Product Manual

Operation

900-0145-01-01 Rev B

Battery Charging

IMPORTANT:

Battery charger settings need to be correct for a given battery type. Always

follow battery manufacturer recommendations. Making incorrect settings, or

leaving them at factory default settings, may cause the batteries to be

undercharged or overcharged.

Charge Current

Batteries or battery banks usually have a recommended limit on the maximum current used for

charging. Often this is calculated as a percentage or fraction of the battery capacity, represented by

“C”. For example, C/5 would be a DC amperage figure that is 1/5 of the total amp-hours of the bank.

Any chargers must be set so that the peak charge current does not exceed the recommended

maximum. If multiple chargers are present (including other chargers besides the Radian), this

calculation must accommodate the total combined current. The Radian’s charger may need to be set

at less than maximum. The system display can be used to change charger settings.

IMPORTANT:

Although the recommended current is generally represented in DC amperes, the

Charger

AC Limit

setting is measured in AC amperes, which are not measured on the same scale.

To convert the recommended DC current into a usable AC figure, divide the DC figure by

4 and round up. The result can be used as a charger setting for the Radian inverter.

Examples:

Battery bank consists of 8 x L16 FLA batteries in series. Recommended

maximum charge current is 75 Adc.

75 ÷ 4 = 18.75 or 19 Aac.

Battery bank consists of 12 x OutBack EnergyCell 200RE VRLA batteries in

series/parallel. Recommended maximum charge current is 90 Adc.

90 ÷ 4 = 22.5 or 23 Aac.

The maximum DC charge rate for Radian models is specified in Table 13 on page 63. The actual

Charger AC Limit

setting is available in the

AC Input and Current Limit

menu of the MATE3 system

display. See Table 17 on page 67. These numbers are also summarized in Table 2 below. If multiple

Radian inverters are installed, divide the total current by the number of inverters and program each

with the resulting number.

Table 2 Charge Currents for Radian Models

Model Maximum DC Output (sent to battery) Maximum AC Input (used from source)

GS7048E 100 Adc 30 Aac

GS3548E 50 Adc 15 Aac

Charge Cycle

The inverter uses a “three-stage” battery charging process which is designed around batteries using

lead-acid chemistry. The three stages are Bulk, Absorption, and Float. These stages follow a series of

steps, which are shown on graphs and described in text (see page 28). On the graphs, the transitions

between steps are marked with vertical dotted lines. A circle indicates that the inverter has begun