Inverters:

[Rob Swallows]

I have no experience with these smaller items except the one in my service truck which is used to keep my laptop charged and it does fine. Anybody use them in about the 2000 watt range for anything significant, and how long do they last before the battery(s) need charging?

 

Rooting through my junk stash from removed equipment of eons ago, I ran across two aluminum framed glass pane solar panels about 18"X12" which make about 24VDC in full sunlight, and controller circuit cards. These were formerly used on long decommissioned equipment(s), and these panels were retained for another use some day..... The batteries they maintained charge upon were 12VDC cells to power the equipment. Kinda perfect for automotive type uses although I don't know current generation capacity.

[Flyinfool]

I have a 2000W inverter that I use to run a 2.5 hp circular saw, Sawzall and an electric chain saw when I am back in the woods. All of these are fairly high current draws.

I use a single 15 year old deep cycle battery left over from my RV and I have yet to run the battery dead. But be warned, that if you are running something that pulls 10 amps at 120V, it will be pulling 110 amps from the battery. Just look at the power requirement of what you will be using, multiply by 11 to get the draw from the battery and compare that to the Amp hour rating of your battery. that will give you a good idea of how long it will last. 2000W is 16.7 Amps at 120VAC, that would be a battery draw of 183 amps at 12Vdc. Make sure your battery cables are big enough for that.

 

You do not want to run the 2kW inverter off of your car battery, the car battery is not made for that and will not last long. You do want to get a good Deep Cycle battery like what is used in a RV for best performance.

 

The other thing to consider is starting surge, many inverters can not handle a lot of starting surge. so they will have difficulty with big motors like AC or compressors. Saws and such are generally started with no load so the starting surge in less.

 

I used my 2KW inverter to build 2 towers with 6' x 6' x 7' enclosures on top for deer hunting back in the woods.

 

Those solar panels that you have are probably around 15W output so it would take 133 hours (11 days at 12 hours cloud free sunlight per day) of strong direct sunlight to recharge 1 hour of draw at 2000 watts.

 

Since my truck does have a spot for a second battery under the hood, I was thinking of mounting my Deep cycle under the hood so that it is always being charged by the truck whenever the truck is running that way it will always be handy, charged and ready to go.

[Rob Swallows]

Thanks for your reply Jeff, I don't normally work with things this small and probably wouldn't have even thought about it if not for casual conversation with my family. We are wanting to erect a small cabin on our very rural wooded property and it's far from easy to get utility supplied electrical power there. I have several gensets from large three phase 12 lead reconnectable units, to the newest 3kw inverter style and was planning to use one of those, but if an inverter could be used for lighting it would certainly save some fuel dollars. I'm thinking the skid mount 15kw diesel set would be adequate for anything we'd plan to do out there. I also have a 20kw LPG set, so it's a tossup at this time, but the final decision would base upon ease of fuel delivery. While I'll not require three phase power in any of this type application, it's always nice to have available.

[Rob Swallows]

I broke down and ordered a 3kw "Pure Sine Wave" inverter and three Exide Group 29 deep cycle batteries from my supplier today. What I'm wanting to do with this is illuminate about 4200' of access driveway and bridge to the rear of the property which is about 90% covered in old growth timber. Also need clean power for electronics and water pump motor hence the reason for the added expense above a modified sine wave type inverter. The timber canopy precludes the solar panels being mounted just anyplace, but with a few of them placed at the top of a 75' guyed tower I have, there shouldn't be any problem. I currently have a skid mount small building back there used as a hunter's cabin, but it's to be replaced with something more permanent in nature.

 

Of couse the genset will alleviate any need for solar power when it's running, but the drive lights will be automatic running from the batteries not costing much.....

[Rob Swallows]

After visiting the Exide website I discovered a group 31 deep cycle battery has a much better reserve capacity so called and upgraded the order. Here is a link of what is not coming my way: http://www.exide.com/us/en/product-solutions/transportation/findabattery-trans.aspx?culture=us%2fen&culture=us%2fen&culture=us%2fen&culture=us%2fen&culture=us%2fen&page=product-solutions%2ftransportation%2ffindabattery-trans&page=product-solutions%2ftransportation%2ffindabattery-trans&page=product-solutions%2ftransportation%2ffindabattery-trans&page=product-solutions%2ftransportation%2ffindabattery-trans&page=product-solutions%2ftransportation%2ffindabattery-trans

 

I'll rig up some type of luminaires for the driveway and bridge which will be placed on motion sensor detection to light up when movement is seen on the road. I poured two concrete abutments and welded two 53' flatbed semi trailers together, (side by side for the roadway) after winching them across the creekbed to serve as my bridge. Still awaiting settlement of subsoil to finish the approaches to this bridge although it is passable now. This next spring I'l build an open ended enclosure to it for the old covered bridge look.

[Flyinfool]

Sounds like fun.

[Rob Swallows]

There are still two covered bridges in the area across the Kaskaskia River and I'm going to emulate one. They are social gathering spots.

 

The fun is just starting.

 

I have three Hobart portable gas drive welders and used them all on the project. My winch/crane truck struggled at times but did what it's supposed to do. My lowboy tractor had no problems with "keel hauling" the dead weight around but it has a 100k "Tulsa" winch on it. Had to build runners across the shallow point of the creek to manually drive the concrete buggies across as there is no way a mixer would ever get down to the pour and a pump truck wouldn't have near the reach. We buggy'd the mix almost a 2200' from mixer discharge to pour.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Rob Swallows