Fast house battery charging

[Cary and Don]

Was reading the thread on solar and didn't want to highjack it.

For those of us that have large generators is there a way to add another charger for the house batteries?  If the inverter and the charger were working at the same time to charge we could reduce our generator time.  How many amps can we put to these large house banks without causing damage?  Will the extra charger cause problems with the inverter charger? The max our inverter will charge is about 110 amps.  Add another big charger and those batteries would charge quicker.

The thought is that if the generator is running why not use more of it's capabilities? If an extra charger for bulk charging would reduce the generator time by half that would be a big fuel savings. This could be more cost effective than going solar.

Don and Cary

[TomC]

I don't know if adding more chargers will work.  I know with my 130amp charger on my inverter, I cannot have it on line at the same time I'm running the big engine.  The Delco 50DN doesn't like it (I get a no charge light).  If you want to cut down on your charging time, switch your batteries to AGM's.  You can charge AGM batteries with as many amps as you want as long as you don't go over 14.1v on charge cycle.  Plus AGM's need very little maintenance, can used on their sides, and don't vent so you can mount them inside.  They are about twice as much as wet batteries. Good Luck, TomC

[technomadia]

How many amps your batteries can take at once is a matter specific to your chemistry, size and brand.  For instance, AGMs can take a charge faster than flooded.   You'll always be limited by your bank's capacity to take a charge.  The specs on your batteries should give you this information.   Also keep in mind that the last 20% of charging lead acids is slower than the bulk phase.

One reason we went Lithium Ion is because they can take more of charge than we could possibly toss at it.. so thus can charge up really quickly.  We're limited by our charging system, not the bank.

- Cherie