Selecting a MEAN WELL Battery Charger for Use in Caravans

This blog post has been written to help auto electricians select the most suitable MEAN WELL battery charger for use in a caravan’s electrical system.

In 2021, MEAN WELL launched a new range of battery chargers, the NBP series.  

In this article, we will first look at models with a power output of 360 WATTS or lower, and then look at the larger models. 

Advantages of the MEAN WELL NPB Series Battery Chargers 

The key advantage of the NPB series battery chargers is that they can charge most lead acid and lithium batteries.  

This is achieved in two ways.

Firstly, the NPB series battery chargers allow you to adjust both the charging voltage and charging current, so you can set it to the requirements of your battery.  

Secondly, they have both 2-stage and 3-stage charging. This is user-selectable. 2 stage charging is best suited to lithium batteries, whereas you would use 3-stage charging for lead acid batteries. 

Being a new design, the NPB series battery chargers were designed using the latest components and manufacturing techniques. This has resulted in many of the NPB series models being smaller in size compared to the PB series. This is particularly useful if you have limited space in the caravan. 

The NPB models NPB-120, NPB-240 and NPB-360 do not come standard with built-in mounting flanges, however, there are additional mounting brackets such as the MEAN WELL MHS-012D can be purchased alongside your desired NPB Battery Charger.

MEAN WELL NPB Battery Charger Specifications at a Glance 

Please note that the NPB-120, 240, 360 series battery chargers carry Australian electrical safety certification for built-in applications only.

Battery Chargers Larger than 360 WATTS 

When it comes to larger battery chargers, there are 5 series in the range: 

*programmable models require the SPB-001 programmer, which is purchased as a separate item.

MEAN WELL RPB-1600 Battery Charger 

The MEAN WELL RPB-1600 typically gives you 1600 WATTS of power with the flexibility of programmable charging curves.  

It features a PMBus Rev. 1.1 interface with a maximum 100KHz bus speed, which enables remote information reading, status monitoring, and output trimming. 

The charging curves can be programmed using a Windows-based PC or laptop and the MEAN WELL SPB-001 programming tool. This means the RPB-1600 can be used with most lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.  

There is no built-in mounting flange, so you will need to fabricate or purchase the necessary mounting hardware.  

MEAN WELL NPB Series Battery Chargers 

Please do not hesitate to contact ADM if you would like any further information about MEAN WELL battery chargers. 

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