Ctek charger

[Scull56]

Hello,

I have fitted a power point for an inverter to use the ctek charger. The power point is live when ignition off,  so operates the Bestek 300w inverter. Up to yet it as been working very well keeping the battery topped up. You can have this on even when driving, has anyone any thoughts on this good or bad. Regards Steve.

 

[JOE-DOT-COM]

Hi

why would you have the battery charger working off a inverter to charge the battery.

A. its not needed when the engine is running as the alternator will charge the battery

B. if used while the engine is off, the inverter will flatten the battery faster than it can charge

Your best to use the Ctek charge on a mains point, just when the car is not in use.

cheers

Joe

[Dos]

Good evening Scull 56.

Your system fascinates me. I'm an OLD electrical / electronics engineer and things have moved on from my days. I see it as a battery supplying an inverter suplying a charger charging the supplying battery. I get lost when it comes to the efficiency of the loop. Please put me right, my old fashioned stuff leaves me lost.

The battery suplies 12v @ x amps to the inverter (12x watts) and gets warm. Efficiency <100%. The inverter supplies 240v @ y amps times any phase angle existing (240y cos~ watts) to the cteck. The cteck then supplies the charge to the battery. It too has an efficiency < 100%. Except when the alternator is adding to the system, at the moment I am lost to see how the system will work.

Recards Roger.

 

[Dos]

Hi again Scull56. Just thought a little more about your inverter loop. When you are running the engine you wil merely be using a sophisticated heater in the boot and discharging the battery when not so. Personally I would not recommend it, sorry!

[mrmike]

Absolute No, No. Like so called perpetual motion machines, especially the ones using a motor and a generator.

If your battery needs trickle charging due to the vehicle not being used for longish periods, Ok, Otherwise get a new battery.

I had a Merc before the S, I measured the current drawn from the battery. On switching off the ignition and lights off, current drawn was a bit over 150mA, after about a minute this dropped to 60mA where it remained. this means that without using the car and with a 100AH battery in good condition the battery would have about 50% of its capacity after about a month. During the pandemic many batteries went to the wall due to lack of use of the vehicle or rare and short journeys.