Help needed on charging a battery

[Basil]

Not sure where to put this question.
I need to know what it will take to charge this battery each day.
Just say I use it down to 80%.
12 volt 1182ah @ 20 hr's pallet jack battery.
Question is how many amps to charge this battery in
Say 4 hours winter 7 hours summer.
I have no idea.
This will be to my on going hydro / solar project at the lake.
 

[Simen]

20% of 1182Ah are approx. 240Ah.
240Ah/4h = 60Ah in winter.
240Ah/7h = 35Ah in summer.

[Basil]

Thanks Simen

[richhagen]

If that is a lead/antimony type battery commonly used for such applications, it may have a noticable amount of self discharge as well, which would need to be made up to bring it up to full charge each day in addition to what you use.  I would figure up to 2% of rated capacity, or about 24 Amp Hours per day, or about 10% of your stated usage - although this will vary with the type, the condition of your battery, and the temperature.  Rich

[BooneyLiving]

I don't think it's as simple as saying that it would take a certain amount of amp hours to charge in the summer and a certain amount in the winter.  Charging efficiencies as well as battery capacity are both temperature dependent.

For example, a battery that is stored at 50 degrees F in the winter would have very different charging characteristics than one stored at 0 degrees F.  Both temperatures would commonly be found during winter but the answer to your question of how long the battery would take to charge would be quite different under these different temperatures.

Some of the other factors that affect charging time are, the overall condition of the battery, the type charger you're using,  the quality of the connection between the battery and the charger, and more.