Battery Charger for 12VDC source to 12VDC battery?

[Damaged Eagle]

Trying to hook up some solar panels and wind turbine to 60Ah of lithium battery.

Anyone know about battery chargers for solar and wind?

Was looking at a Schumacker for marine and automotive batteries. Says it'll handle 5amps at the input/source.

Kinda' lost here. Need something that will handle 12VDC source from the solar panels and wind turbines to charge the battery and don't want to burn the damn thing up. The ones that came with the solar panel are cheaply made. Kinda' want to take all my sources and run them into the charger to keep the batteries charged.

I have ten solar panels right now and they say they produce 100 watts each.
&
Bought a small windmill that's rated at 400 watts. (Have room for two more if this works)

So does anyone here know about chargers?

*****SMILE*****

 

[Moonglow]

Yes, yes I do...

 

[JGalt]

View attachment 565419

Trying to hook up some solar panels and wind turbine to 60Ah of lithium battery.

Anyone know about battery chargers for solar and wind?

Was looking at a Schumacker for marine and automotive batteries. Says it'll handle 5amps at the input/source.

Kinda' lost here. Need something that will handle 12VDC source from the solar panels and wind turbines to charge the battery and don't want to burn the damn thing up. The ones that came with the solar panel are cheaply made. Kinda' want to take all my sources and run them into the charger to keep the batteries charged.

I have ten solar panels right now and they say they produce 100 watts each.
&
Bought a small windmill that's rated at 400 watts. (Have room for two more if this works)

So does anyone here know about chargers?

*****SMILE*****

You probably want to put some diodes in series with the solar cells connected to the battey. Othewise when the battery is fully charged, current can leak back onto the cell.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

You probably want to put some diodes in series with the solar cells connected to the battey. Othewise when the battery is fully charged, current can leak back onto the cell.

That's why I'm asking about chargers. The charger should prevent that from happening.

*****SMILE*****

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Yes, yes I do...

I do too but I'm looking to buy one and need some advice.

*****SMILE*****

 

[Moonglow]

I would suggest you look into some engineer's reviews.

 

[Moonglow]

Solar panels create DC and then it is converted into AC for home use.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Solar panels create DC and then it is converted into AC for home use.

And if I run separate lines into the house at 12VDC it'll power a 12VDC RV heater/fan, or two, and maybe a couple 12VDC lights for emergencies.

*****SMILE*****

 

[Grumblenuts]

You need a charge controller. Panels usually put out more than 12 volts. 17 - 22 or so in my experience depending on the type. Your windmills could go much higher. A good charge controller will easily cut both down to around 13.6 volts which is what you really want. Plus it will monitor you battery bank, keep track of the power inputs and outputs, allow you to divert the output to an inverter and so forth. I bought a really nice one directly from China like ten years ago, but you need to research what's best for you these days. The inverter I bought was cheap, but it eats half the available power as soon as I turn it on, so compare efficiencies I guess.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I'd also recommend putting a diode on each panel and windmill feed. The higher voltage outputs from the windmill(s) could potentially damage the panels. After the diodes you can short multiple feeds together allowing you to run fewer (fatter) wires to your controller.

 

[sparky]

Trying to hook up some solar panels and wind turbine to 60Ah of lithium battery.

does any of the above interface with the grid???

~S~

 

[Damaged Eagle]

does any of the above interface with the grid???

~S~

No. It's completely separate from the power grid.

*****SMILE*****

 

[ProfessorHawthorne]

You need a charge controller. Panels usually put out more than 12 volts. 17 - 22 or so in my experience depending on the type. Your windmills could go much higher. A good charge controller will easily cut both down to around 13.6 volts which is what you really want. Plus it will monitor you battery bank, keep track of the power inputs and outputs, allow you to divert the output to an inverter and so forth. I bought a really nice one directly from China like ten years ago, but you need to research what's best for you these days. The inverter I bought was cheap, but it eats half the available power as soon as I turn it on, so compare efficiencies I guess.

Precisely! I would only add that since you said you had a lithium battery, I wonder. Do you have a LiFePO4 battery? The charging characteristics are slightly different for this chemistry. That's also a lot of solar and wind for one battery. A bank (10 or more) of 100Ah LiFePO4s would give you a least a KW of backup power for your inverter. Then again, one KW ain't much if you want power for heat. Anyway, good luck with your project.

Cheers

 

[sparky]

No. It's completely separate from the power grid.

that makes things less complicated

~S~

 

[sparky]

That's also a lot of solar and wind for one battery. A bank (10 or more) of 100Ah LiFePO4s would give you a least a KW of backup power for your inverter

can we assume a combiner is involved?

if so s0ome DC distribution would be involved?

~S~

 

[Damaged Eagle]

Precisely! I would only add that since you said you had a lithium battery, I wonder. Do you have a LiFePO4 battery? The charging characteristics are slightly different for this chemistry. That's also a lot of solar and wind for one battery. A bank (10 or more) of 100Ah LiFePO4s would give you a least a KW of backup power for your inverter. Then again, one KW ain't much if you want power for heat. Anyway, good luck with your project.

Cheers

I'm not looking to run the heaters on battery power. 100Ah of battery costs $500 a shot. On the hand if there's a constant solar and wind source that can run the heater, with 100Ah battery to keep it somewhat constant if the wind or solar goes away for 10 to 30 minutes, that's cheap and will save on my heating bill.

*****SMILE*****

 

[sparky]

maybe a few pix helps?>>>

~S~

 

[sparky]

~S~

 

[JohnDB]

The windmills are much easier than the solar panels.
The solution is as close as the nearest junkyard... basically all you really need to do is get some alternators out of the junkyards and connect them to the marine batteries. The diodes are usually internal in them.

But don't get them out of a Toyota as they have a clutch in them that burns up.

But it is as simple as building a frame to house the alternators and using fan belts from the windmill to the alternator to turn it... extremely low cost and easy.

And I recommend marine batteries instead of LiOn batteries...much longer life and not going to discharge immediately on you. They hold up much longer than a regular car battery or Lithium Batteries do. (More charges)

Also recycled marine batteries are much cheaper...you can usually get those at a huge discount as well at the battery recycling places.

Then it's just a matter of getting enough of them to connect to an inverter to create the 120 or 240 V system to power a heater. (Which uses a LOT of watts)
50,000 watts for a heating system is nothing...150,000 watts is better.

 

[JohnDB]

One other thing...
You have average wind speeds where you are at...which eventually turns into average RPMs of your drive shaft of the windmill.
Which then turns into RPMs of the alternator...basic ratio math will solve that issue. Usually for vehicles they reduce the RPMs for the alternator but in this case you likely will want a few more. So you have a larger drive pulley and smaller pulley wheel on the alternator itself.