Sizing definite purpose contactor

[Volvo Farmer]

As I am expecting to be hooking up a Classic to an Otherpower style axial flux soon, I thought Ryan could help me here.  On the 10 foot 24V version, what amp rating should I be looking for in a define purpose contactor for the home made voltage clamp?

Also, I have been reading the thread on tare losses, and something occurred to me. Does this "holding the clipper relay open" affect the idle and standby losses much? I'd imagine only a watt or two, and that would be acceptable in my book.

Thanks!

[Halfcrazy]

We sized our contactor based on the most current we ever expected. They are not that much more money to get a bigger one and we wanted to be certain it would not arc and destroy it. That said keep your eyes open we have just prototyped a Clipper using a triac and resistors that gets its trigger from the Classic.

The idle draw on my Clipper design is there it is very small though just enough current to hold the coil of a small relay open. I think the Triac solution is much more elegant it also allows 3 stage charging as the Clipper mode in the Classics Aux2 will keep the turbine in check. The Clipper we will be building at MidNite based on this design will also have a max voc protection circuit built in as well.