I have a house battery charging issue. My two 8-D house batteries that power my 2000 watt inverter are being charged by my inverter and by my Magnatek 6345 power converter. I don't know much about electrical issues but it seems to me that two different chargers charging the same battery is not a smart thing to do. Since I am sure the inverter's charger is far superior to the charger in my converter I would like to disconnect my converter charger section.
Here are a couple of schematics for all of you to look at with the hopes that you might be able to tell me how to disable the charger section of my converter.
Thanks in advance for your help
Rick,
I don't understand what you mean by disconnect the charger portion of the Magnetek. What else is there except the charger portion? Just remove the whole thing and be done with it, you don't need both.
If you need to keep the 12 volt distribution, then you can simply disconnect the 120 volts to the unit rather than do any internal rewiring.
Len
Thanks Len,
I don't want to stop using the converter section I just want to stop using the charger section. I may be missing something (it wouldn't be the first time) but I thought this unit did two things. #1 it converts 110 power to 12 volts. correct? #2 It charges my house battery. If that is the case I want to keep converting 110 to 12volts but I don't want to keep using both battery chargers. I fully expect that I have shown just how little about electrical sttuf I grasp.
Rick,
Converters do change from 110 to 12V, but they actually put out something like 14V ALL THE TIME! The house battery is basically a buffer to keep over voltage from going to your appliances. This is why converters kill batteries. They don't step voltage down once a proper battery voltage is reached.
Your inverter's charging function should allow you to run all of your 12V accessories from the house battery and keep your house batteries properly charged when you are pluged in as well as convert the 12VDC to 110VAC.
I hope this makes things clearer. Good luck!
The IOTA and Progressive Dynamics converters both have optional add-on modules to make them 3 stage instead of single stage so batteries don't get overcharged. IOTA even has a factory order option to have the module built-in.
Go back and read Len's reply to your question. You don't need the converter. You can either remove it completely or just disconnect the 120 volt power to it.
A converter puts out raw rectified AC which is not good for DC appliances. When you connect it to a battery, the battery acts like an infinite filter. You draw your current from the battery and the battery charger replaces what you are using simultaneously.
Your inverter/charger will perform the same function as the converter, keeping the batteries charged when you draw 12 volt current for your appliances.