My batteries and my Victron MPPT units have arrived, but there's been a delay in the solar panel installation and the grid backup inverter/charger is on backorder. I want to get the rest of my system prepared, and in particularly charge my 48V (16S) LiFePO4 batteries.
I've seen a few discussions of the possibility of using an AC/DC brick as an input in place of solar, and they usually say "better to just use a charger" but I'm reluctant to trust a crappy generic charger that can't talk to the battery BMS. I trust my Victron products. But I'm finding that's extremely difficult when I need 58.4V + 5V headroom, because people just don't make a lot of 72V or 80V or 144V power supplies (that aren't more expensive than buying a whole new inverter-charger). It's also hard to find smart inverter-chargers for 48V systems.
Rectified, 120VAC is about 170VDC, well within the Victron's 250V input range. My question is, will there be any negative effect on the Victron device from excessive ripple, and what is excessive ripple? If the input runs from 100VDC to 170VDC (35Vpp ripple) that's well within the bounds between battery voltage headroom and max input, but I worry that it will seriously mess up the MPPT algorithm. With the SmartSolar MPPT, I can limit the battery charge current to a desired level (for example, 10A) to reduce the ripple from the rectifier, but it would be crazy to wind up buying $300 worth of capacitors; at that point I could buy something like an EG4 chargeverter (assuming I could find one).
Any suggestions for a practical AC/DC input for this application?