Offgrid living

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Backup Generator Charger (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 week ago by oeuf@slrpnk.net to c/offgrid@slrpnk.net

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Can anyone recommend a charger (or type of charger) to use for recharging a 24v lead acid leisure battery bank from a backup generator? Currently we have a cheap charger bought online but it only puts out about 130 watts, which means running it for quite a long time to significantly recharge the batteries and is much less than gets fed to them when the sun shines. TIA

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[–] Nomad 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Your car has a charge controller and a temperature sensor in the battery pack. A dumb charger with too much capacity could in theory overload the battery and get it too hot.

[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It definitely has. But in my case, I'm not bypassing it - the external part of the charger is communicating to the car using the Type 1 interface and telling "charge at X amps". (But I know that's not applicable to DIY situations.)

...and since the tripping occurs within the ramp-up period or very soon after (e.g. on second 7), I'm fairly certain nothing has managed to overheat yet. I think that some generators have poor steering regulators, mine included.