Specifications

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according to those guidelines. With proper and responsible practices in charging the
battery our group will save time and money from buying a new battery and will avoid all
potential injury.
In order to properly capture as much gathered energy as efficiently as possible a
charging circuit would be needed to take the energy generated by the wind turbine and
the solar cells and be able to store it into the later specified battery. Because the goal of
the project is to retain as much generated power as possible for use during a scheduled
power outage efficiency in the charging circuit is a major concern that deserves a great
deal of attention. Many variables must be accounted for when looking into what kind of
charging circuit should be utilized for the project such as how fast the charging circuit
can deliver a charge, how much heat will need to be dissipated for the process to work,
and general safety concerns to ensure the battery does not become critical due to an
instable charging circuit. The specifications for various chargers were looked at for a
multitude of different generators and the pros and cons of each were weighed in the
decision on which charging circuit to implement for the project.
Firstly it was to be determined what kind of processes were needed for any charging
circuit for any kind of battery. This would be crucial in understanding the requirements
that would be needed when choosing a charging circuit for the project. These processes
include four stages of a battery charging system that include the bulk stage, absorption
stage, float stage and the equalization stage.
The bulk charge stage was the first to be looked at and studied out of the four
processes. From the bulk charge stage of the charging process the majority of the
energy being supplied to the battery was being delivered, up to ninety percent of the
battery‟s capacity. This stage also took up the majority of the recharge time in the
charging process. This stage is characterized by current being sent to the battery as
quickly as it can be delivered. This brought about the most concern for choosing a
charging system as it would be crucial that the bulk stage of the process would need to
be paramount however great care would be needed to observe the surge of amperage
being poured into the battery during the charging process. Although the battery is
gaining the majority of its‟ charge at this stage careful observation must be made to
ensure that the battery is not being overcharged from the amperage being supplied to it.
An overcharge to a battery can create a dangerous scenario that could cause great
harm to the battery itself as well as anyone standing is close proximity if the battery
were to go critical and explode. In most cases the bulk stage of the battery ceased
when a voltage of approximately fourteen volts was measured.
As previously stated the bulk stage of the charging process does not last forever and is
typically determined by observing variables such as how depleted the battery is, the
Amp/Hour rating of the battery, and the maximum recharge rate of the battery. For
example if a battery had a Amp/Hour rating of two hundred and the battery was
depleted by fifty percent. Then the battery depletion would be one hundred amps. The
maximum recharge rate at this point could be calculated from the amp hour rating of two
hundred divided by a battery limit ratio of twenty amps charging for every one hundred