I have decided to take some advice from here, which is usually a good idea. I am not going to build the charging system for the main system, there is too much out there that is too far beyond me. I am not learning to do softw are and USB interfaces and all that shit. So that part of it is settled.
After some research he has decided on a 24 volt main system. Invertors are a bit more efficient obviously, the wire gauges are half what they would be at 12, and going to higher voltages really gets into diminishing returns. It might not even be Tesla batteries, there are alternatives. Plus he alrea dy ordered the PV panels and is next going to deal with the mounting and th e tilting mechanism, which is not my job.
So, since so much runs off 12 volts these days I intend to build a regulato r for that and have recommended that he get a regular lead acid battery for that, preferably deep cycle.
What I intend to do, and the crux of my question is, if I build the regulat or to put out something like 14.8 volts, can I just dump that into the batt ery with no filtering ? AND, would it be advantageous to do so ?
Years ago I read about a battery desulfider. From what I gleaned the thing puts out an AC current to the battery and that somehow makes it better. The y claimed it knocked the sulfides off the plates or whatever.
Any filtering I have to do for the 12 volt devices will be easier with (aft er) the aid of the storage battery of course.
I designed some lighting controls and they are of course PWM and I am going to put them at about 25KHz to make sure they're inaudible. That wiring wil l be all over the place so I think that is a good move. However this charge r deal is going to be stashed in the back of this thing and I can use 25Hz, 30Hz, 60Hz, whatever.
Whatever is best for the battery, and this will be a lead acid. The charger will limit current to a reasonable level and shut down at what, 13.8 ? Wha tever.
I noticed over the years that cars that charged at a higher voltage had a b etter charge. With an old battery this would require the periodic addition of water but on a maintenance free newer one it can take it. I've had cars that charged at like 14.3 and they were able to start but not much else. Bu t then my van, well I lived with the olman and we couldn't smoke pot in the house. This thing charged at about 15.8. We sat in that thing (I had easy chairs n shit in there, house speakers, this was the young Man cave) for si x hours partying and it started up just fine in the morning. We had the int erior lights on and the stereo, used the lighter. Other vehicles it seemed if you left the headlights on for three hours you needed a jump start. So I want a nice healthy charge on that battery.
Someone in the other thread mentioned like a week long blizzard ? Well I wa nt to get as close as possible to being able to handle that, but if a blizz ard there will be practically no solar coming in. So one of the enhancement s will be possibly to charge the main batteries off the engine alternator. We intend to install a second alternator for this. What's more in the cold the vehicle heater will assist whatever else goes in there, propane of cour se.
Anyway, my main question again, is it good for a lead acid battery to charg e it with pulsed current ? Is it bad ? Does it simply not matter ? That is my question for today.
Thanks.