Enginer kit and AC/DC inverter needed to run charger?

Hello,
You lose 10% going from your Solar Batery to AC and then another 10% going from AC back to DC with the charger. So you are loosing a lot just in converting.

What size is your Solar Battery pack?

Thanks,
Dan

 

I did some tests today,

I have a charger that I think is close to what they distribute with the enginer kit. I use a Nigbo Thundersky TLS-48-15 that I got about 9 months ago when I purchased the batteries (40AH Thundersky). The charge rates are about the same as what I saw for in this forum for the supplied charger.

For the test, I was running from sealed Lead Acid batteries about 100 amp hours at 12.2-12.3 volts under load of the running charger. The LiFePO4 batteries were around 3.3 volts/cell at the end of the test. The charger under regular A/C shore power was outputting 15.5 amps into the Thunderskys both before and after the tests as expected. Battery temperature was about 30 deg. F. For both tests, the inverters were hooked via 2 gauge wire (or 2/0 for the larger inverter) on the 12 volt side and 6 gauge wires on the 48 volt side, so there was no heat/ power loss in the cables. There was a 50 amp automotive style amp meter used to measure the current. Both inverters are modified sine wave. The test did not go to completion of charge but only went for about 5 minutes each before I stopped it. The charger's output voltage as measured at the batteries appeared to be reasonable, but the final voltage should be checked once or twice to make sure. I normally don't charge the batteries this way, the thunderskys are part of the inverter pack when I take my travel trailer on a trip.

Test 1 using a 700 watt, 1800 watt surge Chicago Electric (sold by Harbour Freight, purchased maybe 5-8 years ago)
Used 35 amps input at 12.2 volts, charger was outputting only 9 amps into the batteries.

Test 2 used a AIMS 2500 watt (5000 watt surge rating?) inverter
This used just over 50 amps input at 12.2 volts and the charger outputted 11.5 amps to the battery pack.




Check to make sure the wires going to the inverter are big enough and check the voltage at the inverter to see if it drops too much.


(I removed 2 other ways to charge your batteries that I used. They were too expermental for general use even though I used most of last summer. Contact me and I can discuss it.)