Idea for useing 12Volt in my Deuce

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day everyone,....


Ok,...

I had an idea just using what I have on hand to be able to power my 12Volt Engel fridge/freezer, GPS etc,....

So the Deuce is 24Volt, 2x12Volt batts in series.

I have a 24Volt powered generator that makes 240V @50htz


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Mg8UnaaO29k

So I was thinking I can power my 12volt fridge, GPS etc from 3-4 deep cycle batts run in parallel.
I can keep those deep cycle batts charged with a batt charger run off the generator, the charging of the deep cycle batts will happen only when the engine is running of course.
Once I need to shut down the engine I can just switch off the generator and disconnect a clamp off the batts.

Simple eh?


Aussie.

 

[m109a2]

Yes you can and more.Al

 

[m16ty]

Sounds like it may work but sure seems to be a strange way about doing it.

What are the specs on this 24v generator? I tend to think it's going to take quite a bit of 24v amps to run it.

 

[tim292stro]

Battery Vanner to charge the 12V batteries, contactor connected to the ignition switch to isolate the "chassis" batteries from the "house" batteries. Done all the time in RV coaches - less to go wrong, easier to fix, quieter.

 

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day everyone,.....

Sounds like it may work but sure seems to be a strange way about doing it.

What are the specs on this 24v generator? I tend to think it's going to take quite a bit of 24v amps to run it.

Yeah I know its kind of a convoluted way of doing it but its simple and works,...


As for the specs,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7Es_jmb2Ej8

See the data plate at 2:30


Oh and this unit is ex military so it should go well!


Aussie.

 

[tim292stro]

I genuinely think this is a less complicated/failure-prone method to do it:

100Amp battery Vanner


Vanners can be found coming out of transit service with plenty of life left for less than $200 for the 100Amp version.

Your motor/generator is rated for less than 1/2Amp at 230V (specifically it says 100Watts). The battery charger you will be able to put on that would be less than (100Watts / 12Volts = ) 8.3Amp, I don't believe you will find that amperage sufficient for charging one battery with a load, let alone 3 batteries in parallel.

Doing some simple reality checking, a battery needs approximately 120% of the used charge to recharge fully, a single 75Ah battery (like a group 31 Optima Yellow Top deep-cycle), taken to 80% DOD (60Ah used) would then need 72Ah returned to it. With an ideal 8.3A AC battery charger the simple math is that you'd have to run the motor-generator for just about 8 hours 45 minutes (nearly 9 hours straight). That's for a single battery, if you took two or three batteries in series down to 80% DOD (180AH used), that would take you 17 and 26 hours to recharge respectively. These times also assume that during charging the load is not able to draw more power from the battery. If your 12V refrigerator draws more than 8.3Amps while running you will not be recharging the battery while the fridge is running - you'd have to add the fridge run-time onto the already long recharge times. If it's significantly more than 8.3 Amps, you may kill the batteries if the charger can't keep up even when being run 24/7/365.25.

Switch over to the 100Amp Vanner, and now you can see some time/cost savings: a 72Ah recharge would take you a little more than 43 minutes to achieve. A 180Ah recharge would take you 2 hours 10 minutes.

I think just the fuel savings alone would pay for the Vanner if cost is a concern, then there's the wear and tear on your engine, maintenance of the motor-generator, the space/weight savings... it just goes on and on for me. That's the last I'll bring this solution up, if you're dead set on using the motor generator for something, I'm not going to object - it's your project after all, do it your way, since you will be the one who has to live with it.

 

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day everyone,....


Definitely an interesting system,...
Thanks for the info,...


Aussie.