Inverters how do you decide? (1 Viewer)

Abacist

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Back to choosing an inverter I decided I wanted the pure sine wave variety. I checked her ladyship's curling tongs, hair dryer and straighteners and decided that 1500 watts with a burst limit of 3000 watts would do the business. I looked around and chose one from Amazon, made in China, but designed and sold in Gernany with proper certifications.

£180 is enough to spend to enable the hair tools to work when and if we don't have a EHU and that's forgetting about the cost of the extra batteries, charger, solar panels, regulators, cabling, fuses etc!

But I enjoyed doing it and I hope she enjoys using it!
 
Sep 12, 2016
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OK Just spent time reading this thread

I need to be able to charge my scooter whilst it is in the garage (which will be at night or on the move) the charging voltage is 24 v stepped down from a 240v 12Amp charging system

I wonder which is the best way to achieve this
battery to battery
direct from the Solar /batteries using a separate harness
Inverter (1000W ??)

which way do I go??

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funflair

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OK Just spent time reading this thread

I need to be able to charge my scooter whilst it is in the garage (which will be at night or on the move) the charging voltage is 24 v stepped down from a 240v 12Amp charging system

I wonder which is the best way to achieve this
battery to battery
direct from the Solar /batteries using a separate harness
Inverter (1000W ??)

which way do I go??
If it was me I would use the inverter either when you are travelling or when the sun is or has or will be shining, with a bit of use you will get a feel for how much you can take out of your batteries and how easily you can put the charge back in.

Martin
 
Sep 12, 2016
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If it was me I would use the inverter either when you are travelling or when the sun is or has or will be shining, with a bit of use you will get a feel for how much you can take out of your batteries and how easily you can put the charge back in.

Martin


I asked because on 240v after a day out on the scooter it takes around 6 hours to charge the two 85AH batteries and 5 hours to charge the two 50AH batteries (two different sets of scooter batteries)
and I can surmise that an inverter s liable to kill the three 110 AH batteries on the system
 

funflair

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I asked because on 240v after a day out on the scooter it takes around 6 hours to charge the two 85AH batteries and 5 hours to charge the two 50AH batteries (two different sets of scooter batteries)
and I can surmise that an inverter s liable to kill the three 110 AH batteries on the system
That's a lot of charging are they 24 volt batteries, depending how flat you are going from I think too much for anything other than driving.

You say 240 volt 12 amps charging system so if that is 12 amps into 24 volts that would be taking at least 24 amps from your 12 volt battery bank, a roof full of solar on a good day could give you over 20 amps but not at night.

Martin

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Sep 12, 2016
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That's a lot of charging are they 24 volt batteries, depending how flat you are going from I think too much for anything other than driving.

You say 240 volt 12 amps charging system so if that is 12 amps into 24 volts that would be taking at least 24 amps from your 12 volt battery bank, a roof full of solar on a good day could give you over 20 amps but not at night.

Martin

No the batteries are 12v Traction batteries wired through the scooter system which is 24 volts
but the charger is 240v

not got a generator and not having one as it would need to be running for ages

thinking I may need to wire up a charging harness for the batteries for a battery to battery system
 

funflair

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So can you easily seperate the batteries to make them individual 12 volts for charging purposes so then you don't need to worry about 12 to 24 volts.

Martin
 
Jul 5, 2013
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You seem to be trying to charge 270Ah of batteries with 330Ah of batteries. I can't see how that is ever going to work, bearing in mind that the 330Ah bank probably has a usable charge of between 170Ah to 260Ah in reality!

And what will be charging the 330Ah batteries? To put in 270Ah worth of charge each day would require a heck of a lot of solar panels, especially in the UK.

The key to whether or not this is viable will depend upon how much power your mobility scooter actually uses in a day, and you have not told us that.

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Sep 12, 2016
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You seem to be trying to charge 270Ah of batteries with 330Ah of batteries. I can't see how that is ever going to work, bearing in mind that the 330Ah bank probably has a usable charge of between 170Ah to 260Ah in reality!

And what will be charging the 330Ah batteries? To put in 270Ah worth of charge each day would require a heck of a lot of solar panels, especially in the UK.

The key to whether or not this is viable will depend upon how much power your mobility scooter actually uses in a day, and you have not told us that.


@peterc10 that's a good question I have absolutely no idea of how much the scooter uses as it can be variable with terrain and surface (the smoother the surface the lower the power used) and getting such info from the manufacturer is like getting blood from a stone as a customer they refuse to talk to us

As for the Motorhome the charging is obviously from the engine and boosted by a 150W solar panel (may get another one next year ) and when we do use a site will plug in and get a real top up too
 
Jul 5, 2013
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@peterc10 that's a good question I have absolutely no idea of how much the scooter uses as it can be variable with terrain and surface (the smoother the surface the lower the power used) and getting such info from the manufacturer is like getting blood from a stone as a customer they refuse to talk to us

As for the Motorhome the charging is obviously from the engine and boosted by a 150W solar panel (may get another one next year ) and when we do use a site will plug in and get a real top up too
I cannot see how this will work. Do you have a B to B or A to B charger? If not then your engine is not going to be putting very much in unless you are driving for 8 hours a day, in which case you won't be using the scooter! A 150W solar panel may produce 6 amps at most when there are no clouds and the sun is high. I would guess you would get no more than 50Ah per day out of it on a sunny summer's day in the UK (and there are not many of those!).

The only way to know will be to check the charge level on your scooter batteries at the start and end of various days you use it to see how much power it is actually using.
 

two

Aug 4, 2011
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The energy/capacity involved must be measured in terms of Wh. You can determine this by taking the available Ah and multiplying it by the voltage. 10Ah @ 24V will ‘cost’ 20Ah @ 12V.

A Battery-to-Battery charger may be the best thing to use to charge Lead-Acid traction batteries so long as you’ll always be moving enough to recharge them between uses.

If the batteries are Li-Ion, there may be some additional electronics in the charger which should not to be by-passed (Battery Management System). In that case, get a small inverter and use the supplied mains charger (I’d get a 500W PSW inverter).

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