Re: (ET) charger

[Jim Coate <jbc coate org>]

You have a special situation with the limits of your solar system. As 
David said the batteries can take quite a large charging current (as 
long as you monitior it carefully). The 1000 Watts makes about 25 amps 
of charging current which isn't much in the grand scheme of things. So 
no worries for the batteries.

But for you solar system... you may well want to find a smaller/slower 
charger. If your present set up has a large battery bank storing the 
solar power, going through an invertor, feeding the ET charger, charging 
the ET batteries, then yes, a DC/DC convertor from one battery pack to 
the other would be a little more efficient. Finding an appropirate DC/DC 
could get tricky. One "hack" would be to use a dc/dc to do a slow bulk 
charge and then the next day use the original ET charger for a little 
while to do the equalization - at that point the batteries are near full 
and won't pull anywhere near the 1000 watts. Or use that spiffy OutBack 
unit someone posted last week or so. The nominal voltage of your solar 
system would be a major factor in figuring out what works best.


Jeremy wrote:
> I finally got my e-12 in working order and just mowed about an acre of 
> hilly, very bumpy ground.  It did great, really a tough machine.  I have 
> noticed that the charger really sucks the juice, about a 1000 watts when 
> charging.  This seems great if you just want a quick charge and get back 
> to mowing, but must be very hard on the batteries and is too much of a 
> load for my solar system. . . I can do it, but would bring down my 
> available solar power 20% for just one hour of charging.  Spread over 
> time the load is not to big for my solar.  I think a DC to DC converter 
> putting out 200 or 300 watts would charge more efficiently and put less 
> strain on my solar system.  Also, my charging switch-dial has letters 
> from a to G on it, but I have not noticed a difference in amperage 
> depending on where the dial is set.  Is this dial strictly a timer.  
> What is the preferred method of charging using the onboard charger.  
> Short spurts over time, one big long charge.  Basically looking for the 
> low down on charging technique.
>  
> Jeremy
--

_________
Jim Coate
1992 Chevy S10
1970's Elec-Trak
http://www.eeevee.com