Another Electrical Question
Submitted: Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:07
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12ian34
Sorry, I know these have been done to death, but still have a gap in my understanding. I have a Pathfinder with single battery and a Jayco Finch Outback with an existing 240-12v trans and standard car batt.
I have an 80watt Solar Panel, a 120AH AGM Batt for the van(will hopefully fit). I plan to remove all thats exisiting, buy some sort of 240v charger for the batt then run to a fusebox and earth bus then to 12v lights, 12v DVD\CD player, 12v cig socket and 150watt invereter.
My question is when plugged to 240 volts and the charger running, will the load in the van draw from the battery or the charger. Do i need a seperate power supply that is parallel to the charger to run the 12v gear? If so do i need something to stop current flowing from the power supply back to the battery?
Ian
SA
Reply By: Mandrake - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:37
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:37
I think the answer to this is during the day your Loads will draw from the battery , the panel and the charger .. during night from battery and charger ..
No reason for a second charger just make sure your charger is big enough to
charge the battery in a reasonable amount of time .. Bigger is better with a 3 or 4 stage charger .. I use a CTEK 3600 which is really not up to the job but with 220 watts of solar panels helping during the day it should be enough to keep my batteries topped up ..
Rgds
Mandrake
AnswerID:
376656
Reply By: Lex M (Brisbane) - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 13:02
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 13:02
Simplistic explanation.
Case 1. Assuming a smart charger that does not think the battery is fully charged:-
If the load is less than the battery chargers output capability , then the current will come from the battery charger and what's left over will go to charge the battery.
If the load is more than the battery chargers output capability , the current will come from the charger plus some from the battery to make up the difference.
Case 2. Assuming a smart charger that does think the battery is fully charged:-
Current will come from the battery until the battery voltage drops far enough for the smart charger to start charging and then case 1 applies
AnswerID:
376657
Follow Up By: 12ian34 - Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 14:29
Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 at 14:29
Thanks for your help, just wanted to make sure that it wouldnt damage the charger or equipment. So a CTEK 25A would do the trick then? And that can stay hardwired to the battery?
Thanks very much for your help.
FollowupID:
644082
Follow Up By: Maîneÿ . . .- Thursday, Jul 30, 2009 at 00:58
Thursday, Jul 30, 2009 at 00:58
If your (25 Amp) Ctek produces more amps than the value of each the existing fuse's, will they blow, if they are in the same circuit as the charge going from the Ctek to the battery ?
Maîneÿ . . .
FollowupID:
644175
Follow Up By: 12ian34 - Thursday, Jul 30, 2009 at 21:28
Thursday, Jul 30, 2009 at 21:28
Oh oh. Have ordered one, $400 so hope it works!
The load, i.e. lights and DVD etc will be parallel to the charger. Will the fuses blow i there is more supply than required or if a load tries to draw more current than the fuse is rated for. Im not real good with that?
FollowupID:
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