T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Charging sources

Friday, October 14, 2011

Re: [Electric Boats] Charging sources

Ben:

The answer to how things charge using solar, wind and a battery charger on my boat is it depends. If the battery bank has been heavily discharged both the solar and wind generator will charge the battery. If I add the battery charger to the mix usually it takes over most of the charging. Though again it depends on how discharged the battery is.

When the battery is fully or near fully charged the solar panels and their controller keep the voltage of the battery bank above the cut off point of the wind generator during the day. So for most of the day the Marine Air X wind generator is in shutdown/standby mode. After sunset it might fire up if the winds are strong enough but, cuts out as soon as the bank voltage reaches 56 volts. It all works well together. If you look at this video:

http://biankablog.blogspot.com/2010/09/happy-at-helm.html

you will see an amp meter in part of the video. It is only measuring the current from the wind generator. But, obviously the solar panels were also providing some charge into the battery bank too but, it is not shown on that meter. But, current from both sources will show on the main XBM battery monitor. The solar and wind never fight each other it just depends on the depth of the battery discharge whether one or both are adding to the charging.

Capt. Mike

http://biankablog.blogspot.com

--- On Fri, 10/14/11, Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net> wrote:

From: Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net>
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Regen Success
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, October 14, 2011, 1:55 PM

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 07:48:33AM -0700, Mike wrote:
>
>
> Ben:
>
> Sometimes trying to make something do too many things can be a problem.
> Especially on a boat. I think anything that charges the battery should have
> it's own regulator. On my boat the solar panels go through their own charge
> controller. The wind turbine has it's own charging control electronics and of
> course my battery chargers also have their own charging electronics. All are
> set for my AGM battery bank.

I've thought about doing something like that. The only thing that
concerns me about that approach is that the two source regulators -
e.g., the wind gen and the solar panels - could get into a "tug of war"
with each other; i.e., the voltage output from one regulator would shut
down the other one. I don't know for sure that it would happen - it just
seems as though it would, given the two different source resistances.

I suspect - given your approach - that you probably have an ammeter on
both of the charging sources. If so, do you ever see both the wind gen
and the solar panel charging at the same time, or is it a one-at-a-time
affair? I'm actually very interested in the answer, since I wouldn't
mind having the approach that you've described as a possible option.

Of course, that's neither here nor there with regard to this ACR switch:
here, we have a single source feeding multiple banks - the opposite of
the above situation. But it's still an interesting question. Actually,
I'd love to see your whole setup if you're at all willing to welcome a
curious visitor (I'm still in the NYC area, at least for another week or
so.) I'd even bring a six-pack of your favorite social lubricant to pay
for the intrusion. :)

> My house bank has it's own solar panels and
> charger too which are set for Gel batteries. If any one of them fail they can
> be removed from the system and the other charging sources remain to continue
> working.

Yep - that would be the big advantage of doing it this way. Exactly why
I'd like to eliminate the contention question.

--
Ben Okopnik
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