I have a 48v battery bank. I occasionally want to charge a 12v battery with it. I was looking at the Orion-Tr Smart 48/12-30 to do this, but can’t find one and am only finding the non-smart version.
Then, I noticed on this sites listing for the not smart version that it says if I want a 48v to 12v charger with bluetooth I can use an MPPT charge controller.
I’m intrigued by this statement and want confirmation - is it possible and acceptable to use something like this MPPT charge controller to charge 12v batteries from 48v batteries?
Not, if you want to keep your warranty since it is outside of product design and expected use.
While there are guys out there who do; there are some considerations and thoughts here, such as … when the mppt shorts out its input and the isc which is a known spec (in this case the KA rating of a battery is there) what happens? There is only so much you can protect in your set up with using fuses.
Second thing is the mppt will want to track its input while a battery is constant voltage.
So do alot more research if you plan on persuing the route.
ps the 48/12 is a converter not a charger. While it sort of can do the same thing, it is not a three stage charger if that isn’t a deal breaker then use it instead.
The other safer option is a dedicated charger like the phoenix ip43, or something similar, that can be remote started from the gx if you are wanting to only charge at certain soc on the 48v system.
Thanks - I had a hunch it was a “this can work but isn’t ideal or recommended” kind of situation.
I guess the simplest route would be to just use a regular/AC battery charger. I have an inverter set up so there will be AC nearby. Just wondered if it would be more efficient.
It’ll be rare enough I can just deal with the efficiency loss.
I use the Orion Tr 48-12/30 (converter) to power an Orion XS 12-12/50 to charge a lead acid battery. I have adjusted the XS so that it doesn’t hog all the 30 amps available from Tr.
If Victron had an Orion XS 48-12/50 at the time I would have used that instead of the 12-12/50. If they eventually come out with a XS 48-12/50 I may replace the XS 12-12/50 even though it’s working just fine.