Quote:
Originally Posted by gpsman1
Our cars have AC motors and AC "alternators". The car runs off AC not DC. Just you can't store AC in a battery! So that's how you can get a constant charge at any speed ( rpm ) because speed does not equal volts.
To "trickle charge" you can buy off the shelf high Voltage DC, low current DC chargers. Since these put out milliamps, not amps, they will not heat up the battery, and you can generally set 'em and forget 'em. They are not practical for daily 'PHEV' use Billy because they are very low power. High power chargers will cost some bucks. 4-digit bucks....
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Yes... I knew that but to charge the battery you would have to convert AC to DC just as you say... but then in order for current to flow INTO the battery you have to produce a higher DC voltage than the battery already has. You charge a 12V DC battery by putting about 13V on it... yes.. in reality you trickle charge it and control the current but all that means is you have a circuit that is adjusting to put the right amount of current in and the voltage you'd see at the output of the charger would be slightly higher than the battery voltage when its disconected... just enough to put the make the current trickle in the right direction...
So in the end any charger you use from the wall will be producing ~300+V... it can be current limited and quite safe. Thats not what I'm thinking of.... I'm just thinking its going to be hard to find an off the shelf charger that puts out 300V+... you'd have to make your own I'd think.
Not difficult really, but unless you follow the right charge profile you can certainly reduce the life of the battery.