24 volt battery hookup. Energy Our Off Grid Adventure Installing the 24 volt to 12 volt Converter

Setting up the 24 volt to 12 volt Converter

The new grid that is off which we now have in position generates 24 volts DC, which in turn would go to the inverter and it is changed into 240 volts AC, therefore it can power most of the 240 volt material in the home.

Nonetheless, you will find elements of the old 12 volt system nevertheless being used, including most of the lights, a little pump and some other odds and ends.

as opposed to get and change every thing, i desired to help keep it running as it absolutely was, additionally one bank of batteries continues to be working free fling website and I also would you like to ensure that it it is running provided that I’m able to.

The solution to my prayers had been a little DC to DC converter (ie 24 volt to 12 volt converter), which may allow us to operate the old material regarding the brand new system. We nevertheless desired to have the ability to run the stuff that is old the old lead acid battery pack bank if I needed seriously to. Getting the lights running on the system that is old become especially handy once I had been bedding the latest system straight straight straight down. From time to time I would personally get things incorrect, over extend the brand new system so the inverter turn off and we also destroyed energy. If this occurred through the night, we might have forfeit the lights also but I could at least see to work out what I had done wrong with the new system because they were still operating on the old system.

I needed some way to switch between the two, and the easiest way was to install a battery isolator switch if I wanted to keep operating both systems (12 volt DC for lights and 24 volt DC – 240 volts AC for everything else. They are found in 4WDs and RVs that have a battery to operate devices along with a battery pack to start out the car. Battery pack isolator switch lets you draw current from either or both batteries making sure that if you need to, you are able to separate the battery that is staring the device and give a wide berth to flattening it, therefore stranding yourself away in the bush someplace.

The image during my head of the battery pack isolator switch had been a rotary switch that would take the negative and positive cables through the 24 volt system (through the converter to 12 volt), the negative and positive through the initial 12 volt system and also the negative and positive through the household circuit and I also could simply alter among them. Once I got hold of the switch it just had space for 3 cables – battery pack 1, battery pack 2 plus the typical cable. As it happens I had to do something else with the negative wires of each circuit that it only switches the positive wires and.

It dawned on me personally that the best way to run it absolutely was to collect all 3 negative wires and run them up to a basic website link so that they had been linked.

You learn one thing brand brand new each day as soon as we went along to my neighborhood electrician supply destination i discovered I was able to get one with the size which would take the (quite thick) 12 volt wires easily that they made neutral links with varying hole size and.

Therefore to create all of this up, we went cables through the negative and positive terminals of my 24 volt battery bank towards the input region of the 24v to 12v converter. When I went a poor cable through the production for the converter to your basic website link. We took the negative cable which went from the 12 volt batteries to your negative supply point for your house circuits, cut it by 50 percent and went both ends to the basic website website link, therefore doing the negative region of the circuit.

To accomplish things we shot to popularity the rear of battery pack isolator switch, exposing 3 threaded terminals fitted with a nut and lock washer which accepted spade or band terminals. We went a cable through the good terminal for the converter to your “1” terminal regarding the switch after which broke the good cable from the 12 volt batteries to your good supply point for the home circuits, soldered on a few band terminals then linked battery pack part to your “2” terminal therefore the house supply region of the cable towards the “C” (or “common”) terminal.

Which means as soon as the switch had been looked to “1” the illumination had been running on the 12 volt system so when it had been looked to “2” it had been running on the brand new 24 volt system through the 24 volt to 12 volt converter. (clearly once the switch had been looked to “1 + 2” it can draw energy from both systems).

Now the acid test! Would everything work when switched into the system that is new?

Fortunately it did, working well whenever switched to either the old 12v or even the brand brand new 24v to 12v part. Additionally, up to now, operating the lights straight from the system appears to work very well and so they usually do not eat that much energy in addition to everything we had been already making use of. The machine is currently quite versatile, permitting me personally to run the lights on either the old or new system, as required.

It may be found here if you want a general overview of our off-grid adventure