I bet your password is tree, or chainsaw, or Gränsfors or Heinnie Haynes or summit.

Why would anyone have 'summit' as their password?

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

My bank password 'rules' state I "may not repeat a character more than twice".

 

In practice this means the password "summit" would be disallowed as it repeats the letter M, twice. Apparently. 

 

I blame the teachers.

Summit only repeats M once.... dunnit? :unsure: Knowing me I'm probably missing something....

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6 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

Summit only repeats M once.... dunnit? :unsure: Knowing me I'm probably missing something....

 

Yes, summit complies logically as the letter M is only repeated once, so complies with the stated rule. But in practice it is barred because software rejects "summit", because the programmers at the bank have been so badly edumacated. 

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes, summit complies logically as the letter M is only repeated once, so complies with the stated rule. But in practice it is barred because software rejects "summit", because the programmers at the bank have been so badly edumacated. 

I know I was missing summit. ? 

 

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