battery bank charging

[hnash53]

I have purchased sixteen 12-volt deep cycle batteries, each with 134 amp-hours @ 20 hr rate. I plan to wire two sets of 8 batteries eacg in parallel to increase my amp-hour capacity, and then to wire these sets together in series to increase the voltage to 24 volts.

My question: Can I still charge this bank of batteries with my 12-volt windturbine, my 12-volt solar panels, and my 12-volt battery charger?

Many thanks for your comments.

Hal Nash
Wyoming

[kawalekm]

I just finished reading Rex Ewing's book "Power With Nature : Alternative Energy Solutions For Homeowners". I believe he mentioned this. The more sophisticated charge controllers can take different imputs, such as wind charger AC and solar panel DC, at different voltages, and the link them to the battery bank at the disired voltage. He goes into a lot of detail in constructing "hybrid systems" which produce power from disparate sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and a generator. This book was available at my public library.

[bee_pipes]

yeah - excellent read.

I think the answer to your question is in the documentation with your charge controller. Can't remember the name, but one of the charge controllers in Ewing's book was able to do that - although it was a matter of higher voltage charging a lower voltage bank. Say 48 volts from the array and windmill to a 24 volt battery bank.

Voltage is like water pressure - you have a battery bank with higher pressure than the power producers. Current would be inclined to flow to the lower voltage.

Your choice would be to rewire the solar array to 24 volts - change your series/parallel wiring. The windmill - don't know enough about them to know if it can be rewired to 24 volts. Generally, the producers are just a hair above the battery bank - 17 volts for a 12 volt bank, etc.

Try http://www.fieldlines.com/ - these folks live and breathe this stuff.

Best of luck to you.

Regards,
Pat