Vigo
Solar Addict
Ok, thank you. I am struggling with some of it but definitely getting something out of it and will continue trying to piece it together.
So, to relate your last paragraph to what i measured on my system (which i understand are two different things)..
Is it correct to say, if you put AC voltage on a conductor, but that conductor does not complete a 'path back to source', that the amount of current that flows in response to the AC voltage is limited to the capacitance of the conductor, and so may be negligibly small even if the conductor is a large battery bank? Because that's how i mentally digested what happened in my situation. I had AC voltage from battery circuit to something else, but no measurable difference in AC voltage between any two parts of the battery circuit, i.e. no ac voltage 'from positive to negative'. It was an 'energized line that goes nowhere'. That being the case, I wouldn't have the huge (although brief) current pulses from doing something like jumpering my battery terminals into the L1 and L2 of a 240vac source (which i assume would be 'microcycling' my battery to death and creating huge heat losses), but i would still have the current flow resulting from the AC source essentially charging and discharging the conductors forming the battery circuit as if it was a capacitor. Is this correct? This is my understanding of why i was not killing my batteries. Also relates to the phenomenon of being able to light up certain tiny LEDs on a circuit that is 'off' due to the current flow resulting from capacitance of conductor?
And the way what you're describing about the inverter ripple is different, because to the inverter the battery circuit would present a 'path back to source', at which point the current resulting from the ripple would actually be very large, basically the full DC amps but in a 120hz waveform?
Sorry if this seems pointless or is just opening a pandora's box of all the things i dont know and requiring a mountain of 'remedial education' to even give an answer that i could make any sense of. I understand that I'm out of my league as far as my electrical understanding and it's a reach for me to ask for an answer i could digest with my current knowledge. So i won't feel bad if you say as much.
So, to relate your last paragraph to what i measured on my system (which i understand are two different things)..
Is it correct to say, if you put AC voltage on a conductor, but that conductor does not complete a 'path back to source', that the amount of current that flows in response to the AC voltage is limited to the capacitance of the conductor, and so may be negligibly small even if the conductor is a large battery bank? Because that's how i mentally digested what happened in my situation. I had AC voltage from battery circuit to something else, but no measurable difference in AC voltage between any two parts of the battery circuit, i.e. no ac voltage 'from positive to negative'. It was an 'energized line that goes nowhere'. That being the case, I wouldn't have the huge (although brief) current pulses from doing something like jumpering my battery terminals into the L1 and L2 of a 240vac source (which i assume would be 'microcycling' my battery to death and creating huge heat losses), but i would still have the current flow resulting from the AC source essentially charging and discharging the conductors forming the battery circuit as if it was a capacitor. Is this correct? This is my understanding of why i was not killing my batteries. Also relates to the phenomenon of being able to light up certain tiny LEDs on a circuit that is 'off' due to the current flow resulting from capacitance of conductor?
And the way what you're describing about the inverter ripple is different, because to the inverter the battery circuit would present a 'path back to source', at which point the current resulting from the ripple would actually be very large, basically the full DC amps but in a 120hz waveform?
Sorry if this seems pointless or is just opening a pandora's box of all the things i dont know and requiring a mountain of 'remedial education' to even give an answer that i could make any sense of. I understand that I'm out of my league as far as my electrical understanding and it's a reach for me to ask for an answer i could digest with my current knowledge. So i won't feel bad if you say as much.
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