Battery charging from 2000 W generator

[jimmoore13]

As others have said, you're gonna run that generator for many hours if you use much of your battery power.

If you like to boondock and if you like peace and quiet, go solar.
There are many variables to this, but if you have a single group 24 battery, it's usable capacity is 35 to 40 amp hours. A group 27 can deliver about 50 usable amp hours.

Solar is on duty as soon as the sun rises, and for a few hours midday, it will deliver about 7 amps of charge per 100 watt solar panel. 2 panels, 14 amps. 14 amps of charge for an hour equal 14 amp hours. Times three hours, and you have damned near a full charge in a group 27. But solar is relentless, delivering "something" from sunup to sundown. 200 watts of solar should easily give you back 50 amp hours a day.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest or setup in the shade, performance will suffer, of course, but solar makes measurable charging power even during a thunderstorm. If there's light, there's at least some charge trickling in. Scale your solar installation to your typical conditions. You can add up to 4 panels on a single charge controller, and panels cost all of $100 each.

One of these systems:
Renology
Windy Nation
with 2 panels should top off your battery by evening. Silently.
You can definitely do better and spend a lot more, but these work well.

Installation is pretty easy. The charge controller goes straight to the battery. No concerns about compatibility with the converter...they both can charge at the same time. No tricks, no switches, no transfer switch. Electrically it's as easy as pie. If you have built in solar prep, fuggedabout it. It's just wire, and it's too long and too thin for anything but a suitcase solar panel. Generally a waste of time.

In sunny Colorado, I get by with a single panel...see photo--panel visible on roof and charge controller is in the plastic box to the right of the propane tanks. At dusk, I'm fully charged every day. I even have enough power to warm the bed with an electric blanket through an inverter (20 minutes), and run everything I need overnight (furnace, water pump, spark, ignition for hot water, furnace, propane fridge). This is not a magic potion. I am also frugal with power. I use a mantle lantern and LED lanterns for light and a rechargeable blue-tooth speaker for music. But it works. I've been out for as long as 5 days with no shortage of battery power. I condition the battery with shore power when I get home.

Running a generator for hours is fine, and it will do the job as others have said. I have one and run it to power the microwave and latte machine...for about 15 minutes twice a day. The rest of the time I have peace and quiet. If this intrigues you, I can provide more info and answer questions.

[babock]

Originally Posted by pdqparalegal1

I have fount this way to be the best way to get a good charge. They will charge faster than the on board charger,

The batteries will only accept what they are going to accept given a certain voltage/state of charge. If you are charging at 14.6V or so and you haven't reached the limit of the charger, it won't matter.

The caveat to that is if the converter is far enough away from the battery that there is a voltage drop due to all the current in the small wire. Then, another charger might be better. If that's the case, you should be upgrading your wire to a larger size to eliminate the majority of the voltage drop. Keep the voltage drop to 2%.

[hiinthesky]

Buy one of those voltage minders that plug into your 12v plug and has a digital read out. They generally sale for less then $15.00. Print out the following chart and you will soon learn how long it takes to charge your battery.

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by Flybob

This does not make sense as both charger and converter have circuitry in them that determine the charge level based on the perceived battery voltage and one charger will confuse the other.

I agree Bob. Makes no sense. But yet on my old rig, I assumed because of a lowly 35 amp charger with an abizmal low bulk charge voltage. I slapped my Harbor Freight charger on with the "big" 25 amp starter boost setting and cut my bulk rate charging time appreciably. So in some combination I have recommended the technique with a mindful eye on the possibility that you could boil the batteries if you get carried away with the process.

[Tom48]

[QUOTE=jimmoore13;2062813]As others have said, you're gonna run that generator for many hours if you use much of your battery power.

If you like to boondock and if you like peace and quiet, go solar.
There are many variables to this, but if you have a single group 24 battery, it's usable capacity is 35 to 40 amp hours. A group 27 can deliver about 50 usable amp hours.

Solar is on duty as soon as the sun rises, and for a few hours midday, it will deliver about 7 amps of charge per 100 watt solar panel. 2 panels, 14 amps. 14 amps of charge for an hour equal 14 amp hours. Times three hours, and you have damned near a full charge in a group 27. But solar is relentless, delivering "something" from sunup to sundown. 200 watts of solar should easily give you back 50 amp hours a day.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest or setup in the shade, performance will suffer, of course, but solar makes measurable charging power even during a thunderstorm. If there's light, there's at least some charge trickling in. Scale your solar installation to your typical conditions. You can add up to 4 panels on a single charge controller, and panels cost all of $100 each.

One of these systems:
Renology
Windy Nation
with 2 panels should top off your battery by evening. Silently.
You can definitely do better and spend a lot more, but these work well.

Installation is pretty easy. The charge controller goes straight to the battery. No concerns about compatibility with the converter...they both can charge at the same time. No tricks, no switches, no transfer switch. Electrically it's as easy as pie. If you have built in solar prep, fuggedabout it. It's just wire, and it's too long and too thin for anything but a suitcase solar panel. Generally a waste of time.

In sunny Colorado, I get by with a single panel...see photo--panel visible on roof and charge controller is in the plastic box to the right of the propane tanks. At dusk, I'm fully charged every day. I even have enough power to warm the bed with an electric blanket through an inverter (20 minutes), and run everything I need overnight (furnace, water pump, spark, ignition for hot water, furnace, propane fridge). This is not a magic potion. I am also frugal with power. I use a mantle lantern and LED lanterns for light and a rechargeable blue-tooth speaker for music. But it works. I've been out for as long as 5 days with no shortage of battery power. I condition the battery with shore power when I get home.

Running a generator for hours is fine, and it will do the job as others have said. I have one and run it to power the microwave and latte machine...for about 15 minutes twice a day. The rest of the time I have peace and quiet. If this intrigues you, I can provide more info and answer questions.[/QUOT



DITTO to that and add "be sure to have two batteries" I have two gc2 (golf cart batteries) and by sunrise our usage on a cold TV night has them down to 12.2 or 12.3. Before ten my solar has them back near 100% start of charge, making me wish I had had more batteries to burn the last evening. More is better.?😐

[babock]

Gotta love when people think they are going to get 7A out of a 100W solar panel, flat mounted with a PWM controller...not going to happen.

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by babock

Gotta love when people think they are going to get 7A out of a 100W solar panel, flat mounted with a PWM controller...not going to happen.

Not with a PWM controller, but can with a MPPT controller.

[babock]

Originally Posted by boondocking

Not with a PWM controller, but can with a MPPT controller.

Not flat mounted unless its noon on June 21st. If aimed...maybe. Lose around 30% when not tilted.

He claims the 7A is using a PWM controller and giving links to PWM controllers.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by babock

Not flat mounted unless its noon on June 21st. If aimed...maybe. Lose around 30% when not tilted.

He claims the 7A is using a PWM controller and giving links to PWM controllers.

This is why I prefer a portable set I can not only place in an un-shaded area but aim as necessary for max output. Living in the Pacific NW sun can be at premium so I try to make the most of it.

My 160 watt suitcase, wired to an MPPT controller has been replacing an average of 50 AH by mid afternoon on average sunny days. As they say, "Works for me".

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by Tom48

I agree Bob. Makes no sense. But yet on my old rig, I assumed because of a lowly 35 amp charger with an abizmal low bulk charge voltage. I slapped my Harbor Freight charger on with the "big" 25 amp starter boost setting and cut my bulk rate charging time appreciably. So in some combination I have recommended the technique with a mindful eye on the possibility that you could boil the batteries if you get carried away with the process.

This method can in fact reduce the charging time, but you would have had the same results with only the HF charger connected as the converter would sense incorrect voltage and be doing very little charging. In addition, since the starting boost mode has no sensing and hence voltage adjust, there is a potential to damage the battery.

[Papadave]

If you use the generator to fast charge and a solar panel to top them off you have a good combination. Generator is efficient at high amps and solar is good at trickle up.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by bikendan

We've been dry camping for years and have a Honda 2000i.
Our best results are 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours before the end of generator hours.
We've always just plugged the shore cord into the Honda.

X2. Exactly. At this point, this really all you need to worry about.

We run our generator in the morning for coffee and news, then at night for microwave and TV. So about 5 hours total of charging a day while doing other things.

Get a cheap multi meter from Harbor Freight and you can keep tabs on exactly where your battery is at on that handy battery charge chart.

Then as you become more schooled on your battery needs, you can branch off on all the other intricate advice on these forums

[babock]

0 hours for me thankfully! No generator noise ever. And, 30% tax credit!

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by babock

0 hours for me thankfully! No generator noise ever. And, 30% tax credit!

Now tell us total cost

[babock]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

Now tell us total cost

Less than your 2 Honda generators!

You can buy 200W panels for $180 each and a Victron MPPT controller for $350.

Of course having no noise, no generator theft worries, no weight of generators, no fuel cans for generators....is priceless!

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by babock

Less than your 2 Honda generators!

You can buy 200W panels for $180 each and a Victron MPPT controller for $350.

Of course having no noise, no generator theft worries, no weight of generators, no fuel cans for generators....is priceless!

[NJKris]

babock, what do you do when the sun doesn't shine? Camp without electricity? Heaven forbid, lol.

[babock]

Originally Posted by NJKris

babock, what do you do when the sun doesn't shine? Camp without electricity? Heaven forbid, lol.

I have plenty of capacity to outlast that for 4 night trips. If I go longer and there is a chance of that, I will put my generator in my truck. I have yet to use it since I installed solar. I do start it up occasionally with a full load at home. In 2 weeks dry camping in Utah, never had an issue. We had solid rain one day and my system actually still topped off my bank.

[NJKris]

That's a heck of a battery bank! Half the weight of your Coachman?

[babock]

Originally Posted by NJKris

That's a heck of a battery bank! Half the weight of your Coachman?

Hardly...2 Battleborn 100A.