Adjustable voltage LED driver as a charger

[hwy17]

I would like a charger that can be set to say 52v and hold a battery bank there.

When voltage drops below 52v I want it to deliver current.

When voltage rises to 52v I want current to stop. I guess I want it to taper but I don't know the details of that part.

When another charge source raises voltage above 52v I want the charger to standby and wait for voltage to drop below 52v again.

I am looking at adjustable voltage LED drivers like this:

HLG-185H-MEAN WELL Switching Power Supply Manufacturer

MEAN WELL is one of the world's few standard power supply mainly professional manufacturers, covering 0.5 to 25,600W products are widely used in industrial control, medical and other fields, in line with international safety certification, short delivery of spot inventory.

www.meanwell.com

Do you think it will deliver the characteristics described? I have ordered an HLG-185H-54A to test.

 

[pollenface]

That is 100% how current works.

 

[hwy17]

My HLG-185H-54A arrived and it is very fun, you can indeed dial the voltage to match the battery so that the inverter pulls 0 amps (at 50w load) from the battery, or dial it below so inverter takes the load, or dial it up and it goes into charging.

I'm not sure how successful it will be using voltage tuning like this to hold a battery at a given mid level SOC while the inverter is drawing a variable load, but I will see.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Install a diode in one of the DC wires. They do not have robust backfeed protection.

 

[hwy17]

Install a diode in one of the DC wires. They do not have robust backfeed protection.

Ok. What happens then do they turn into an inverter or leak DC onto my AC?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Ok. What happens then do they turn into an inverter or leak DC onto my AC?

I don't understand the question. You're using it as an AC battery charger, no? If the DC voltage is higher than the power supply output voltage, the tendency will be for the battery to back flow into the charger. Hence the diode to prevent that. If you have the power supply off, the full battery voltage is trying to push current back through the supply.

You need a blocking diode on the power supply output. They are not designed to have a big mean battery pushing back at them when they have no voltage. I've owned a lot of this type of supply, and I've trashed a couple in higher voltage applications. I know many power supplies that have been sent to the e-waste pile prematurely.

 

[hwy17]

I was half joking about the inverter part.

I'm wondering what happens if I don't have a diode and the battery is pushing on it. Dead LED Driver or very bad things like DC flowing back onto AC supply?

 

[hwy17]

I need to look at this until I understand it. I'm not quite there yet.

 

[hwy17]

Also do you recommend any diode format that's suitable for inline wiring?

Closest I've come up with yet is automotive blade fuse style diodes and in line fuse holders.

 

[hwy17]

Also I'm dreaming of paralleling many of these exact type of drivers into a multi kilowatt fanless charger that's adequate to run a whole house on 24/7 AC>DC>AC double conversion so if there's any reason that's definitely a dumb idea I am curious to know.

Meanwell says don't parallel these, but they are of course talking about actual LED driving applications.

 

[pollenface]

I've paralleled and seried switching power supplies ... the concept works but it's ugly.