Lead Acid battery charging question

 

Hi Folks,

Have just picked up a low power ( about 200w ) wind powered battery
charger, that I plan to install on the family's holiday shack that has
no mains power.

The charge regulator that comes with the kit regulates for charging a
24vdc battery.

Most of the load devices I plan to use are of the 12v variety
(automotive) as they are cheap and plentiful.

My plan is to bolt two 12v batteries in series to connect to the
charger, and use a tapping between the two batteries to give me, in
effect, two separate 12v supplies. One for all the 12v lights, and the
other for everything else (radio, small water pump in the shower, and
maybe a fan).

My question is this...  As the two batteries will obviously discharge at
different rates given their different loads, will a single charger cause
problems with over charging one battery while under charging the other?
Or would this effect be so small as to be insignificant?

Thanks in anticipation,

Pal

 

On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 17:40:25 +1030, Pal <"gtsubs at tpg dot com dot
au"> wrote:


The simple answer is "it depends!" - ie , it depends how balanced your
loads turn out to be.
Mot folks would say its not a good idea - though if you give a regular
equalising charge , (by bypassing the regulator for a few hours and
checking that the battery that gasses most if kept topped with water),
you might get away with it.
Other solutions would include usinga 24v to 12v (switchmode) converter
to charge a 12 volt battery (an MX60 would do the job expensively).
Or perhaps you might use a 24v inverter and just use grid devices.
MSQ invereters are fairly cheap and run most devices ok.

All the best with a solution

Eric

Abtt

 

 phoneme@025379386.for.email.address (Eric Sears) wrote:


This is similar to the system I have at a Remotesite Cabin in Alaska.
3 Kw Diesel Genset powers a Trace 2624/400amp/hour battery.  Numar
24/12-25Amp Switchmode Dc/Dc Converter charging a pair if L16's in
Series, that provides 12Vdc for the Threeway Fridge, Radios, and CD/DVD
player.  Got'a have tunes, even out in the bush......

Bruce in alaska
--
add a <2> before @

 

Pal <"gtsubs at tpg dot com dot au"> wrote:

Exactly the problem, even with equalizing charges one battery will be
chronically overcharged while the other one will be chronically
undercharged.

Go with 12V and convert or adapt your supply to charge 12V.

 

William P.N. Smith wrote:

All things considered, I'm leaning toward using 24V batteries rather
than 12V, and adding a 24 - 12V converter for a single 12V supply line.
Found one in a local electronics retailer that will deliver 12V @ 20A
which should be more than I need, and keeps the 24V charging side of
things as simple as possible. It's even been suggested on another group
where I asked the same question, that 24V truck batteries would provide
more Ah per $. Guess I'll have to hit my local battery outlets to check
it out...

Thanks Eric and William for your comments and suggestions.

Regards,

Pal