Battery charging advice please

[Zebbadee]

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

13 minutes ago, Zebbadee said:

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

 

 

Yes, but not for very long

[Zebbadee]

Can you explain why not please? Thankyou

[WotEver]

16 minutes ago, Zebbadee said:

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

Infinite energy is a lovely idea, however entropy forbids it. 
 

Think it through... where does the energy in the battery come from initially? What happens to the energy lost as heat through the inverter? What happens to the energy lost as heat in the charger? Where does it come from?

[dmr]

I do this quite often, in fact everytime we switch the inverter on without turning the battery charger off first ?. The charger puts about 30 amps into the batteries but to drive it the inverter takes about 40 amps (maybe a bit more) out of the batteries, so all in all a draw on the batteries of 10 amps or so.

 

.................Dave

[Jon57]

8 hours ago, Zebbadee said:

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

 

Have you tried a clockwork battery? Or is this a wind up question ??

[john6767]

9 hours ago, Zebbadee said:

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

 

Yes you can, and I intentionally did so, whilst away from shoreline, to track down a fault with the battery charger (bad connection in fuse holder in lead to battery).  Of course not going to buy you anything in terms of charging the batteries, quite the opposite..

 

Anyway you may appreciate this

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by john6767

[Jen-in-Wellies]

9 hours ago, Zebbadee said:

I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question.

Thoughts can go in odd directions sometimes. Just remember, no building perpetual motion machines and no flying kites in the dark. 

 

[system 4-50]

9 hours ago, Zebbadee said:

Can you put a 12v battery onto an inverter and put a battery charger from the same inverter so it loops and provides a continuous charge. I live on a narrowboat and pondering the question. Thank you.

 

 

No.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

2 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

No.

Yes you can! 

It provides a continuous charge till the battery goes flat. ?

You can do all sorts of things. It doesn't mean it is a good idea, or will give the result you hope.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Tony Brooks]

4 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

No.

But that is incorrect in the terms of the OP's question as asked - yes you can and nothing will be damaged for a (short) while. If you do then as has been explained you will just discharge the batteries and maybe destroy them. The answer to the OP's question is yes you can but with the rider that it is really a non-starter, stupid idea.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Tony Brooks

[system 4-50]

1 minute ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

t provides a continuous charge till the battery goes flat. ?

so its not continuous as per the question!

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Just now, system 4-50 said:

so its not continuous as per the question!

Nothing lasts forever. Lots of people charge batteries from solar panels, but the charging stops when the sun goes down. With a big enough battery bank a battery > Inverter > charger would keep charging for longer than that, so more continuous than solar power! 

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

so its not continuous as per the question!

Continuous Cruising does not mean you never stop !

 

?

[Murflynn]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Continuous Cruising does not mean you never stop !

 

?

well it should do. 

[system 4-50]

Could the OP come back and clarify whether he was interested in running his closed loop for eternity or if he just wanted to do it as a temporary intermediate stage in some rearrangement of his electrics.  The forum is agog, waiting to hear.

[TheBiscuits]

28 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Continuous Cruising does not mean you never stop !

24 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

well it should do. 

 

Would you prefer we just keep going 24/7? Do we get priority at queues for locks so we don't need to stop?  Are we not allowed to stop at services for water and toilet emptying?

 

Besides, Alan is being either tongue in cheek or lazy.  Continuous Cruising is a made-up term for a boat licenced licensed without a home mooring.

Edited August 18, 2020 by TheBiscuits
Where is your Grammar? Gone shopping Miss!

[Murflynn]

8 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Would you prefer we just keep going 24/7? Do we get priority at queues for locks so we don't need to stop?  Are we not allowed to stop at services for water and toilet emptying?

 

Besides, Alan is being either tongue in cheek or lazy.  Continuous Cruising is a made-up term for a boat licenced without a home mooring.

no, really ??  

 

...................  or even 'licensed',  ....................  licensed being the condition of having a licence.

[TheBiscuits]

3 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

no, really ??  

 

...................  or even 'licensed',  ....................  licensed being the condition of having a licence.

 

Thanks for the grammar correction - I did wonder if I'd picked the correct word!

 

Would you like to answer the other questions too?

[Tracy D'arth]

You certainly can do this, I know of a boater who did, for days on end.  Ran all day to recharge his batteries and had his wife complain every morning that the hair dryer would not work.

I explained to him that perpetual motion was a myth, his response was that he could not turn the inverter off because the switch was inside the control panel so he left the battery charger on so that it would not flatten his batteries.

 

I gave up.