12v generator 24 v turbine

[greenkarson]

my creek that powers my 100w turbine is very low this time of year not spinning enough to make any real power. I knew this was going to happen so im planning to add some solar panels next summer. But for now i have a back up honda eu 2000watt generator with a 12v 8 amp output. is there any way to charge my 24 volt battery bank with the 12 volt output or am i comitted to buy a 24v charger and use the AC output of the generator. Would rather not seperate batteries if possibe  

  One idea that crossed my mind is i have a 12 volt 1.5w solar panel. so in the day time can i hook this with my generator 12v cables to make it 24v to charge my bank?

(its one of those little panels with sucton cups)

feel free to tell me thats a stupid idea. Ha

any suggestions?

[snake]

hi,what i understood is that you got a 24v battery bank.i believe that you got 2 12v batteries which are connected i series for 24v,am i right?if it is this way,then you can easily charge the batteries through the generator by connecting the 12volts batteris in parallel.by the way,to charge batteries,you need DC current not AC.if you are charging the batteries the way i am telling you,then it will take double time compared if you were to charge 1 12v battery.hope it helps friend.see ya

[greenkarson]

thats correct 2 12v batteries hooked in series for 24v but im wanting to charge them in series and not have to rewire them every time they need a charge. I realize i need dc to charge dc I was refering to a ac plug in charger

thanks Karson

[ghurd]

The panel is not going to help.

Connecting it like I think you are talking about will ruin it.

Might look for an old wheelchair charger.  Many are 24V.

I found a "24V Army truck battery charger" online a few years ago quite cheap.  The quality is very good.

G-

[snake]

why will it ruin it?as far as i know,it wont but thats my experience.i newer did that coz my system is a 12v but theoretically,it should work fine.if you really dont want to rewire it,then as the friend says,you should buy a 24v charger.but when you buy that charger,make sure that the amps is high enough to charge the batteries quickly.i think that it should be rated approx 5amps at 24volts.see ya

[ghurd]

It would ruin it because the 12V 8A charger would try to push more than a 1.5W panels 100ma of current through the panel.

Or it may only balance between the two 12V sources, and be running the gas generator to make 1.5W, for a total of 3W into the 12V battery.

Either way, it is not a good idea to series an 8A current source in series with a 0.1A current source.

I can live with some imbalance, but a factor of 80 is asking for problems.

G-

[scottsAI]

Greenkarson,

12. v * 8amps = 72watts. Unless your battery is tiny it will take forever to charge it.
    
2000. w / 24v = 83amps, 10x faster charging.
      
      

Hydropower was producing 24hr * 100w = 2,400whr/day.

2,000w generator will produce 2,4000whr in a little over 1 hour.

Run time of the generator is an issue for fuel cost.

By completing the charge as quick as possible, will keep fuel cost down.

(keep within the power limits of the generator!)

Target Loading the generator to 80% of capacity for bulk charging.

Generator Fuel use is rated by full load, half load.

Unloaded fuel use is not typically rated. Plot the data given, draw a line intersecting zero.

72W load on a 2000w generator is near zero.

Since I do not know more about your system will leave it there.

Have fun,

Scott.

[taylorp035]

Careful about doing that.  Make sure you don't short anything out.  That could be a big mistake or lead to personal injury with large storage batteries.

[hydrosun]

What kind of hydro turbine do you have? I've always thought it would work to take the generator off the hydro and put a pulley and gas motor to turn it to charge the batteries when there isn't enough water. Presumably the hydro generator is pretty efficient so it would only take a very small gas engine to turn it. But it may not be big enough to do a quick charge to keep the run time down.

Chris