Outbound Power System

The “Outbound Power Stage” is a loose grouping of all the load ‘types’ that may draw power from the battery.

Provided the battery & control equipment is correctly sized you can run anything you like from the system. But different devices have different power needs so each ‘type’ will need different control equipment to deliver it it’s power.

Loads of the same voltage as the battery can be run with minimal control equipment often just an LVD to protect the battery from over discharge will be sufficient.

DC Loads that need a different voltage from the battery , or that can can’t accept the range of voltages that a battery under charge will experience, need a DC/DC Converter to adjust the voltage to suit the load load’s rating.

AC Loads need to be supplied via an Inverter to produce the AC power. In some cases it may be more practical to use a combined Inverter/Charger.

As with the Inbound Stage, all the Outbound feeds should be guarded by Fuses or Circuit Protection and a DC Bus is often used in systems with multiple wiring pathways.

LVD Device

Including Low Voltage Disconnection when supplying the DC Loads is essential for protecting the battery from accidental deep discharge events. It essentially acts like a circuit breaker to prevent damage to the battery. Some regulators and most inverters and DC converters will include LVD by default. However, be sure to consider pre alarm warning options to advise operators of imminent disconnection. Also consider applications where you may want to deliberately exclude LVD sometimes an extra half hour of operation is more important than protecting the battery, despite the consequences!

DC Load

This is your canvas. Provided you keep within the bounds of the system design window, you can run just about anything you like. Security cameras, modems, dataloggers & sensors, PoE injectors, gateways, rebroadcast stations, WiFi hotspots 
“The world if your oyster oyster”!

DC/DC Converter

Different pieces of equipment often require different voltages to power them.

In these cases it it’s most common to design the battery at the voltage rating to handle the bulk of the requirements and then use a DC/DC Converter to step that voltage up or down to provide a secondary feed for the ‘orphan edorphaned’ equipment that needs a different voltage.

This allows legacy 12V devices to be connected to a power system built around a newer 48V configuration.

Inverter

An Inverter is required when you run AC equipment from a solar or battery system. It converts the DC power to AC that
can be used my normal mains connected appliances.

In some cases this can include the provision of standard GPOs in an otherwise all DC site, for use by technicians when they visit a site for inspection or maintenance.