So I am wondering about a couple of things, what would happen if I hooked up a 24 volt charger to four 12 volt batteries which I have connected in series for a 48 volt system, would it charge them just slower, or not at all?
Also I heard of guys using four trickle charger to charge four batteries, does that mean they disconnect them in order to charge them, or do they just charge them all at the same time?
Which brings me to my Subject question, can I connect two 24 volt charger to four of my batteries and charge them that way, would that give me a 48 volt charge?
I am torturing myself with all this because 48 volt charger are expensive.
yes you can connect 2 24v chargers to 2 separate batteries.
whatever you do, don't put the 24v chargers in parrallel and attempt to put them across all 4 batteries.
just wire each charger to its own two batteries.
the batteries themselves can still be wired in series, as long as the 24v chargers are isolated.
to check for isolation, measure the resistance between input and output of the charger.
infinite resistance means they are isolated.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
thank you very much for the explanation, much appreciated, I am learning a lot
I'm new to this forum so I'm only seeing your post today, (8/17/2011). I'm working on putting 4, 12 volt trickle chargers on my electric tractor to charge 4, 12 volt batteries that are in series. In order to isolate the chargers, in case they are not truly an open circuit when not charging, I'm using relays with 120 volt ac coils and multiple contacts to connect the chargers only when I plug into my 120 volt outlet to charge the batteries. The relays are inexpensive at www.surpluscenter.com. If your interested I can try to supply you any info you might need.
I could not see any difference when I did just that on a 24 volt system. I used a 107 Amp 24 volt regulated charger and then two 55 amp 12 volt chargers of the same type - switching technology. The 107 Amp charger is 208 / 240 volt input and Iota 55 amp chargers are 120 volt plugged into dryer outlet conversion TO NEMA 5-20 times two. one 120 volt on RED wire and one 120 on BLACK wire sort of speaking. I use mostly 48 volts pack and use 48 volt chargers of "proper" type to charge pack evenly. When a battery gets out of "whack" I replace whole pack. Nothing saying using an individual charger is bad or good. If a situation was needed I would use multiple chargers again. Getting a 12 volt or 24 volt charger matched up exactly is hard to do. I have a nice differential volt meter and monitored my packs when I balanced chargers. I had to use separate 120 volt circuits for a 55 amp charger draws 9 or 10 amps and two on the same circuit will almost be sure to trip a 15 or 20 amp circuit breaker.
KB1UKU