Inverter power supply

[jennyjj01]

So Andy,
Only just seen this. Do I understand correctly that it was geared to being charged from mains or from a car?
Did you ever adapt it to use solar. Looks like it wouldn't take much. Just add a charge controller and some panels and you have your home made Jackery.

I know you never figured what it cost, but I bet it was a lot cheaper.
You could sue Jackery for stealing your invention.

It does raise the point that energy resilience doesn't HAVE to be about solar. Something like this would be great for coping with rolling blackouts where it charges whenever mains is available.

Thinking out loud..... Did/could you have some sort of mains feed-through to make it like an uninteruptable mains supply?? Such that you could plug your freezers, or whatever into this, plug this into the mains.... And have it so that if mains was on, it just trickle charged, fed the freezer directly and NOT use the inverter, but if mains went off, the inverter kicked in? And if the mains came back on again, it just went back to charge mode? And as an aside, feed the batteries off solar as well?
Is that a daft idea, unnecessarily complicated? Am I over thinking this?

Is that something an unqualified person could do safely and legally or is that a step too far with electrical regulations??

[Yorkshire Andy]

So Andy,
Only just seen this. Do I understand correctly that it was geared to being charged from mains or from a car?
Did you ever adapt it to use solar. Looks like it wouldn't take much. Just add a charge controller and some panels and you have your home made Jackery.

I know you never figured what it cost, but I bet it was a lot cheaper.
You could sue Jackery for stealing your invention.

It does raise the point that energy resilience doesn't HAVE to be about solar. Something like this would be great for coping with rolling blackouts where it charges whenever mains is available.

Thinking out loud..... Did/could you have some sort of mains feed-through to make it like an uninteruptable mains supply?? Such that you could plug your freezers, or whatever into this, plug this into the mains.... And have it so that if mains was on, it just trickle charged, fed the freezer directly and NOT use the inverter, but if mains went off, the inverter kicked in? And if the mains came back on again, it just went back to charge mode? And as an aside, feed the batteries off solar as well?
Is that a daft idea, unnecessarily complicated? Am I over thinking this?

Is that something an unqualified person could do safely and legally or is that a step too far with electrical regulations??

Everything is possible take a look at this where I got my inspiration from..

https://youtu.be/ka0MfipmdBw

It's since had a Anderson plug added for solar charging from my 60w Bosch panel my intention though is to join the new 100w panel with a 50w I already have ( bought flexible as they will survive the upcoming England football star in the garden) already got a charge controller to suit in a drawer ..

The 20a caravan PSU/ charger is continuously rated so could provide 20a continuously...

With tye added advantage of shoving 100ah back into the batteries in 5 hours like you say was intended for rotor cuts the Inverter hasn't got a remote switch which would be needed for remote starting taken from a contractor switch module in the event of a grid down it would then start rather than leaving it on standby all the time

[jennyjj01]

Is that a daft idea, unnecessarily complicated? Am I over thinking this?

Is that something an unqualified person could do safely and legally or is that a step too far with electrical regulations??

Everything is possible take a look at this where I got my inspiration from..

https://youtu.be/ka0MfipmdBw

That video is indeed inspiring. I don't expect to come close to the elegance of his system. He's clearly qualified.

A few instant takeaways from the video though.....

600Ah +100Ah Batterys!!!!!! Bl006y hell!!!!!
Economy 7 dual rate electricity??? I had to check that's still a thing. It is, sort of!

But the biggie...
He seems to be feeding his whole house from the ONE 13A socket in the back of his inverter!!!!! So I googled the inverter..... It's just 1500W !!!!!
An expensive, quality 1500W
Plenty for lights and the odd fridge and TV.
Obviously he avoids using the kettle, toaster, microwave, shower, washing machine, tumble dryer,. To turn any one of those on would surely overload the inverter?

He implied he could switch to charge mode every night and inverter mode every morning, manually, to save money???? That would be a chore.

Off to watch it again.

Lots for me to think about now. I'm awaiting delivery of my inverter and have started seriously hunting for VFM panels.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Shell energy is trying to get my mum and dad off e7 and get them to install a smart meter.. unfortunately for them my dad told them to get erm "lost" even with the after August the meter might not read correctly... so dad says it's either going to be in your favour or mine and he can monitor it

Dad's worked on power stations / commercial electrician so well err yes that argument is dead In the water

[Yorkshire Andy]

Well storage of the box made it a bit of a pain so it's now become a power wall

Batteries are in the cupboard below...

New twin battery solar controller

[jennyjj01]

Nice bit of wood
Do I see two charge controllers? or is one just a display?
Did you go 24V?

Ruined a bit by the writing being upside down

[steptoe]

Nice work andy , i hope i can start making more power ideas as you know from the pm's i sent

I am sure going to try and sort some for the garage this winter and i can also have a charging station

thanks for the great pictures and ideas

[steptoe]

What scenario would this be really useful in? Any lengthy outage will have you back to a more lasting solution in no time on a heavy (e.g. heater) power drain. For moving around the house you will need a more portable supply. Is this cost effective say against a petrol unit?

I dont plan to run a heater on it i just hooked it up to see the draw at 1kw...

Problem with petrol its noisy unless you stump up for something like a Honda suitcase genny

Legally you can only store 30l of petrol (10lx2 metal 5lx2 plastic ) most decent size genny sets use about 1l per hour.

Ultimately I plan to get a decent size solar panel but atm I charge it off the mains, have options of charging off the car, or a small generator which had a battery charging output.

It can be used for charging phones (via USB outlet on inverter) charging 12v appliances or things i have a cigar adaptor for,..

LED bulb in a lead lamp will easily light my bug in room / stronghold... whilst letting me power most small devices


Id Love to be able to do this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcfd2Ncoeis

Hi Andy just watched the guy you put the link up to and omg that guy i have named him the nutty professor , i watched his 20 thousand light bulb test in the back garden and jesus it reminded me of a film i watched called saving grace omg mate where do you find this stuff and i wish i was good with mains electric bt i am not don't ask i am not allowed to touch mains power now lol i got a pacemaker and tried to tidy up the bodge in the back porch area i was fitting a junction box to the light wiring and well i ended up being thrown off the steps lol the local sparks came to sort it for me after the wife told him and he said i was luck when i was cutting the wire i had rubber shoes but because my leg was on the allie ladder i earth and got lucky it threw me and i did not become clamped on lol

[deckard]

Steptoe makes a good point here, how are you earthing that big inverter Andy? If you run multiple items off it you'll need a common earth. Not sure what the more sturdy inverters are like, but the small 150w one I have actually has no distinct live and neutral, it's really a floating 115 volts either side. I only ever run the odd single small thing off it (usually a light or battery charger), but still with much caution, needless to say I could do with something better.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Steptoe makes a good point here, how are you earthing that big inverter Andy? If you run multiple items off it you'll need a common earth. Not sure what the more sturdy inverters are like, but the small 150w one I have actually has no distinct live and neutral, it's really a floating 115 volts either side. I only ever run the odd single small thing off it (usually a light or battery charger), but still with much caution, needless to say I could do with something better.

It's not grounded / earthed as unless you somehow grab phase and nuteral the floating earth means there's no path back to the inverter and no risk of a shock .. think birds sitting on the overhead lines.. same goes for generators . My ecoflow power station doesn't have a earth connect at all baring the charging plug to provide a ground whilst using it as a ups

Gets more complex if it's fitted in a vehicle where there's a chance of say trapping a wire in the door and the fact most vehicles batteries are connected negative chassis in this case the chassis of the is connected to the inverter this is when a link is put between the inverter ground post and the battery negative input