# Charging habitation battery with generator



## amydan (Sep 8, 2009)

Trying to find out how long it takes to charge a habitation battery from a 1KW generator


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## 113016 (Jun 5, 2008)

amydan said:


> Trying to find out how long it takes to charge a habitation battery from a 1KW generator


Sorry, didn't mean to thank, it should have been quote. So you got a free one!

It obviously depends on how discharged it is, but I would say an average of about a couple of hours, preferably when your neighbours are on walkabouts.
Look into Solar as that is the real answer, but the geny is handy during the winter,

edit. By the way, how long is a piece of string :?: :lol: :lol:


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

About the same length of time as it would from EHU.

It depends on how many batteries you have, what stae of charge they are in, how efficient your on board charger unit is, how many other items are drawing current from your Genny, even the ambient temperature will have an impact!!

So to sum up, it's a question that cannot have a definitive answer


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

It's approx. 8 amps per hour divided into state of battery to begin with

tony


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## mistycat (Jan 28, 2014)

GEMMY said:


> It's approx. 8 amps per hour divided into state of battery to begin with
> 
> tony


That's a lot of hours 😮 so really pee the neighbours off and run the van, 
would be Quicker and you can have the heater on, 😁😁
But solar panels are the way to go, let's hope there's a bit of sun next week to charge my batts up
Misty


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

Why do you want to know?


We only use a generator when staying in a ski resort and put it on either every day or every other day just as it goes dark and leave it on for 2 to 3 hours


Never expect it to fully charge batteries back up but just to maintain a decent level of charge


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

A 1kW generator (1kVA if it is AC) would happily power up a couple of 30A chargers with change to spare, so if the charger capacity was there, it could be a few hours, but if the charging capacity on board was say 12A, then as Ploddy says, no different to being on EHU.

Peter


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## pippin (Nov 15, 2007)

It is amazing how the Laws of Herr Ohm (1789 – 1854) can still be used to solve everyday questions.


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## TheNomad (Aug 12, 2013)

So, on balance would it actually normally be better/more efficient/quicker (and possibly quieter), to just start the motorhome engine and leave it on tickover for say an hour to charge the leisure batteries via the alternator, than to run that external gennie plugged in to the EHU point for that same 1 hour?


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

No: it would be better to use EHU on environmental grounds, quicker to use the engine alternator on time grounds and both are better than using the generator on annoyance grounds 

Peter


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

What would be the diesel consumption on a 3 litre engine on tickover for one hour :?: :wink: 

tony


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## Medallionman (Nov 26, 2005)

TheNomad said:


> So, on balance would it actually normally be better/more efficient/quicker (and possibly quieter), to just start the motorhome engine and leave it on tickover for say an hour to charge the leisure batteries via the alternator, than to run that external gennie plugged in to the EHU point for that same 1 hour?


Not a good idea leaving a diesel engine to idle for any length of time. The bores become polished and you lose compression.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

"The bores become polished and you lose compression"

..................................................................................


I believe that is now out of date

tony


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

I previously mentioned :-
_
"We only use a generator when staying in a ski resort and put it on either every day or every other day just as it goes dark and leave it on for 2 to 3 hours "
_

what I should have added is that we usually share the gennies hook up between mine & two other friends campers

my other mate who comes skiing with us doesn't want to join our little gennie club so he occasionally runs his engine but this is a real nuisance as the exhaust fumes seem to hang around and finds its way into any camper that is parked next to him so he has had complaints

at least with the gennie it can be sited at the rear of the camper and we try to build a snow wall around it to help contain the noise (Honda EU10i)


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

> Trek: my other mate who comes skiing with us doesn't want to join our little gennie club so he occasionally runs his engine but this is a real nuisance as the exhaust fumes seem to hang around and finds its way into any camper that is parked next to him so he has had complaints.


We use the engine to charge via a b2b and because of the exhaust fumes we try to run the engine when neighbours aren't around, ie at lunchtime or as soon as we get back in the afternoon. We have gel batteries so I can let them drop quite low to to ensure I get the full 45A out of the b2b charger; we only have to do this on about the 4th stationary day and then every other day.

I've not had any complaints myself yet.

Kev

ps. I did a calculation on tickover consumption once, I think it was only a few times what a small genny would use but I can't remember whether that accounted for the b2b charging at at least 3 times the generator rate.


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## teensvan (May 9, 2005)

Fit a 120 watt solar panel and Even in winter you will get a charge into the batteries on a sunny day. You should not charge a lead acid battery at more than 10% of its A/H rating. This safeguards the plates in the battery and stops gassing so you dontkeep topping it up.

Steve & Ann. Teensvan


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

GEMMY said:


> "The bores become polished and you lose compression"


..................................................................................

I believe that is now out of date

tony[/quote]

No, it is still very much an issue, especially with modern oils and diesels running under-temperature.

Our display engines, although 1950/60's technology still have to have a load on them when running so they get up to a decent working temperature.

Cummins, Perkins and MAN have issued guidelines for train operators about leaving engines operating at tickover for long periods, 20 minutes is the recommended maximum.

Oil consumption was being a problem with engines being changed and returned for inspection.

I've had the same issue on generator sets, cured it by giving them a full load run of a couple of hours to burn off the oil and re-seat the rings in the bores.

It doesn't happen as much with single-viscosity straight oils with small amounts of additives. We use Morris Golden Film SAE30 oil in the show engines and both have a kilowatt or so of load on all the time they are running.

Peter


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

That's interesting Peter.

Does that mean you shouldn't be too gentle when running in a new engine? I'm thinking particularly of the diesel engine in the motorhome here.

Dave


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

So just back from crimbo tour with no battery charging from 230v and only from engine then had to use engine to top up batteries 8O 

ps. got the problem sorted today with a new electroblock fitted, only 23 months old 8O just within the 2 yr warranty period.

tony


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

On EHU you can continue charging for 24/48hrs at a low and diminishing rate to the ultimate capacity of your batteries. When running a genny to charge, the final amp hrs that you put in are very expensive in terms of fuel used so that is a compromise. 3-4 hrs with a honda 1KW will give my 3X100 AH batteries a pretty decent charge. But I could go on and on.

Dick


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