Generator charging

wellbuilt · October 2020

Hello all ,
I have been having a problem with generator charging .

I up dated my inverter firm wear 6 weeks ago and my setting changed in the mate .

I changed all the setting back as it was before but for some reason I’m only getting 16/1700 watts going into the battery’s ?

Before I was getting 2000/ 2100 watts from the generator and I had 2000watts to my battery .

For some reason I lost 3/400 watts , I will be getting snow soon and will miss the lost charging
I’m hoping some one can help .

Every thing seems to be working great , the battery’s have good sg generator is running strong inverter is putting out full power .

The setting in the mate seam to be correct. Thanks in advance

mcgivor · October 2020

Took me a few minutes to understand the 16/1700 bit, would be better to state 16-1700W.....Anyhow the wattage would be dependent on the state of charge and or pass through current, I would think.

wellbuilt · October 2020

Thanks for the reply mcgivor ,
The pass thru is 150/200 watts the generator is 2800watts in the mate3 it’s set for 20 amp max charging and the charger is set to draw 2000watts I think so 800 watts left over .

I start charging at 88% as I’ve done for 2 years and I charge at 1600/ 1700 watts with generator putting out 1700watts or so .

I’ve always seen generator running at 2000/2100 watts and charging at 2000watts going to battery .
I’ve tried moving the setting up and down 400 watts but I’m not getting any love .

The calibration Sean’s to be close ?

I used a different genarator ? This happened after I did the up date , I’ve tried out back but they do not answer back .

I did take pics of my screen setting before I updated ? I’m kind of stuck here .

Dave Angelini · October 2020

Have you tried to raise the 20 A ? Seems wrong to limit there. Try 22 A. Also could be your bat strings (balance) are doing this if you were sure that you got that much out before.

Seems very wrong to start charging at 88% soc. Use them or lose them. This will hurt a battery! Not as much as undercharging, but since you are a regular here, I will risk decorum and say that.

wellbuilt · October 2020

Hi Dave my out back charge limit is 20 amps , i can’t set it 22 amps .

My battery’s sg is looking real good all cells are around 1.275
from day one I would start charging with the generator and the generator would put 2100 watts out and the battery’s would take 2000watts in .

That stoped with the inverter up date , my setting where changed and the genarator would run and the battery’s where charging at 600 watts so I adjusted the mate and charging jumped to 16-1700 watts but never went back to the 2100-2000 watts I had earlier☹️ I’m 95% sure I have the setting the way they where . But there is that last 5%.

As far as power use I only use 10 to 15% of my battery over night , I’m not trying to conserve power that is all the power I need I’m sure I can leave some out side lights on if you think I should use more of my battery .

8/9 months of the year the solar panels just work so no generator running at all .

Most of the winter my solar panels are covered in snow so I use more like 20%/25% Then charge up to 95% or so .

I do get some sun if I clear the panels but It needs to be above 20o for them to clear .

How much power do you think I should use nightly ? Thanks for the help Dave

mcgivor · October 2020

Let the battery drop to ~60%, my bet would be the wattage, charging current, will increase to what it was previously, at 80% SOC would be around where absorption begins, what is the battery voltage and what charging stage is indicated at 16-1700 W?

Something to consider is every discharge and subsequent recharge is a cycle using more capacity by generator charging every second day may reduce the total number of cycles, as Dave mentioned use them or loose them, even a battery that is rarely cycled will expire over time, here in the tropics 4 years is considered normal life expectancy for lead acid, cooler climates will be substantially higher.

wellbuilt · October 2020

Emmm I will try that, thanks Mcgivor
When generator charging my charger stays in bulk charge 2000watts going into my 430 ah battery until 94% then absorbs.
Maybe the up date changed the way my charger works?

I always wondered why you guys where talking about absorb starting at 80%.
If I’m leaving for the week I charge until im bring in 4/500 watts in absorb then turn off all ac power and solar charging .When I return my battery’s are sitting at 51.7 plus or minus So full charge 2 or 3 week later .

Last winter I tried charging every other day my battery would get down to 60 to 65%, I was working up there so running a compressor chop/table saw hand tools lights radio I would have to charge @1 1/2 days some times.

If i don’t have feet of snow on the panels and its warms up to 20o or better The snow will slide off with a push from my
35’ pole with 2 foot squeegee things get a lot better with some power coming in I can go 3or4 days or more with out running the generator .

The PROBLEM I was having is my battery’s started getting out of balance .
One battery cell was stuck @ 1.260 all winter and would not come up.
It seamed like I could run the genorator for a hour every morning and charge up.

If I ran the generator every other morning I need 3 hours to charge back up.
I ended up just charging every morning for one hour clearing snow every morning and getting what power I could from the sun .
Once it stoped snowing in may , I left the system charging with the inverter off and one 900watt solar array on With in a monthin

Generator charging

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