Parallel wiring of IOTA chargers

jimskau
jimskau Registered Users Posts: 21 ✭✭✭
Dear forum,

Due to the limited capacity of the European 220V versions of the IOTA battery chargers, I have an enquiry from a client who wants to install 2 12V/55A IOTA chargers in parallel. I don't see any problem in this but better to be safe than sorry.
Any opinion or known issues on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Jim Skau
8 x 250Wp Suntech (wife insisted on a dish washer), Outback VFX 3024, Midnite Classic 150, 4 Rolls 6CS25p. Solar installer in Southern Spain. 

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Parallel wiring of IOTA chargers

    Should be fine... Just keep the cables short and heavy (keep voltage drop low--I like to have 0.05 to 0.10 maximum for a 12 volt battery bank). And run the cable from the battery bank to each charger separately (Star, not Daisy Chain--so that the chargers will not interact with each other).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: Parallel wiring of IOTA chargers

    They're actually designed to be paralleled. From the blurb here: http://www.solar-electric.com/bach1.html

    "There is also a special IQ4 for paralleling more than one charger - the IQ4/PAR - this is for using 2 chargers at once on a single battery bank to keep the charge stages synchronized."

    Probably a good idea to use that.
  • dwh
    dwh Solar Expert Posts: 1,341 ✭✭✭
    Re: Parallel wiring of IOTA chargers

    They can be rigged in series as well. Take a look at the last item in the list of features on this page:

    http://www.iotaengineering.com/dls.htm