Generator options

Hello,
We're currently living in an off-grid cabin but are planning to build an off-grid house with a larger solar power system. We won't have the house for a year or two and our current battery bank is getting long in the tooth.
Our current system is 48V with a 300 aHR battery bank. The new house will have a 550 aHR battery bank and also be 48V (Original post had wrong aHR amounts).
I'm anticipating needing a backup generator this winter to top up the batteries and it seems like we have a few options:
Option A - Use a construction 7500watt gas generator that we already own and add 2 IOTA 24V 25A or 40A chargers in series. The 2 chargers will cost about $800-1000 (Canadian Dollars). My rough estimate that they will take 2-3hrs to top up the batteries from 50% and the generator will use a lot of fuel. We'll use the system 60 times this winter I guess.
Once we have the new house, maybe I could re-use these chargers and run them off a small efficient diesel generator. Or sell the charges used.
Option B - Buy a new generator designed of off grid now. The supplier who gave us a quote for the new house system recommended a Winco 8KW system. They cost about $8,000 Canadian dollars. We'll need this anyway, so maybe just get it now.
Any advice or other options would be appreciated. Thanks!
We're currently living in an off-grid cabin but are planning to build an off-grid house with a larger solar power system. We won't have the house for a year or two and our current battery bank is getting long in the tooth.
Our current system is 48V with a 300 aHR battery bank. The new house will have a 550 aHR battery bank and also be 48V (Original post had wrong aHR amounts).
I'm anticipating needing a backup generator this winter to top up the batteries and it seems like we have a few options:
Option A - Use a construction 7500watt gas generator that we already own and add 2 IOTA 24V 25A or 40A chargers in series. The 2 chargers will cost about $800-1000 (Canadian Dollars). My rough estimate that they will take 2-3hrs to top up the batteries from 50% and the generator will use a lot of fuel. We'll use the system 60 times this winter I guess.
Once we have the new house, maybe I could re-use these chargers and run them off a small efficient diesel generator. Or sell the charges used.
Option B - Buy a new generator designed of off grid now. The supplier who gave us a quote for the new house system recommended a Winco 8KW system. They cost about $8,000 Canadian dollars. We'll need this anyway, so maybe just get it now.
Any advice or other options would be appreciated. Thanks!
Comments
My place uses a 430 ah battery and I use 10/15% over 24hours in winter with the solar turned off .
I just run a 2800watt generator a hour or so a day and charge to full every 3/4 days
I run one frig/freezer and one freezer , tv radio , cell booster , lites , well pump 800/1000 watt
And really any thing I need .
My place is 2800sf living space 3 car garage and 26x32 shop . Propane water heater, stove , radiant heat floor
But I heat with wood .
but I would use the chargers off the generator you have and buy a unit that works with 80% load
I think you could run off of 5500 watt generator your inverter and battery’s will power your loads any way .
Generator & charger. Most larger 48V inverters are able to use a 240VAC generator to charge the batteries. Generally they are high quality, good PF of .9 and in the 100A range . Have you considered that option ? 100A @ 56V = 5,600watts and you want to allow for 50-75% surplus capacity in the generator since battery charging at high power for hours, is VERY demanding on a genset and alternator cooling.
Unless Iota has told you specifically you can series a pair of 24V supplies, I would not try it, unless I was able to fully verify the outputs are totally isolated to a couple hundred volts.
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,
I'll fix the original post for new readers. But the current system is 300 aHR and the new system will be 550.