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Plugging 48 Volt charger into 12 Volt pure sine 3000 watt inverter

Josehoya

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Mar 18, 2021
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I have a 48 Volt system to power my electric motor on my boat. I also have a 12 volt house bank that has a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Can I plug a 48V battery charger into one of the 12 volt house inverter sockets?

I’d basically be going 12 volt->120 volt-> 48 volt

It would be used to limp my way home if I ever needed extra power from my 12 volt system.

Thanks
 
Possible yes, but…

Would really come down to power requirements of the AC system.

I have a 120 VAC to DC charger that delivers 75 amps to a 12 volt battery. I can’t remember the specs, I think 1200 watts. It wil also automatically charge a 24 volt battery bank at 35 amps, at the same wattage. AIMS also makes a 36 volt and 48 volt version that outputs 17.5 amps at 48 volts and the same wattage.

If you went with the AIMS converter I me tinned, its more of a question of is 17.5 amps at 48 volts useful to you, and if so, can your 12 volt battery bank maintain 1200 watts for an extended time.

I gues the other think is what that house inverter socket is rated to. I have a 20 amp socket on my 3000 watt 24 volt inverter, but the inverter will only deliver 16 amps continuous to that inverter before faultingout. To get the full 25 amps, I need to hardwire it.

You’re also dealing with a bit of loss in the process, so may need 1000 watts at 12 volts to make 700 watts at 48 volts.
 
Makes sense. Thanks. I just wasn’t sure if there was something I wasn’t thinking about. The charger draws 14.5 amps and I need to double check what each socket can handle on the inverter. The Delta Q IC1200 charger puts 25 amps into the 48v bank which can help in case of a large discharge. The 12v bank has 400 Ah of usable power and it has 540 watts of solar connected.
 
It will be extremely inefficient, like 15-25%. I know DC-DC itself is only at best 50%. And best inverters are 90%, if you're going DC-AC-DC-AC it will be a disaster efficiency wise. I would only do this in an emergency.
 
Yeah, I figured it would be inefficient. I can’t find a good 12V step up to 48v dc to dc charger
 
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