Winter blues... quick question
- Thread starter Davian7
- Start date
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
well that IOTA charger will cost a pretty penny, Its a nice unit.
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
I don't even understand your question. What gator clamps?
You said the DC cables could connect to the battery.. I assumed they were gator clamps like on jumper cables but now after inspecting the iota more close I assume I could just disconnect the bat+ and bat- from the charge controller and tie those into the iota... again forgive me if I am coming across as elementary. I truly appreciate the insight
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
looks like there are some options from will here https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/battery-chargers.html
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
oh I see. at 90amp I would advise against gator clamps. Ideally it would use a buss bar or something similar. However, unless someone says this is a bad Idea. You could connect it to batteries directly, see the photo
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
And the battery charger will be seperate. No need to put it through the charge controller.
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
This are dual input charge controllers, I believe they are designed for vehicles/trucks/RV. They allow Solar power DC along with the DC power from the engines alternator. They do not accept 120VAC.
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
I know you are on a budget... I still would just get two 4awg battery cables with the appropriate connectors to plug into the IOTA charger. Than All you have to do it turn the generator on and plug the charger in. It will be so much better especially being bed ridden.
No fumbling with cables, No turning the solar PV input wire off(to turn the charger controller off you need to make sure there is no Solar PV coming into the charge controller, or It will fuck it up.) Remember you would be dealing with LIVE WIRES when you are removing any of those wires from your charge controller.
Yes, but then the solar wouldn't be able to help. So just hook up the charger direct to the batteries.
There is some bad info running around here. So lets try to fix it.
1. You can not charge the batteries with 120v ac you need something to make it into 12v dc.
2. Your generator has an 120v ac MAX output of 13.3 amps. It also has a 12dc output of 8 amps max, that would take 100 hours to charge your batteries direct from the generator.
3. You need something to go between the generator and the batteries.
4. An rv "converter" takes 120v ac and converts it into 12v dc to charge the batteries.
5. You want to charge the batteries with minimum generator run time. A 45 amp output converter will draw 11 amps input (120v). A 55 amp converter drawa 13.4 amps (oops to much).
6. My math shows a 45amp charger will take 17 hours to charge your battery bank from 0 to full.
7. Get rid of the bad battery its draging the other batteries down to its level.
8. For max battery life try to keep the discharge level around 50% Do not deep discharge.
ANSWERS
More solar another 800w kit would be minimum.
A bigger, heavier, generator, more $$$. A Predator 3500 has a 120v AC 25 amp out. That would power a 100 amp converter. My math says 8 hours to recharge from 0. At a 50% discharge that would be a 4 hour recharge.
USE less power
The rv converter has another advantage, they are "smart". If your battery is low the converter will "fast charge" around 14.5 volts, as the battery gets closer the converter will slow down to 13.6 "bulk charge" to keep from damaging the battery, when the battery is full it will go into "float"
to keep it up.
Good luck
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I like your style brother! So I could just keep the iota connected at ALL times to both end batteries in the series or whathave u [ the ones u pointed out from the picture] and just plug it in when I need it correct? Are there times where I shouldn't plug it in? For example while there is actual PV input? Or I can run both at the same time? My apologies for all the questions but ur saving a life right now and I am grateful
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
ya I didn;t realize how inefficient the chargers were. Looks like the 55amp might be better.
0.38 x 800ah / 55amps = 5.5 hours of generator time.
0.38 x 800ah / 55amps = 5.5 hours of generator time.
yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
Yes you can leave it connected to the battery all the time. You can run them at the same time.
MisterSandals
Participation Medalist
Awesome that I can run them at the same time. I am aware about the 50% discharge theory [altho I think it's just good marketing, now u have to buy double the batteries you intended - although I have yet to look into the science of it; just a skeptical intellectual
It's been stuck at 16 and 26 without any use. After 2 days. It's rained non stop for 48 hours. The highest input I saw was 80w when during the summer it normally hits 750 even slightly over 800 at times.
That 11 hour charge doesn't sound ideal.. almost better just hardwiring in my generator I feel like..
Anywho I disconnect the bobo battery and it only lost 2%... from 26 to 24. Thanks for the advice
It's been stuck at 16 and 26 without any use. After 2 days. It's rained non stop for 48 hours. The highest input I saw was 80w when during the summer it normally hits 750 even slightly over 800 at times.
That 11 hour charge doesn't sound ideal.. almost better just hardwiring in my generator I feel like..
Anywho I disconnect the bobo battery and it only lost 2%... from 26 to 24. Thanks for the advice
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yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
There is no such thing as hard wiring your generator. It outputs 120VAC. Please spend some time researching the difference between Alternating current and direct current.
Also how come you are quoting 16 and 24 and 26. what are those numbers?
Battery capacity percentages on the charger display. And I hardwired that predator 2000 into a receptacle in my tiny cabin.. I have a dedicated generator receptacle.. the rest are all solar... and it works just fine with everything. I'm not sure why u see that as a problem outside of some Osha hogwash
SOC possibly?
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