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Trickle charger in Rechargeable Power Source

Discussion in '360/430' started by galt, Dec 24, 2013.

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  1. galt

    galt Formula 3
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    Jun 19, 2005
    1,141
    #1 galt, Dec 24, 2013
    I currently have my car in a garage that does not have access to an outlet. Was thinking a solution may be to simply plug the car into a rechargeable power unit (like the Duracell Poperpack 600 for example).

    Does anyone have experience with this? Bad idea?
    I wonder how many days you can go without having to recharge the portable power unit say if it is a Duracell Powerpack 600?

    Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. Mr.Chairman

    Mr.Chairman F1 Rookie

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    #2 Mr.Chairman, Dec 24, 2013
    Get a long extension cord and plug it in. Your gonna use a battery to keep another battery charged then your gonna have to charge the charging battery to charge the car battery. A bit much. Long extension cord. Problem solved.

    R
     
  3. galt

    galt Formula 3
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    Jun 19, 2005
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    #3 galt, Dec 24, 2013
    Of course I would prefer doing that, but not possible..it is a shared parking garage of a large building.

    If I only have to recharge the battery every 10 days or so it is not such a big deal...I think that it would work, but just looking for anyone with experience or special knowledge on this. Maybe there is a "gotcha" I am not thinking of.
     
  4. henryr

    henryr Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #4 henryr, Dec 24, 2013
    check some of the electric golf car websites....

    there are solar panels (HF has a few) that you could rig to charge
     
  5. Mr.Chairman

    Mr.Chairman F1 Rookie

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    #5 Mr.Chairman, Dec 25, 2013
    Any chance of getting your spot moved near a power outlet.

    R
     
  6. djantlive

    djantlive Formula 3

    Jun 30, 2005
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    #6 djantlive, Dec 25, 2013
    Best bet is put in a battery saver or disconnect. Battery will last 3-4 months easily if there is not draw. Battery saver will automatically disconnect when battery is low.

    Solar panel, another battery etc are not ideal. There is no sun in a high rise garage basement. Another battery is heavy and you will eventually get tired of doing this every other week.
     
  7. galt

    galt Formula 3
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    #7 galt, Dec 25, 2013
    I guess as long as I have the radio reset code I should be all set to disconnect power. I think there is a battery disconnect switch already in the front. Don't mind running the external battery up to the apartment for a recharge if it is once every two weeks. Otherwise not so great...
     
  8. galt

    galt Formula 3
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    Jun 19, 2005
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    #8 galt, Dec 25, 2013
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2013
    I guess an interesting question would be how many watts does the battery maintainer draw per hour if the battery is full. If I know that then I think I should be able to calculate how many hours the Duracell 600 powerpack will last given it is 26ah capacity

    I am far from an electricity expert (that is why I need some help) but I think for example if the maintainer draws on average 2 Watts (not sure if this is realistic or not) then the calculation is:
    A=W/V I think the maintainer would be 12V but not sure. So A=2/12= .17.
    Therefore, if the Duracell 600 is 26ah then it would last about 26/.17=153 hours or about 6.4 days. Assuming the battery can go for about 5-6 days without the car being driven then that gets you to just under 2 weeks between charges.

    The above is really not much more than an semi-educated guess based on a bunch of assumptions. If anyone has any real expertise would appreciate if they could chime in.
     
  9. roadracer311

    roadracer311 Formula 3

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    #9 roadracer311, Dec 25, 2013
    I've been using a rechargeable-charging system for a couple years now. The current system I'm using is shown here (post 32 and 33).

    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q/327647-battery-tender-absence-power-outlet-2.html

    My previous solution was to use the same motorcycle battery to power an inverter and then use that to power a battery tender, which charged the car battery. You can see that here:
    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/ferrari-discussion-not-model-specific/346588-solution-how-charge-your-car-battery-without-outlet.html

    The current solution, shown in the first thread, is a DC to DC charger, that is designed specifically to take 12V and pump it up to 14V or so, to charge another battery. It's more efficient, and yields good results (I measure the voltage of my car battery before and after charging, and it works well). The only downside of the new solution, is that it doesn't have a little green light to let me know when its charged, so I use one of those volt meters you stuff in the cigarette lighter socket, to measure the before and after voltage on my 355.
     
  10. roadracer311

    roadracer311 Formula 3

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    #10 roadracer311, Dec 25, 2013
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2013
    My portable battery charging system will drain the source battery (motorcycle battery that I charge up in my apartment) in about 2 days. It does a good job of topping up the battery in the 355 after the car has been sitting without a charger and un-used for 2 to 3 weeks.

    I think keeping the battery fully charged really important and often overlooked. If every time you start a car, it has a low battery, then the alternator is going to be working really hard all the time. Also, it's bad for the ECU's and all of the other electronics to run at low voltage. When the car is cranking over, battery voltage pulls down as low as 10V, which doesn't give the ECU's much voltage to work with.

    If you run something that draws constant power at 30% lower voltage, you need to draw 30% more current. Current is a killer, when it comes to electronics, so it's best to keep things running at the voltage the engineers had in mind.
     
  11. galt

    galt Formula 3
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    #11 galt, Dec 25, 2013
    Thanks for this. In principle then, seems like the solution of using the Duracell Powerpack 600 could work ok..
     
  12. roadracer311

    roadracer311 Formula 3

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    #12 roadracer311, Dec 25, 2013
    Yes, I think a battery tender, plugged into the AC output of the Powerpack 600 would work well. The motorcycle battery I'm using has less than half as much capacity. Too bad no one makes a fully integrated portable charger.
     

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