direct-charging a six volt bank from a 12 volt charger

[Jonathan Reiter]

I have an electrical question that someone with experience with solar panels and six volt batteries might be able to help with. We're not looking for opinions that begin with..." you might try"... or," I would do this 1st and see what happens"...we need a knowledge- based answer based on solid fact, please...no offense intended to the well-meaning. Simply put: the six solar panels feed a controller that charges a four- battery bank; two six volt batts wired in series, two six volt batts wired in pararallel, delivering 12 volts to the boat's system. The question is: if it becomes necessary, in an emergency, to direct-charge the batt bank from the 1800 watt Homelite generator, where would you connect the charging leads?

[courageous cat]

i take it the homelite 120v AC . do you have 6v battery charger to plug in to the genny. Two 6v in parallel is still 6v. but to answer your question (and i know you wont like it)positive,red,+,hot all go together and negative, ground,-,black are the other group. I sorry but it just not clear anough what you want to do. Is it gen to a smart charger to battery that you want to know?or maybe i"m not reading it right

[Jonathan Reiter]

The question was extremely clear and concise. I said DIRECT CHARGING, not asking if I could plug a six volt charger into an 1800 watt HOMELITE generator. Please, only answers from people who KNOW, not who need additional information to offer their OPINION...PLEASE!

[john540]

I was confused by your question. If you mean that you have four six volt batteries, and that they are wired in series-parallel to create 12 volts, then you may charge them with your generator, provided that your generator has a "12 volt" charging system. A six volt battery wired in parallel with another six volt battery is effectively a twelve volt battery, if you connect to the correct location. And two twelve volt batteries connected in parallel (or four six volt batteries connected in series-parallel) are still effectively a twelve volt battery. [IMG]file:///C:/Users/jfluno/Documents/Series.jpg[/IMG]

[S/V Illusion]

Your question clearly implies you intend to plug your 12VDc batteries into a 110VAC generator output as in you state "to direct-charge the batt bank from the 1800 watt Homelite generator,..." The previous answer - "to the charger" is the only correct one.

You sound like you are considering plugging the batteries directly into 110VAC!

If you intend to connect to the 12VDC output of your genset, that won't work as it does not provide sufficient voltage to charge anything.

[btrayfors]

Jonathan,

Your wording in the original question is not precise. You said you have, "two six volt batts wired in series, two six volt batts wired in pararallel, delivering 12 volts to the boat's system."

That doesn't make sense.

What you likely have...please confirm...is four 6-volt batteries wired in series/parallel (two pairs of series-wired batteries, wired together in parallel). This would deliver 12V to your system.

If this is what you have, then the answer is simple: get a 12-volt charger to plug into the generator, and attach the leads at each end of the battery bank, i.e., to the positive pole of the nearest pair, and to the negative pole of the farthest pair.

Bill

[S/V Antares]

JLS, the answer to the original question is ...no

[Vasco]

No the 1800 watt Homelite generator (like a Honda generator) only puts out 12 volts. You cannot charge your batteries from the 12v output.

[S/V Antares]

JLS, If you are talking about the Homelite HG1800 it has a 12v, 15 amp DC charger for batteries. The Homelite 1800 construction generator does not have this feature.

You can simply attach the positive and negative cables from the generator to the last positive and negative terminals on either bank. Or...if the negative is common (normal) Use a jumper cable between both banks positive terminal and charge both at the same time

15 amps is not a lot going into a large bank but is better than nothing.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by S/V Antares

JLS, If you are talking about the Homelite HG1800 it has a 12v, 15 amp DC charger for batteries. The Homelite 1800 construction generator does not have this feature.

You can simply attach the positive and negative cables from the generator to the last positive and negative terminals on either bank. Or...if the negative is common (normal) Use a jumper cable between both banks positive terminal and charge both at the same time

15 amps is not a lot going into a large bank but is better than nothing.

What he said.

[john540]

Originally Posted by Vasco

No the 1800 watt Homelite generator (like a Honda generator) only puts out 12 volts. You cannot charge your batteries from the 12v output.

According to the Homelite HG1800 series manual, in addition to the 120 volt, 15 amp circuit, there is a DC circuit for battery charging with an automatic resetting, 15 amp circuit breaker. Therefore, the generator can be used directly to charge the batteries, or through a battery charger plugged into the 120volt side. I don't know if there is any harm in doing both simultaneously.
http://www.homelite.com/product_manu...trilingual.pdf

[Vasco]

confused? I am.

[Tellie]

Geesh, poor courageous cat.

Dude, I KNOW you can check page 7 in your Homelite manual. It ain't that hard.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by john540

According to the Homelite HG1800 series manual, in addition to the 120 volt, 15 amp circuit, there is a DC circuit for battery charging with an automatic resetting, 15 amp circuit breaker. Therefore, the generator can be used directly to charge the batteries, or through a battery charger plugged into the 120volt side. I don't know if there is any harm in doing both simultaneously.
http://www.homelite.com/product_manu...trilingual.pdf

No harm, but since the charger will reduce the wattage by about 180+- It would require a puny smaller AC charger than I'm assuming the boat has. He's not going to get a combined 30 amps, 15 amps from the DC charger and 15 amps from the AC plug on an 1800 watt capacity gen at the same time.
The combined loads are beyond the limits.

[john540]

Originally Posted by Tellie

No harm, but since the charger will reduce the wattage by about 180+- It would require a puny smaller AC charger than I'm assuming the boat has. He's not going to get a combined 30 amps, 15 amps from the DC charger and 15 amps from the AC plug on an 1800 watt capacity gen at the same time.
The combined loads are beyond the limits.

I disagree, The generator is capable of producing a total of 1800 watts. That's 120 volts times 15 amps. If you run a 30 amp battery charger off of the 120 volt side, it will run somewhere between 65% to 85% efficiency, meaning if the charger puts out 12vdc at 30 amps , it will draw from the generator 360 watts plus between 64 watts and 193 watts for the inefficiency. If you also are using the DC charging system simultaneously, it will draw a maximum of 15 amps, or 180 watts, for a total draw of 604 to 733 watts, far below the max output of 1800.