Solar Enough ?

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I know but it's still not a recommended way to charge lead acids.

The frequency used in the PWM is high its hard to imagine any effect on a lead acid battery
Boat batteries need to charged reasonably quickly ( this applies no matter what the charge source) the only way to do this is to have a variable voltage algorithm. PWM is a means of achieving that.
I would be interested in seeing where you read about the detrimental effects of PWM and what the authors objection to it was.
Can you provide some references ?

[goboatingnow]

PWM as used in solar regulators is merely a standard power supply technology. I was being facetious to some extent. MPPT regulators are allmost all use PWM. Pwm is used in all modern power supplies and battery chargers. Engineers tend to use the term switch mode power supply.

All the outputs of PWM systems are smoothed to produce DC

I was referring to PWM charging methods. Often called pulse charging.

It's amuses me to see PWM contrasted with MPPT. The two being completely different systems. The solar industry has used this term because it has mover from shunt or series controllers to switched mode and it's trying to make a virtue out of 30 year old technology.

Dave

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I was referring to PWM charging methods. Often called pulse charging.


Dave

Pulse charging is very different to PWM. Pulse charging is not used by any solar regualator I know of.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Pulse charging is very different to PWM. Pulse charging is not used by any solar regualator I know of.

I know I know. I was merely trying to be facetious in relation to PWM which is merely a technique for generating DC .( in PSU design )

[Nicholson58]

[QUOTE=Mark Johnson;633486]Our boat has been solar self sufficient for the last 15 years and it works great for us! Having had both solar and wind, I found it to be both quiet, and produce more amps, averaged out over a year. We got rid of our wind gen years ago, for this reason... It made room for a 110w panel on the stern.


If space makes this an impractical goal, you could let the engine run in the morning do half the work, and let the solar top them off over the day. No matter the size of the alternator, they are not great for topping off batteries, as their extra amps cannot be absorbed when batteries are near the top.


We replaced our voltage regulator with a BALMAR charge controller. This makes your alternator act as a programmable 3-stage charger. It also drops the alternator power (engine drag) if the power is not needed.