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 companyand 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 homes essentials energized. But youll 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 homebut not all at once. ."
Sure, the panels put out 96VDC @ 2A. I read that as 8 amps. One hour of that is 192 AH (less line loss and conversion loss) into the batts, since everything relies on the batteries.
Watts are derivative. If I have to do something like that I prefer to use KVA.
That has worked for me on large and small systems. I've got some small stand-alone systems fielded now that have done great for 2 years with minimal mainenance except PM.
/johnny
Even during the ~8 years since it's been out of service, I haven't bothered to take a second look inside the power section.
I built my HW-101 later that year. And got rid of the ARC-5 transmitter and old Hallicrafter receiver I had been using.
I built the power supply for the HW-101 because I couldn't afford to buy the one heathkit provided.
That transformer was given to me by an Elmer. I had to figure out primaries (yes, plural) and secondaries.
Got heater, B- and all those special voltages out of it, rectified, and smooth as a kitten. Life lesson in inductance and capacitance.
I've been playing with 'lektrikity for a long, long time.
What I talk my brother-in-laws into doing is my business. ;)
/johnny
I love dangerous high voltages as much as the next guy.
I used to keep an old microwave out in the garage just to put strange stuff into, to see what would happen. My favorite was loosely wadded bronze wool. (steel wool burns). This in addition to many high voltage, high power electronic and mechanical projects.
That said, I have never found a reason to mess with the guts of a microwave oven.
So, will 0bama give me a couple of really large caps for free?
Don’t hold your breath.
I was 5 when dad taught me about capacitors. He had an axial lead electrolitic charged up on his bench near his DeVry books.
He picked it up by one lead.
Looked at it.
Set it down.
Picked it up by the other lead, looked it over and set it down.
Then he went back to the DeVry books.
So I reached over and picked it up.. with both hands.
It was a learning experience.
He did, during that teachable moment impress on me how capacitors worked, and how to be safe around them. I already knew about the brown shorts part.
/johnny
If I want to keep the freezer frozen... after the 1st day, I hook up the genset, and run it until the compressor in the freezer shuts down. Then I shut down the gentset. Doesn't take long. Just listening to the load on the genset will tell you when that happens.
I don't need idle standby in a situation where gas is in short supply.
/johnny
I am just venturing into ham radio.
Took the practice exams and passed with little study.
I don’t have the desire to broadcast, and even less to give my contact info to a three-letter federal agency.
I tune and tune, but mostly just hear guys talking about their gear and antenna.
I rarely get reception from overseas, have not mastered dx yet.
I have built some large audio tube amplifiers, and did consider using a microwave oven xfmr. Never did it, just used off the shelf stuff. A 480/120 industrial control transformer is impressive and cheap when wired step-up.
Good talking.
The goal being to maintain operability of flashlights and a couple low-power boredom fighting 'niceties' for a week or so til the grid (hopefully) comes back up.
Have water-heat-food covered for a couple weeks, with more to be added asap as $s permit.
Actually, this thread prompted me to check out YouTube for some ideas, given that there's a 6hp mower w/ Briggs engine sitting unused in the shed.
Got some good ideas for homebrew gensets that I just might have a go at .. so thanks Virgil for the thread !
Fedgov has my DNA, my life history, all my contacts... whatever. I don't worry about it. I'm a free man, or I'm not. I'm certainly not going to cringe for the rest of my life out of fear. They have to bury me and owe the family a flag.
There's a lot more than just folks talking about gear and antennas, but that's going to be nasty old guys on 80 and 160M. Very opinionated groups. Ham radio has been very good to me over the years.
Don't let fear run your life. Live free, or make 'em prove they are a tyrany.
/johnny
Frequency control is probably the biggest issue with homebrew. Commercial generators have frequency governors that keep the engine at the same speed regardless of the load (within the machine’s physical limits). If you don’t mind wandering between, say, 40 and 80 Hz, then you have more leeway. (You still need something to govern the voltage, though.)
An RV is a help when the electricity is out. Propane heat and refrigerator and water heater, 12 volt lighting and the 12 volts runs the furnace blower.
We lived in our trailer for about four days when our electricity was out due to snow storm. Kept the battery charged with the car. Since the natural gas was still available, we took hot showers in our totally cold home, and we slept in our home bed with a ton of blankets.
Thanks, friend.
At this very early stage, am thinking basic motor-alternator-inverter-battery on a wheeled dolly .. won't have $ to burn screwing things up, so will surely do lots more reading/listening before tackling it.
Appreciate your info !
Yeah, my 80’s Ford diesel burns not much more than that, at no-load idle.
However, to power the 2500 watt inverter when the rooftop A/C is running off it requires a healthy dose of throttle or the banks of 7 starting and auxiliary batteries will run down. The alternator needs sufficient rpm to provide the charging current.
After hurricane Ike, I was out of power for two weeks.
I first powered lights and the tv with an ancient 500 watt inverter. That gave me time to set up an old 1500 watt 1800 rpm generator that I had switched over to propane. I could power most things. My dryer was gas and I would power the washer then the dryer. I couldn’t run them both at once. My range and oven were electric, so I cooked outside on a 2 burner propane setup.
I had a 100lb propane bottle and when it was down about half way, I went on a quest to find a place to fill it. I had to drive about 40 miles to find a propane place running a diesel generator.
Later I plumbed it to the natural gas bbq tap and retuned it for NG.
My 53 Willys Jeep is also converted to propane. I was just thinking of running it on NG to power inverters as well.
Watts are a measure of the rate of energy consumption. Watts are how much energy you are using RIGHT NOW. If you use a watt for an hour, you have used a watt-hour. Maybe you have calculated how many watt-hours you use per day. But you can’t possibly calculate how many watts you use per day.
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