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Home > Archive > Alternative Power sources > August 2005 > Is this possible?
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| I'm thinking about "creating" a home electrical backup system and was
wondering if an 3000 watt inverter could be connected to a car battery
(with the car running for continuous supply) and then take the output
fron the inverter and tap it into the homes electrical circuitry?
It seems like a car engine (being pretty much always available and well
maintained) would be the perfect generator.
Thoughts? Thanks.
Kevin
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| John P Bengi 2005-07-09, 4:25 am |
| Maybe possible but not very practical or likely.
To syncronize with your electric system you need a co-generative inverter,
usually called a "frid-tie" unit here and will run you $4K-8K.
3000W is a lot of power for a car battery 3000 watts / 12 volts = 250
amperes. Your alternator will not generate that much power and the wires you
would have to run would be massive
"Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1120877067.965867.245440@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> I'm thinking about "creating" a home electrical backup system and was
> wondering if an 3000 watt inverter could be connected to a car battery
> (with the car running for continuous supply) and then take the output
> fron the inverter and tap it into the homes electrical circuitry?
>
> It seems like a car engine (being pretty much always available and well
> maintained) would be the perfect generator.
>
> Thoughts? Thanks.
> Kevin
>
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| John,
Thanks for your thoughts.
How can I tell how much a car battery could "invert" to power my home
appliances? I've been researching Vector Inverters from 1000watts to
3000watts but from what you're saying 3000 would be too much for the
car to handle.
Kevin
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| Steve Spence 2005-07-09, 4:25 am |
| A car battery with say 100ah capacity might be able to supply 50ah
reliably for for a few cycles. 50ah at 12 vdc = 600wh, so that's 600
watts for an hour, then it's done.
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
Kevin wrote:
quote:
> John,
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> How can I tell how much a car battery could "invert" to power my home
> appliances? I've been researching Vector Inverters from 1000watts to
> 3000watts but from what you're saying 3000 would be too much for the
> car to handle.
>
> Kevin
>
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| Steve,
What if the car is left running? Could it supply enough to "invert" to
2500watts (slowing reducing my hopes 
Thanks
Kevin
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| "Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1120877067.965867.245440@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> I'm thinking about "creating" a home electrical backup system and was
> wondering if an 3000 watt inverter could be connected to a car battery
> (with the car running for continuous supply) and then take the output
> fron the inverter and tap it into the homes electrical circuitry?
>
> It seems like a car engine (being pretty much always available and well
> maintained) would be the perfect generator.
There is a generator that can be installed onto an engine of a truck. Don't
know if it would fit a car. It was used to power an arc welder and other
power tools.
Don't recall the brand name, but I'll bet a specialty item like this would
cost quite a bit more than a regular generator, which would be less of a
hassle. (do you really want to watch TV while your car sucks up $2.50 a
gallon of gas?)
Anyway, 3000 watts isn't much for a standard home, and some appliances don't
behave well with cheap (hundreds vs. thousands of dollars) inverters. Oh,
and while Vector makes some good stuff, that 3000 watt figure is very likely
inflated, much like the cheaper computer power supplies and stereo systems.
You may do better visiting a truck stop and check out some 12v devices that
can be run from a car or battery directly. That way you don't waste power
on notoriously inefficient inverters.
Pagan
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| Steve Spence 2005-07-09, 4:25 am |
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a 50amp alternator is only good for 600 watts max.
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
Kevin wrote:
quote:
> Steve,
>
> What if the car is left running? Could it supply enough to "invert" to
> 2500watts (slowing reducing my hopes
>
> Thanks
> Kevin
>
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| Soooooo.....what are your ideas as to the best electrical backup
system. I've been following this project:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bgoodsel/solar/blog.htm
with interest. It seems like every backup system has its "dont do it"
parts but I'm still going to do it
Thanks
Kevin
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| Arnold Walker 2005-07-10, 4:25 am |
|
"Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1120878837.755236.56570@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> John,
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> How can I tell how much a car battery could "invert" to power my home
> appliances? I've been researching Vector Inverters from 1000watts to
> 3000watts but from what you're saying 3000 would be too much for the
> car to handle.
>
> Kevin
Not if you drop by a marine supply house....some boats have multi-engines
warrenting a multi input
regulator.Some go all the way to 9000watts after losses on 8 200amp
alternators.Battery would have
a very short life though.
You would also need a transfer switch either single circuit or breakered.
quote:
>
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| Arnold Walker 2005-07-10, 12:25 pm |
|
"Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1120927999.903923.178580@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> Soooooo.....what are your ideas as to the best electrical backup
> system. I've been following this project:
> http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bgoodsel/solar/blog.htm
> with interest. It seems like every backup system has its "dont do it"
> parts but I'm still going to do it
>
> Thanks
> Kevin
Some of the poor boy welders around here,have taken Jeeps and tractors ....
Then went to either a marine supply house for multi engine regultors or
Zena at www.zena.net (7 other guys manufacturing the same thing).
Welding requires up to 10Kw .........8 200amp alternators.
If you have problems with cheap alternators,they also have continous duty
alternators.
quote:
>
>
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| On 8 Jul 2005 19:44:28 -0700, "Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote:
>I'm thinking about "creating" a home electrical backup system and was
>wondering if an 3000 watt inverter could be connected to a car battery
>(with the car running for continuous supply) and then take the output
>fron the inverter and tap it into the homes electrical circuitry?
>
>It seems like a car engine (being pretty much always available and well
>maintained) would be the perfect generator.
>
>Thoughts? Thanks.
>Kevin
I've been doing this for a few years with a 1800W inverter. Vehicle has a
110A alternator (older SUV) and I'm using #4 braided copper wire with
regular cheapo spring clamps to connect the inverter to the battery.
I backfeed the main panel with this. The inverter only has 110V output, so
I feed that in to an unused 220V outlet/breaker and cross the hots in the
plug that I made up. I make sure to shut off all the other 220V breakers
(like stove, dryer, etc) since that just won't work and could be ugly
anyway.
I selectively turn on the breakers I want and I can run 2 refrigerators, a
couple of 60W lights and a TV/VCR/DVD with no problem. I just make sure to
power up the fridges one at a time. They work perfectly and have no hum or
odd effects. I will get hum from things like fans since this is a square
wave unit.
3000W is a big inverter, so you'd need some hefty cables to connect it to
the battery and your alternator may not be able to keep up when you max it
out.
This works great when my outage is only for a couple of hours, but I just
don't like leaving the vehicle running for so long.
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| On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 12:43:15 -0400, Mark <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>On 8 Jul 2005 19:44:28 -0700, "Kevin" <kbrogan@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>I've been doing this for a few years with a 1800W inverter. Vehicle has a
>110A alternator (older SUV) and I'm using #4 braided copper wire with
>regular cheapo spring clamps to connect the inverter to the battery.
>
>I backfeed the main panel with this. The inverter only has 110V output, so
>I feed that in to an unused 220V outlet/breaker and cross the hots in the
>plug that I made up. I make sure to shut off all the other 220V breakers
>(like stove, dryer, etc) since that just won't work and could be ugly
>anyway.
>
>I selectively turn on the breakers I want and I can run 2 refrigerators, a
>couple of 60W lights and a TV/VCR/DVD with no problem. I just make sure to
>power up the fridges one at a time. They work perfectly and have no hum or
>odd effects. I will get hum from things like fans since this is a square
>wave unit.
>
>3000W is a big inverter, so you'd need some hefty cables to connect it to
>the battery and your alternator may not be able to keep up when you max it
>out.
>
>This works great when my outage is only for a couple of hours, but I just
>don't like leaving the vehicle running for so long.
During Hurricane Isabel
I did something similar to this with my 1993 ford Taurus and its
inverter. Worked fine. had to be selective on what I ran and when but
life was good (or as good as it can be when all hell is going on
outside)
Rick
Rick
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