Invert 12V to 24V or 110V?

[NetMan]

I am currently running a remote video camera using a Sony SNCRZ-30N Camera and a wireless bridge. I have a 12 volt solar system (two 12/24V panels and one 12V battery)which I am running into a 600 Watt 110V inverter to power the camera and bridge. Each of these devices are using transformers. The camera transformer uses 110VAC in and 24VAC out to the camera. The bridge uses 110VAC in and 24VDC out. I would like to either use my panels at 24V and get a second 12V battery and bypass the transformers completely or keep it at a 12V system with my existing panel and battery and only convert to 24 volts rather then the 110 volts. From other posts I've read, it appears I should stick with the 110V inverter. Other then cost, I'm having a hard time understanding this. It seems that my power consumption would be less if I only step up to 24V. And as for the step up, keeping in mind that I need to provide both 24VDC and 24VAC, does anyone know of a device that will do this from 12VDC?

Editors Note;


Netman, Please, please stop posting duplicates of this! Just makes extra work for the Editorial Staff removing the duplicates.

[scottsAI]

Hello NetMan,

You will learn "it all depends".

Directly supplying 24vdc generally would be more efficient.

But it depends on how much current you have and need. Other recent post where this was brought up the person need lots of current, large 12v to 24v DC converters are expensive. Small ones are not. Kits for $15 on line for ampere or so.

You mention panel, so I assume solar. If you have more than one, an even number of them you should be able to configure as 12 or 24v. But, does your controller work at both?

Using a 600w inverter for light loads is not a good choice. Standby current will be higher than with a smaller inverter. (I'm assuming the loads are much smaller than 600w)..

Everything must be balanced and considered in your system.

FYI: most modules with 24vac input immediately convert to DC.

So, using 24vdc input often will work fine. If the first polarity does not work reverse it. Best to do this with a current meter in line while testing it out.

Be careful you don't want to fry anything!

Have fun,

Scott.

[Nando]

NetMan:

What you have may be un-necessary, you need to determine the DC voltages for the Camera and for the Wireless Bridge, that could be just 12 volts for each.

Investigate what type of power both units require internally and see if there is the possibility of supplying just DC voltages to both units.

I have done something like that for other systems, like a wireless long range Internet connection.

Nando

[drdongle]

I have to second this. Get a second battery set up your panels as 24 volt and run the bridge and camera of the 24 V DC. Even though the camera says 24 V AC it is converted to DC internally.

[richhagen]

I don't have the same camera as you, however, some of the 24VAC cameras I have I found were actually wasting about half of the power they took in in that they were actually running the board on 12VDC.  The 24VAC was rectified and run through a 7812 regulator.  If you can see that the power leads are immediately rectified, then you can probably run it straight off of 24VDC, but check the power ratings of the rectifier to make sure that a single diode can handle the maximum current, or you could bipass the bridge rectifier altogether as well, but don't bipass the voltage regulator.   As for my camera, the guts of the camera were the same as their 12V model they sold.  If you can run everything on 24VDC then you can save a bit of power by converting your battery bank to 24V and reconfiguring your panels.  If the camera is actually 12VDC in the guts, then you can save a little more power with a 24VDC to 12VDC buck converter, which is commercially available, and can even be purchased on EBAY. (I would not tap into half of the battery bank unless you have some system in place to prevent overcharging and killing the under-used battery)  Rich Hagen

[veewee77]

If I were a betting man, I'd bet that your 24VAC camera would run fine on 24VDC. If the transformer is external, I almost guarantee it.

Add a second 12V battery for 24 volts and if the camera works wth the 24VDC, then just do it that way.

Doug

[Opera House]

Depending on the design of the power supply, you may have a problem when two different devices are connected together via the video cable ground.  Since these are low power devices a put a lamp in series with the battery plus to limit current when this is first tried.

[NetMan]

Scott, Nando, Carpe, Rich, Doug and Opera House,

Thanks for all the info. To give a little more detail, the 24VAC is supplying power not just to my camera, but also my heated dome. I should have mentioned that. The dome circuitry then supplies the camera. It runs off of the 110VAC to 24VAC transformer. It uses around 50 Watts. If I ran straight to the camera, I would only need the 12VDC.

The wireless bridge is using the 110VAC to 24VDC transformer which uses around 40 Watts. These are the only two devices that need power. With that in mind, I feel I should get rid of the 600 Watt inverter and reduce it to around 100 Watt. The should help my power consumption.

I also ordered a SSLD10 "sunrise/sunset [SS] switch, half low voltage disconnect [LVD]" from Hollysolar.com to turn off my system when the sun goes down. I do not need night coverage. This should help me because my cameras would stay on until about 2:00 AM draining my batteries and leaving me down in the morning while the batteries charged back up.

So it looks like I'm drawing less then 100 Watts and changing my inverters might be the best option to take. The direct method was looking expensive.

Let me know what you all think. And thanks again for all the help.

NetMan

[richhagen]

I am not certain as to your pan/tilt design, but my heated enclosure, the heating element is simply a resistor, so it won't care whether it has AC or DC 24V.  As for the pan and tilt part, I would check to see if that is being converted to DC for use as well.  If you don't need the inverter, it is one less piece to consume power and break.  You definitely want a low voltage disconnect, and if you can set the shut off, I would set it conservatively to only discharge the batteries 20% or so.  Your battery life, for almost all battery types, will be much longer.  Rich