Ok this is probably going to be a really dumb question or two

But. My new MEP 803A when I purchased it the seller had sent me pics of it and had 47 hours on the clock. As part of the prep work for the install I ordered a 24V maint charger for it. When the very nice seller and I were talking about the possible purchase I had done my due diligence and I researched the seller who had been mentioned here which is how I in fact found this fine forum you have. When he delivered the gen the unit he brought had 24 hours on it. He said I had an even nicer unit available and figured you would not mind, I didn't. This unit though also came with the solar charger so I did not need the 24V charger so sent it back, saved me $100 so win win. So after all that pointless rambling.....the dumb questions and I know it is dumb but just have to ask and risk the jeers:

The gen in its new permanent home is under roof so solar charger won't work. Plan is to relocate the solar panel to the metal roof above the gen......1. Any issue with lengthening the wires 30'? and 2. Any issues having the solar charger sit on a metal roof that gets quite hot in the Florida sun? Flush to roof or elevated off it? It would be sort of off the roof anyway given the corrugation of the metal roofing.

Also since I am tapping another question for the wiser than I.......i'm building a load bank today. I'm using hot water heater elements as they are new and free (for me). New old stock from a retired plumber. They will be in a 55 gallon barrel which will have an outlet toward the top for outflow piped to the ground so I can add cooling water if needed and so that overflow water won't be near the wires. Using a load center and there will be a dedicated ground rod installed from the load center. I have a mix of 2500W 240V elements and 1200W 120V elements each on its own breaker. What total wattage should I shoot for? 10k enough? or should I go for 12.4k?

Wills

Omg how dare you ask such a silly question.

Just kidding

First question yes you can extend wire.
2nd question they sit on a hot truck so no problem there.

12.5 is a good load test on 10k, only surge 10%(0 to 11kw), but you can throw more a sec or 2 later.

here is a video of 6kw load on a 3kw, green iron is pretty tough, underrated equipment.

https://youtu.be/LgCIdX0-9ew

Load Bank ideas discussed here: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?163190-Homemade-Load-Bank

I went with a used electric stove.

Heat can lower solar panel efficiency: https://www.civicsolar.com/article/how-does-heat-affect-solar-panel-efficiencies
If you have something similar to a pole barn, maybe an angle bracket off a side wall would do the trick.

Hot water can kill plants so avoid letting the overflow run to wanted plants.

WillsC said:

...The gen in its new permanent home is under roof so solar charger won't work. Plan is to relocate the solar panel to the metal roof above the gen......1. Any issue with lengthening the wires 30'? and 2. Any issues having the solar charger sit on a metal roof that gets quite hot in the Florida sun? Flush to roof or elevated off it? It would be sort of off the roof anyway given the corrugation of the metal roofing.

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Some type of spacer/standoff between the roof & charger panel bottom mounting screws would be good to allow some additional airflow to dissipate any heat transfer from roof. You could even use some pieces of scrap wood on opposite ends to elevate it up a couple of inches but leaving the 2 longest sides open to airflow.

I ended up using an old satellite dish mount for the solar panel with a backer made of a piece of polycarbonate hurricane panel connected to the fascia on the house roof. So now I guess the gen is all installed if I can just resolve the issue of the not working load meter.

Willsc do you have the IS-24-L Solargizer? Is it the one that the military installed? If it is it may just be a desulfator, I have one but it didn't charge the battery, found out the hard way with a dead battery

Triton,

It is military installed as far as I know. Came with the Gen and was siliconed to the top of the unit. Since my Gen is under roof it had to be moved. The unit is a 24VPSC PulseTech 24V Battery Solar Pulse Charger/ Desulfator, 6W or at least that model the control box matches mine but my solar panel looks slightly different, i'm sure because it is an older model. It puts out a solid 30V in bright direct sun.

The only thing is the control unit has a small red led light on top of it that is supposed to flash during operation I believe. It does not.....but like I said it is putting out 30V to the battery. It isn't hooked up correctly as the positive is supposed to be on one battery and negative on the other battery and mine both are on one battery which is ok but isn't the ideal setup or so I read on their site.

WillsC said:

Triton,

It is military installed as far as I know. Came with the Gen and was siliconed to the top of the unit. Since my Gen is under roof it had to be moved. The unit is a 24VPSC PulseTech 24V Battery Solar Pulse Charger/ Desulfator, 6W or at least that model the control box matches mine but my solar panel looks slightly different, i'm sure because it is an older model. It puts out a solid 30V in bright direct sun.

The only thing is the control unit has a small red led light on top of it that is supposed to flash during operation I believe. It does not.....but like I said it is putting out 30V to the battery. It isn't hooked up correctly as the positive is supposed to be on one battery and negative on the other battery and mine both are on one battery which is ok but isn't the ideal setup or so I read on their site.

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both terminals of the charger hooked up to one battery? How does that work then?
I can understand one to positive on the first battery (hooked to starter solenoid) and one to a chassis ground, but if both cables are connected to a single battery then I'm very confused as to what it's actually doing.

I have no idea, but that is how the charger came to me connected. It is possible the seller hooked it up wrong as he put the two new batteries in the unit before sale. But I do know it is wired incorrectly according to the manufacturers website. I will put in the link but I think i'm too new for the post to show up until a mod approves it. I will switch it to the correct way tomorrow....perhaps that is why the red LED on the unit is not blinking as it is supposed to.

https://www.pulsetech.net/amfile/file/download/file_id/3785/product_id/15109/

WillsC said:

I have no idea, but that is how the charger came to me connected. It is possible the seller hooked it up wrong as he put the two new batteries in the unit before sale. But I do know it is wired incorrectly according to the manufacturers website. I will put in the link but I think i'm too new for the post to show up until a mod approves it. I will switch it to the correct way tomorrow....perhaps that is why the red LED on the unit is not blinking as it is supposed to.


https://www.pulsetech.net/amfile/file/download/file_id/3785/product_id/15109/

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Unless he has a 12V pulsetech unit and only did one of the batteries, I'd agree that it's not right and would explain the light not working.

WillsC said:

Triton,

It is military installed as far as I know. Came with the Gen and was siliconed to the top of the unit. Since my Gen is under roof it had to be moved. The unit is a 24VPSC PulseTech 24V Battery Solar Pulse Charger/ Desulfator, 6W or at least that model the control box matches mine but my solar panel looks slightly different, i'm sure because it is an older model. It puts out a solid 30V in bright direct sun.

The only thing is the control unit has a small red led light on top of it that is supposed to flash during operation I believe. It does not.....but like I said it is putting out 30V to the battery. (hook it up right, and it might work right) It isn't hooked up correctly as the positive is supposed to be on one battery and negative on the other battery and mine both are on one battery, (so you are feeding 30 VDC into a 12 volt battery? And that doesn't send warning bells of in your head?) which is ok, (NO, its not) but isn't the ideal setup or so I read on their site.

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.

Did it set off warning bells in my head? Honestly......NOPE, not even a faint distant warning beep. Both leads being hooked to one battery is how it came and if the light had been blinking I would not have given it another thought. The light wasn't blinking so did my research and found out why. Guyfang I have read hundreds of your posts here and you are an expert on these matters, I am not and admit it freely and why I am here looking for guidance from people like you. Now if you want to talk about how to grow things and run a greenhouse or run any business I am your guy, wasn't born with a silver spoon but retired at 40. Even mechanical things sure I can turn a wrench and fix most anything but electronics my eyes glass over. Some of your posts on diagnosing electrical issues I read a couple times and still just as lost as I was when I read the first word. Not your fault, is just not everyone is as versed in electrical matters or has a head for that sort of thing. Just not the way my brain works i'm afraid. Luckily for me I have people like you I can turn to and say HELP, right? If everyone was an expert on every subject why would we need other people or sites like this, right?

Wills

WillsC said:

Did it set off warning bells in my head? Honestly......NOPE, not even a faint distant warning beep. Both leads being hooked to one battery is how it came and if the light had been blinking I would not have given it another thought. The light wasn't blinking so did my research and found out why. Guyfang I have read hundreds of your posts here and you are an expert on these matters, I am not and admit it freely and why I am here looking for guidance from people like you. Now if you want to talk about how to grow things and run a greenhouse or run any business I am your guy, wasn't born with a silver spoon but retired at 40. Even mechanical things sure I can turn a wrench and fix most anything but electronics my eyes glass over. Some of your posts on diagnosing electrical issues I read a couple times and still just as lost as I was when I read the first word. Not your fault, is just not everyone is as versed in electrical matters or has a head for that sort of thing. Just not the way my brain works i'm afraid. Luckily for me I have people like you I can turn to and say HELP, right? If everyone was an expert on every subject why would we need other people or sites like this, right?

Wills

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Perhaps I should have worded it differently. Did not mean to sound snooty. I apologize.

I connected a Pulsetech IS-24-L Solargizer to the connection bolts on the NATO Slave plug on my 802 and it blinked as designed. You might want to change your connection points.

Zed254 said:

I connected a Pulsetech IS-24-L Solargizer to the connection bolts on the NATO Slave plug on my 802 and it blinked as designed. You might want to change your connection points.

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I did switch it to one lead on each battery but still no blink. Who knows how long it was hooked up incorrectly so could be damaged.

Guyfang said:

Perhaps I should have worded it differently. Did not mean to sound snooty. I apologize.

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Guyfang,

No harm done. I do truly appreciate all of the guidance and help you freely provide here and I very much like your stories of service life. My favorite by the way was the one about the guy being catapulted by the trailer missing the kickstand.

Wills

The Solargizers work a little differently from what you might think. They require battery voltage to operate their electroncs! So, that 24 v unit might not work on a 12v battery (what you are doing if the solargizer is hooked up to only one 12v battery). Or, you could have a bad Solargizer. I have found dead ones.

The solar panel puts out only around 6 volts, as I recall, and the electronics build a charge then discharge across the battery, raising the battery voltage with a high voltage spike added to the battery voltage. That's probably what your voltmeter is seeing. Modern voltmeters tend to be peak-readers on short pulses.

Not much energy is transferred from the Solargizer to the battery so almost zip net charging takes place. The purpose is to break up sulfation.

Somewhere on here is a description of some testing I did years ago, o'scope and all, but I don't find it.

[the above is a SWAG based on actual testing. It's my opinion and I'm sticking to it ]

Found the earlier post: Good info on Solargizers: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?10126-Solargizer/page6

tennmogger said:

The Solargizers work a little differently from what you might think. They require battery voltage to operate their electroncs! So, that 24 v unit might not work on a 12v battery (what you are doing if the solargizer is hooked up to only one 12v battery). Or, you could have a bad Solargizer. I have found dead ones.

The solar panel puts out only around 6 volts, as I recall, and the electronics build a charge then discharge across the battery, raising the battery voltage with a high voltage spike added to the battery voltage. That's probably what your voltmeter is seeing. Modern voltmeters tend to be peak-readers on short pulses.

Not much energy is transferred from the Solargizer to the battery so almost zip net charging takes place. The purpose is to break up sulfation.

Somewhere on here is a description of some testing I did years ago, o'scope and all, but I don't find it.

[the above is a SWAG based on actual testing. It's my opinion and I'm sticking to it ]

Found the earlier post: Good info on Solargizers: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?10126-Solargizer/page6

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There are times and certain equipment, that I would rather use an analog meter. Especially when looking for high freq osculations. Digital meters won't show it. Analog will.