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ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:27 am
by tazmanddevil67
I built a lawn mower generator several years back, It has a 8 hp engine, and a 105 amp alternator, Needless to say I could recharge a car battery in 45 minutes or less. Just an idea for topping a battery bank quickly.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 11:29 am
by techman
I plan to do that soon. Have a guy looking for a horizontal shaft engine for me right now. Trading my old Honda for some fire wood, snow blower and a horizontal shaft engine

Eventually I also want to experiment with wood gas to power the generator. But that will be much later on.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:37 pm
by tazmanddevil67
I noticed you have several lawn mowers there, You can use a vertical shaft motor also. here is a link: https://theepicenter.com/cgi/order.cgi/ ... l&cart_id=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;%%cart_id%% Check into that link and you will get some better ideas.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 9:49 pm
by techman
Thank you, yes I have studied that article quite heavily.

The biggest thing about a horizontal shaft engine is that it is easier to set up and requires less work with metal. Just a few holes to mount things in the base plate and you are done.

I can and may use a lawn mower if I have to one day.

But the other problem I have is that I cant bear to tear apart a perfectly working machine. Better for me to sell it and use the money for a horizontal shaft engine, I think.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:36 pm
by Solar98632
I have An old tiller that i will be doing this with.
i am planning to mount an altenator on to it as a back up.. but tiny tank lol.. but i guuess I could drop the tank from the car and rig it up ..that woul what run the thing for a week?
the thing is the toyta's altenatol looks like an Octopus with all the wires coming from it.and then there is the starter. can it even be used as a turbine?

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 11:28 am
by mr bugsier5
Connecting the mentioned alternator is simple, a big negative wire to the battery,a big positive wire from b plus to positive off battery, de conection with w do not connect , put a positive wire with build in 3 watt bulb on f, and in some cases you also have to connect a positive to the build in regulator, its not that difficult, using the starter motor to generate power is in principe possible but not really economic to use.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 9:25 pm
by tazmanddevil67
The Alternator of choice in my opinion is a Delco Remy for a 1977 Gmc Truck you can get a remanufactured one for around $30 at Autozone. Worked perfectly when I built a lawn mower generator I charged a almost Dead Battery in 45 minutes. As far as gas tanks go you can use a plastic boat tank, Or a 5 gallon gas can with a tap at the bottom of it. I wouldn't go much bigger than that unless you want a BIG Explosion and or Fire, Because FLUFF Happens.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 2:11 pm
by techman
An alternator is the best way to charge your battery bank for sure because it is made for it.

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:08 am
by mr bugsier5
techman wrote:An alternator is the best way to charge your battery bank for sure because it is made for it.
agree it is somewhat, eather the are build to power the car , not realy charge a battery (afcourse the do , but by putting in raw amps, reduced as it reaches 14,5 vols!,) as you know lead acid battery's need overcharging time to time (equalize) to keep them fresh , and thrickel charge wen ful,(so at 12 volt systems its 14,4 volts boost , than equalize one a time wit a volt higher (15,4 volts , and when fully charged to reduce to 13,7!
the alternator regulator only regulates volts, it stops charging by 14,4 and stays there , in longer tymes loading by full battery's the use a lot more water!( not a problem with open cels , but a big problem by sealed battery's.)

connecting the raw dc from the rectifier directly to a MPPT controller wil go even better (the regulator regulates boost/ equalize and float., and give even more amps as the original generator does!) you have to tinker on the original regulator to give max volts , whitout stalling the alternator)(extra diodes in mesuring wire regulator (si diode is _0,7 volts so relulator mesures to low in volts, and regulates 0,7 volts per diode more on the outgoing volts.(this thrick we use whit using normal diode bridges to reduce the loss over the diodes in the bridge)

we tried here a 25 amps rated alternator 300 watts tinkerd the regulator to 20 volts , conected a 60 amps mppt controller and got around 40 amps at 12 volts out of it!(500 watts!!,a increace of 200 watts! it realy makes a difference!

these mppt regulators are great! ;)

(in practice we put a different regulator in the alternator, not the buildin standart only volts regulator)

(creating a kind ofbetter regulated alternator , there sold mutch here in europe for boat charging systems.)

all to gett the batterys loaded in the best and fastest way, and increase battery life! :!:

there is now way better than a good mppt controller and the right way to feed it with power!, solar or alternator/wind turbine etc ;)

Re: ADDITIONAL POWER FOR BATTERY BANK

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 7:26 pm
by techman
Thanks for the very good information. I would never had tried that. Well, I will not try it with my expensive charge controller. Anyway my charge controller handles the equilization when the sun shines. A generator for me only tops off the batteries when they get too low on cloudy days.