diy solar

diy solar

Charging with gen

Jgb3

New Member
Joined
May 27, 2021
Messages
155
58986BC7-E909-48B5-A272-F43C216702FC.png
Does that look right? I have a 9500 watt Westinghouse generator with the 50amp plug wired to my ac input. I’m guessing that’s probably the max it will do because of the volts being limited to 52?
 
The Charger will throttle GenSet input relative to what it is doing. My own Inverter/Charger is programmed to take 120V/30A (from the L5:30 port) and uses 120V/20-22A and charge my bank @ 24V~ 80A until Endamps are approached which it then flips to CV with decreasing amperage. My system ALSO handles VAC Passthrough while charging which has to be accounted for. Luckily the Samlex Algorithms work a treat to handle surges etc on the house AC during charging.
 
The Charger will throttle GenSet input relative to what it is doing. My own Inverter/Charger is programmed to take 120V/30A (from the L5:30 port) and uses 120V/20-22A and charge my bank @ 24V~ 80A until Endamps are approached which it then flips to CV with decreasing amperage. My system ALSO handles VAC Passthrough while charging which has to be accounted for. Luckily the Samlex Algorithms work a treat to handle surges etc on the house AC during charging.
So my generator is producing 50 amps at 240v which is my generators peak 12000 watts but it’s charging at 52v so I’m getting 2600 watts at the battery. Is the rest lost? Would it still power other items while charging at 2600 watts? Did I get to big of a generator or is that loss expected? The way people described it is it’s more efficient to dump the energy into a battery instead of running off the generator but i didn’t realize it would only be putting in 2600 watts instead of the constant rating of 9500 watts. Sorry kinda new to all this.
 
Use cases are different for everyone, I'm Power Frugal, use 4kWh a day, no AC gave it away because of the house build so it's not needed anymore. I can put 4 Days of Stored Energy into my battery bank with an 8 hour run of the generator. My Genny is a 7200/9000 Watt model and capable of more

Just because you are using the 240V/50A outlet does not mean that is what you are pulling, quite unlikely actually.
 
So my generator is producing 50 amps at 240v which is my generators peak 12000 watts but it’s charging at 52v so I’m getting 2600 watts at the battery. Is the rest lost? Would it still power other items while charging at 2600 watts? Did I get to big of a generator or is that loss expected? The way people described it is it’s more efficient to dump the energy into a battery instead of running off the generator but i didn’t realize it would only be putting in 2600 watts instead of the constant rating of 9500 watts. Sorry kinda new to all this.
It's not lost. It's simply not loading the generator up that much. This will consume less fuel though the generator is definitely very oversized if that's all you're using it for.


You're probably limited by your battery charger. They can only output so much current at the lower voltage. 50 amps is 50 amps regardless of voltage and it needs pretty beefy components to handle it inside the charger.

Do you know what model charger is being used?


You could add a second charger in parallel but only if you can be sure from the manufacturer that they'll play nice together. You also need to be sure your battery pack can handle that much charge current.
 
I need to keep looking at the setting in my inverter this is a picture from the manual I have the 12kE0706884-2037-4E18-A3C3-BE4464820871.png
 
Definitely needed that information to start with.

It looks like it can be configured. Is it configured to the lower limit?
 
5EF666DC-58FC-4F9A-8FBE-BA07E7F76EC6.png
That’s the max is can run continuously so better then I had it I cranked up the amps the inverter would draw to 60 and the generator seems ok with it on 70 it trips the generator
 
Sounds like you figured it out.

Settings then?

Seems odd that you can't get higher though if you have the 12kw unit. Obviously 12kw inverter doesn't mean 12kw of charging but based on your chart you should be getting much more than that.
 
Sounds like you figured it out.

Settings then?

Seems odd that you can't get higher though if you have the 12kw unit. Obviously 12kw inverter doesn't mean 12kw of charging but based on your chart you should be getting much more than that.
I don’t know how it all works but it is charging at the batteries voltage (54) so that’s my limitation if it was charging at 240v which is what the generator will produce it would be more now as far as the inverter it will charge up to 100 amps on the ac side and 180 amps combine solar and ac but my generator won’t produce that
 
I don’t know how it all works but it is charging at the batteries voltage (54) so that’s my limitation if it was charging at 240v which is what the generator will produce it would be more now as far as the inverter it will charge up to 100 amps on the ac side and 180 amps combine solar and ac but my generator won’t produce that
That's not how it works.

It should charge at up to 4800w according to the chart you posted.

4800w @ 54v is ~89 amps battery side.
On the generator side 4800w @ 240v is 20 amps.

If you account for a bit of efficiency loss you might see slightly more needed from the generator, but likely less than 25 amps.

Are you running other 240 volt devices at the same time which might be pulling from the generator?
 
That's not how it works.

It should charge at up to 4800w according to the chart you posted.

4800w @ 54v is ~89 amps battery side.
On the generator side 4800w @ 240v is 20 amps.

If you account for a bit of efficiency loss you might see slightly more needed from the generator, but likely less than 25 amps.

Are you running other 240 volt devices at the same time which might be pulling from the generator?
Nope no other devices I’ll keep playing with it till I get the most I can out of it. Here is the generator capabilities D5BB9CC4-C68D-4ACE-AF8F-3F7CD47668F5.png
 
Back
Top