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Well, remember, the entire load has to be offset by the generator--or you'll just be slowing the discharge rate, and not be actually charging the battery.
This is what i do. As long as the generator triggers with enough battery to handle the largest reasonable task, with some reserve.
For a typical residential off-grid system, the typical 6-10KW generator is ridiculous overkill.
I use an alternator and back-off the diesel to a RPM to minimize fuel per kwh. If for some reason i would need a bigger task, i can rev the engine faster to get more power at the cost of efficiency.
Of course, for most of us the goal is to not have to use your generator any more than the grid. The generator is just there to supplement, and if you're at that point, you can probably find ways to work within your power limits. (In my case, use a clothes line rather than an electric drier...)
Just for thread continuity...@blackwaterpark and I did some diagnostics. The noticeable flickering in the lights while charging appears to be the result of a throttle oscillation in the inverter; this is something that I need to address in code.
The tripping/glitching and errors on the other hand seem to have been caused by generator speed--the genny was running a happy 63-64Hz AC output. (Adjusting the frequency down seems to have solved the issue.) Once again, the frequency limits are purely a firmware limit, not a hardware limit--and if this is normal behavior for gensets, I either need to add "alarms" (instead of random tripping), or increase the accepted range.
Inverter temps seemed stable at 36% charge current, and also at 71% charge current. I know the inverter runs hot in charge mode, but that's normal operation. Shouldn't be overheating though...
I'm thinking I'm just going to get 3 or 4 dedicated lifepo4 48v 15a chargers (looking at the Dakota chargers) and run those as a single charger bank. The system I replaced had a discreet charger and i very much preferred that setup over an inverter/charger for a variety of reasons.
I do not have any lifepo4 48v at this time but I would use a Dakota charger for every string of lifepo4 48v at night and use solar charger by day .
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