Yeah, I think I have had something given to me or had a really good deal fall into my lap all of about 3-4 times in my life. Don't get me wrong, I have amazing luck, I mean almost unearthly luck, but it has nothing to do with people. I do not know how many cars I have bought that I have never had to do anything with. Both my ex and my wife have watched me in a casino or sports betting and asked "how do you do that or how are you picking them".
I do not know how many times I probably should have died. Kinda done pushing my luck on that one though.
As for people, I am kind of an odd duck and a homebody. So I do not get to know a lot of people. Even when I was in business, I had the attitude of I am here to do a job and not talk. So not so good on the people skills. In all honesty, it is probably because deep down after 10 min of talking to people, I am exhausted and want to just tell them to **** off. I have always been a big tipper because of all that. I honestly do not know how people deal with people all day every day.
Ok back to project stuff. I am finding some issues in trying to put a system together.
Lets say I am going to use a forklift pack.
I want to build a mill. (I think I have that pretty much under control)
I found a couple of inverters (not charge controllers) that should be able to do what I am thinking.
So now I am going to need a charge controller. But I have that pretty well figured out from reading on this board.
HOWEVER, what if I want to charge my battery bank with my generator when there is no wind or little wind??
I read where you want to charge lead acid at 10-13 percent of the AH rating. Well if my bank is 1,000 AH, I am going to need to charge at 130 amps. I go with the 13% and maybe even 15% for losses in efficiency.
So basically I am limited to a forklift battery charger, as nobody makes anything that I can find that will charge at 130-150 amps. Not even all forklift chargers put out that kind of amps.
Now in reading I have found some people say that their charge controller accepts 120/240 vac input, but they did not say what charge controller they had, Or what amps they were charging at, just that they were doing that to be able to charge their bank when they had several days without sun.
So I thought, well what if I paralleled two battery chargers? Some say yes, some say no. I wonder if they would still work in the same stages of charging, or if I would have to have 2 of them for say an hour or two and then shut one off and let 1 top off the bank by itself?? That sounds kind of hokey. I kind of wanted to make the gen set auto start and pretty much the whole thing just takes care of itself, except battery watering and maintenance of course.
So then I think well, maybe I need to go to a 48v system instead of a 24v one. But that does not change the fact that ideally we want a 13% of the banks AH rating as our charge rate and finding 48volt stuff for shore power charging or gen charging, is even harder.
So it would seem there is some areas of putting a system together that are a little short on building of equipment for "green energy" off grid living or whatever you want to call it. Not that the materials do not exists but that nobody is making the stuff. Aims has a 12-24v charger that is rated at 75/37.5 amp, but other then that there is slim pickens, SO now I would have to have two of those chargers to get to 75 amps (which limits my bank size to 600AH at 13%charge rate) just to charge my bank on cloudy or low wind days. PLUS a charge controller for the turbine and or panels.
Just saying there is an easier way, there has to be. Everyone wants to build a charge controller with an inverter package, but it seems to me that a high amp charge controller that is capable of taking shore power is more what the market needs. Screw the inverter, you can add those as you go.
So in the end, we are screwed if we want to charge at 10 to 15% and have a 1,000 plus ah battery bank. It can be done, but the equipment to do it it slim and extremely expensive. I think many people do not get to worried about spending $4000 on two forklift packs. I think most people understand the concept of stacking inverters and getting the power at the amps they want/need. It is the charging of the battery banks and especially large ones that is the problem.
So, we have a couple different systems that are smaller. Say 3 banks of 300ah (which is 39 amp charge rate at 13%) with the charge controllers, shore chargers, wind mills, solar panels and inverters that go with a system of that size. Then have 3 50 amp or whatever electrical panels.
More then one way to skin a cat, I guess. Either that or paralleled chargers and such. Just does not seem logical that someone could build 2 80 amp controller/chargers cheaper then they could build 1 150 amp controller/charger. But whatever, I would rather have 3 smaller systems anyway, that way if something fails, I am not stuck with a totally inoperable system.
In conclusion (lol have you seen that comedian??)
It seems to me that about a 3-400 Ah bank is optimal. You just have to have more then one and split the loads up more then you would with a 1,000 ah hour pack. Either that or live with a low charge rate. Which may or may not be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it and who you talk to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN2y-p-vM4k 
