robustness of 802A alternator

[Sgt Jiggins]

Howdy Folks,

While figuring out how and where to station my MEP-802A at my house, I began wondering about the 24v alternator. How robust is it? Would it be able to charge 2x 200AH AGM batteries in 24v series reasonably? Is the alternator going to be 'kind' to the AGM battery or will it 'cook' it?

Thank you,
SJ

 

[jcollings]

I don't know about 200 amp hour that sounds like some hawkers, A lot of them did come Standard with AGM batteries though red top or yellow top

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[LEOK]

I don't depend on my alternator to maintain my batteries. Two choices buy a 24 low Amp maintainer designed AGM in mind. Or a battery switch and charge as 12 volt in parallel, cheaper. I'll post my findings battery charging

 

[Sgt Jiggins]

I guess I should've elaborated a bit:

My goal is to run the MEP-802A for enough time to heat water, ensure the deep freeze stays cold, ... but not necessarily continuously. Because I have a sizeable 24v battery bank that will run my water pump (from a cistern in my basement - not the well pump itself). If I could use that 24v 'circuit' to recharge the battery bank (assuming solar isn't enough/available in sufficient quantity), that'd be really nice. So not only a 110/240vac cord to a transfer switch but also a slave cable to a slave receptacle on the wall. Leading to the battery bank.

Just a thought while working on it...
SJ

 

[LEOK]

So you have solar platform charging a battery array for a inverter, so are you off grid and the Gen will be run when large loads are needed, or the sun hasn't been out enough. I guess tie your Gen battery into the same array that solar is charging. Make them all match. Don't use the onboard alternator at all

 

[Light in the Dark]

If you want to power a battery bank, you really should watch the auctions for a machine called a 'BAPU'. Open frame DC generator, 28-32VDC, single cylinder yanmar L100... similar lineage to the MEP531 (Dewey Electronics). Their DC alternator puts out 125A @ 28VDC.

 

[Sgt Jiggins]

125A @ 28VDC. Wow. That is some serious current. Thank you LitD. I'll have to keep an eye out for one.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Its about 3.5kw, give or take. They are all being surplussed out of CA... only made approx 235 of them (and GP shows 170 being sold)... so the supply WILL run dry. It was a purpose built machine, an auxiliary power unit mounted onto an IED defeat vehicle in Iraq (or at least that was the plan). Looks like none were ever fielded... they all have under 10 hours on them from factory testing only. I have (2) of them.

 

[Light in the Dark]

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...y-Charging-Aux-Power-Unit-Generator-Head-Swap

 

[Suprman]

I have 28vdc 180a apu gens

 

[LEOK]

I don't get it why run Gen to make DC to charge batteries to drive an inverter to make 110v. Think of efficiency loss. Unless you have low voltage loads. What is the efficiency of inverters? How much energy loss in the battery charging cycle. What is watt/hour in compared to watt/hour out of a wet cell. The only purpose of the batteries is to store excess free sun energy. I don't think you want to buy diesel to fill batteries. The highest conversion rate we've got is the electric motor/generator at taking torque and making watts. A running stream is best off grid generator.​

 

[Suprman]

I have sold them to guys running 28 volt off grid power. They have 28 volt solar charging batteries running an inverter. And the generator is a backup to charge the batts and run stuff if needed.