Posted on 11/08/2012 3:43:18 PM PST by virgil283
"Looking for some low-cost power backup? Given recent storms and the growing number of blackouts, you certainly have company—and perhaps fresh memories of spoiled food, a flooded basement, no heat or air conditioning and (if you have well water) no water for bathing or household chores....We found that inverters can keep at least some of your home’s essentials energized. But you’ll need to prioritize: Even the smaller, 900-watt PW900-12 was able to run a freezer, two refrigerators, two sump pumps, lights, and chargers for various electronics for our staffer at home—but not all at once. ."
stand up refrigerators are horribly inefficient whether propane or electric.
They beat trying to store ice form a lake all season.
Goal Zero is the acknowledged leader in personal solar power systems. Most (some?) of their systems com with inverters.
Thinking of getting a medium system for when anarchy comes knocking.
I have a small 100w inverter I keep in my laptop bag to run it in a vehicle.
I got a 12v socket “pigtail” that attached to the battery with round terminals. Plugged the inverter in, and plugged the 26W CFL lamp in in the living room during last week’s power outage. According to the numbers on the battery and lamp, this could have powered the lamp for around 75 hours, or about 12 days running it only from 6PM-midnight. I ran it for two evenings and it showed no sign of going dead.
Amazing what “normal” light can do for your morale, rather than huddling around a candle or LED lamp. We were able to read, play board games, etc.
Another thing mentioned on that site, in the comments, is having an alcohol stove on hand. Safe to use indoors...no carbon monoxide, not explosive and can actually be cut with water to make it burn more evenly and last longer. In a pinch, you can even use ethyl rubbing alcohol from the drugstore (isopropyl doesn’t work so well).
Got my Trangia alcohol stove for about $18 from eBay.
I run about 75% denatured alcohol and 25% water in mine, which gives a good simulation of an electric stove set between medium and low. Higher alcohol mixtures burn hotter for boiling water and lower is better for simmering, but harder to light and keep running.
Each ounce of 75/25 mix will run the stove for about 8-10 minutes. Two ounces will run it long enough to heat up food then heat up water for washing the pan.
A gallon of alcohol can be had for around $10 and using a 75/25 mix will run the stove for about 25 hours.
Watts per day is a nonsensical measure.
Your car burns about 2 gallons of gasoline per hour, yet the alternator puts out only about 1000 watts. That's not enough to run much. This means that your battery would likely run dead, too. Then you're left with no electricity, no car, and no gasoline.
Why not buy a cheap 1000 watt generator. They cost about the same as an equivalent power inverter, and only burn a quart, or so per hour.
Watts per day (considering voltage & amperage) is an important calculation, for me. I use watt hours and determine the daily average. When determining how long my battery bank could power which items and for how long in the absence of my charging methods, it was crucial. Assuming that anyone building such a system is familiar enough with electricity knowing that a watt is a joule/second and has the ability to determine kw*hr.
ping of possible interest...Using inverters for emergency power
My 4L V6 Dakota burns ~.35gal/hr @ idle
I have a 1500W inverter and an Optima yellow top battery in my Jeep. Before we got a generator we lived in one room for 3 days using it to power some essentials. One other advantage is having portable AC. I do a lot of pruning with Sawzall.
You got to keep the engine going with those huge inverters, which will otherwise suck the battery down within minutes. So basically you’ve made your car double as a generator. Why not just get a generator. It’s more fuel efficient.
That’s at idle, but idle won’t keep 900 watts going.
Back around 1998/1999 at the old ham club, we pooled an bought a gadget that you could plug in (like a shunt, with fancy electronics) that would give you detailed information about whatever you were powering, including start-up cycles, all the majikal trig stuff, and average power consumption over time, etc...
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I bought the device detailed in the link below. I was astounded at the specs: real power, apparent power, power factor, and other stuff. The accuracy is stated as around 1%. The device is $30 at home depot. This would be a good investment for anyone trying to size an inverter, generator, or other power source. One can understand the loads of their furnace, refrigerator, or other device.
bkmk
It looks like there is a large cap in my old microwave. I'm still afraid to stick something in there to give it a final discharge before disassembly.
I have an older version of that. Had to replace a fuse inside after attempting to check out my microwave.
/johnny
It remains an attractive nuisance, but now I know I should just leave it intact (except for cutting off the external cord) and keep a laptop and some other electronics in there in case Iran comes after us.
Please treat the transformer/capacitor from a microwave oven with extreme respect. The energy from that system is most unforgiving and would be instantly fatal in many scenarios.
Please treat the transformer/capacitor from a microwave oven with extreme respect. The energy from that system is most unforgiving and would be instantly fatal in many scenarios.
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