[Gasification] DC to AC inverters: was ((Re: Something Might be Wrong (OT??))

[Harmon Seaver]

Jeff Davis wrote:
> On Friday 13 April 2007 11:56 pm, Harmon Seaver wrote:
>>    Hey guys, there's an awful lot of 24v inverters out there, and also
>> some 36v and 48v inverters. Look around. Anybody doing serious off-grid
>> with batteries and DC does not use 12v -- most any 12v inverter is
>> bottom of the barrel minor league stuff for truckers and small RV's and
>> even then most serious truckers and RV's use 24v.
> 
> Hi Harmon,
> 
> Your correct and they are better because they draw less current but all seem 
> to be out of my price range.
> 

     You need to rethink your basic plan here -- there is zero point in
investing in inverter stuff for your 36v golfcart battery setup in the
first place. Those batteries are most likely pretty close to being junk
at this point anyway. How old are they? If they are even 3-4 years old,
they are not going to last much longer, so why screw around with the
whole 36v scenario?
    These are the common 6v heavy-duty golfcart battery, right? They
have a life expectency of maybe 5 years if well taken care of, meaning
they need to be kept watered and charged up at least once a week or so.
    If you look in any big city newspaper in the Fall, at least in the
northern states, you will see ads from golfcart companies and
golfcourses, trying to sell their current stock of used batteries
because they don't want to try to keep them over the Winter.
    But you need to figure out a better long-term plan. If things really
do fall apart, those type of batteries will not do you much good very
long. The big industrial forklift batteries MIGHT last 10 years, the
bigger, heavier 2v cell telco batteries might last even 25 years.
   Yah, that stuff ain't cheap, but... "Penny wise and pound foolish" as
they say. That's the basic problem with the whole "survival" off-grid
energy concept based on batteries charged by solar and/wind -- the
batteries are the weak link, and if you can't replace them, what do you
have then? Pumping water to a tank uphill and running it back down?
Making hydrogen?  8-)
   Maybe better to work on that in the first place if you don't have
much money. Or maybe better to just get your gasifier built, and start
collecting small auto engines from junk cars to run your generator. You
don't need electric 24/7 really. My wife and I lived for 18 years
off-grid with absolutely no electric at all for the first 12 years.
Except for a battery for the radio that we charged with the car when we
went to town. Raised our two kids from babies 'til college that way.
They laugh at people who don't how to do without the 7-11.

-- 
Harmon Seaver