Direct charging
Direct charging is the term used to were you have a DC alternator running from an engine that charges the batteries directly. The other method is used for charging of course is a plain town power generator driving a battery charger which charges the batteries. Sometimes that situation can be problematic and may not always work well.
Generators don’t always produce the cleanest power and so sometimes the chargers can if they’re designed to be a very smart play up because of the unclean power.
Direct charging however does not have those problems. Quite often it is built with a modified or unmodified truck alternator, heavy machinery alternator or a car alternator depending on what battery voltage your using. I’m using a battery voltage of 24 volts so I would need a truck or marine type alternator, and run it off an engine via a belt. It is also possible to direct coupling the alternator to the engine.
This would be an excellent DIY project. You would need to pay some attention to what sort of regulator is in the alternator. External regulators are more suited for remote area power supply or stand alone house battery charging.
There are even some ready built systems out there. Some are fully automatic that run off a diesel engine. Some small off the shelf portable units that have a petrol engine are about all so.
This is on my to-do list for one day when time and money allows. For you you may think it may be worth- wile to have a go at it yourself also. My father-in- law had a similar set up like this running off a small diesel engine. With some home brewed electronics he made his own automatic controller to start and stop the engine.
There are many possibilities.
Tags: dc alternator, direct charging
