Author Topic: Where to start?  (Read 2682 times)

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RogerDiesel

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Where to start?
« on: January 16, 2016, 11:42:31 AM »
Hi,

I have been handed a project and need some guidance to get me on the right track.

This is for a very remotely located gun club where we need to keep some equipment running 24/7

We have a big diesel generator and have been given a huge battery pack that comes from from a submarine. Currently the generator is fired up once a week and I would like to use this time to charge the battery bank to maintain power for the rest of the time. No fancy auto start / stop needed.

I am wandering how to connect the battery bank to the generator for charging and make everything available to the existing power inverter that creates the 110 Volts.


Can I connect the batteries directly to the leads in parallel before they go into the inverter?

What do I need to look for and calculate with regards to amps and voltage?
Any electronics needed to safely charge these cells?

Looking forward to your advice :-)


Roger


Mary B

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2016, 05:16:05 PM »
Need way more information, battery voltage, what voltage the bank will be, how many amp hours...

RogerDiesel

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2016, 10:30:33 PM »
Yup I agree before I drive back up the mountain to check it out. What other info do I need?

Mary B

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2016, 01:15:35 AM »
That should be enough to start. What do you plan on powering?

RogerDiesel

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2016, 12:17:19 AM »
Satellite modem, Router, and 3 WiFi access points. Power consumption is max 30 watts. Needs to be running 24/7.

Generator is only started about once a week for a day. Need to store ample of power to survive lets say 2 weeks in case we have s skip a week charging it. (sum of needed storage 10KW)

Further there might be some draw for a laptop and LED lights. Not sure about the load yet.


Mary B

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2016, 07:26:45 PM »
Sounds like battery may be overkill... have to remember your battery will likely need a C/10 charge rate if it is a lead acid design... But coming from a sub the battery chemistry may well be different so we need to know that also.

Frank S

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2016, 10:13:20 PM »
First off how many cells of the submarine battery do you have were they from a military sub or civilian typical Navy subs had 2 batteries consisting of 126 cells in each battery compartment. a single cell weighed around 1600 lbs 54" tall by 15 x 21" most likely made by  Exide Technologies or Gould Electronics, Inc.
 Here is an article from the Australian Submarine Corp. the batteries may be a little different than those from a US sub but the science will be valid http://homepages.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/~markm/preprints/SubBatteriesReport.pdf

 The reason for asking how many cells you have is to determine how you would need to connect them to your inverter for instance is you have a typical 12v DC nominal to 120 VAC inverter you would connect  the cells in groups of 6 cells in series then parallel those groups together  A 24v DC input inverter would mean 12 cells in series and respectfully a 48 VDC input would mean 24 cells in series
 If you were to have a full compliment of 126 cells and connected all of them in series you could have almost 350 VDC output at full charge and close to 7,000 amps of current
 If these are the smaller cells from a small civilian submersible they could be almost anything from L16 s on up
 depending is the sub was a manned or un manned machine

I live so far outside of the box, when I die they will stretch my carcass over the coffin