Battery backup in case of power outage?

[bhd21478]

Hey everyone. I received a Diehard 1150 amp battery backup for Christmas. It has an inverter on it and will convert to 110. Its used to power small appliances in case of power outage, or for camping trips. It has a usb port, and 2 receptacles. I have a Jotul 450 kennebec, and it will power the blower on it as well. Has anyone else tried this and with what battery pack, and what kind of result. I havent tested the run time yet on full charge for the blower yet. Im just hoping to get 6 to 8 hrs as that would be good enough. You can charge the batterys with a car charger or I could take it to work and charge it. I was curious if anyone else has tried this and what result. thanks

 

[Treacherous]

I would think a few hours at most.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/70423/

 

[velvetfoot]

Do these batteries like being totally discharged?

 

[Treacherous]

Manual for device here.

http://www.reinsmith.net/content/automotive/Diehard_Portable_Power_1150_Model_200.71988.pdf

[Page 10]
200 watt load for 55 minutes


EDIT: 200-210 watts is maximum draw on the fan on my Lopi. I would imagine fan at lower settings would draw less but it still would only be a few hours at most for run time.

 

[velvetfoot]

"This Portable Power 1150 comes with a sealed, non-spillable DieHard
maintenance-free lead-acid battery. This internal battery is specifically
designed to deliver high power jump-starting as welt as repetitive deep
cycling performance."

I guess that's a good sign.

 

[clemsonfor]

Why not go to Harborfreight and for what that thing cost you can buy one of those $99 2-stroke generators that will push 800watts. At that price you can run it till the carb gums and and then buy another. Their motors are decent, my wood cutting budy put one on his splitter and its still going after a few years worth of work and still starts easy. I bet the generator is decent.

 

[woodgeek]

Starting batteries are designed to be cheap and deliver high amp surges, not a lot of umph or deep cycles. IOW, a sprinter rather than a marathoner. But if you got one already, keep it charged (with a decent smart charger) and it will work for you. It would prob run your blowers for a few hours per charge, and survive at least a few dozen charge/discharge cycles (if they are deep (<50%?)), a couple hundred if they are less deep (<25%?). Do you have a voltmeter to know when to stop? A cheap inverter might suck the thing dry before it cuts out.

I have a slightly better but similar sized battery and one of those $100 gennies. Its all good.

 

[Treacherous]

I'd get some long extension cords as well. A two-stroke generator has got to be pretty noisy.

 

[seeyal8r]

I haven't done this yet but plan to...... Buddy bought a 800 Watt inverter and hooks it to his car battery during power outages. Starts the vehicle and lets it run 30 minutes at a time and off for 1 hr. He runs his refrigerator, freezer, and insert blower individually while the vehicle is running. He has a large truck. I guess he figures he saves $$ on buying a generator but spends $$ on gasoline. My old broken gen used a couple gallons an hour. Not sure what my truck will burn but it can't be that much.

 

[jharkin]

Generator burned a couple of gallons an hour? That must be enormous. I can run most of the essentials in my house on a piece o' junk 3500 watt unit. And even that wont go to full load unless Im using the micro or toaster. At part load its 4 gallon tank lasts 10-12 hours.

Its very good advice given above not to try and deep cycle a car battery. It only takes a couple full discharges to kill one. Ever had a dead battery on the car and notice that after that it was a lot easier to accidentally have another one. The one good thing about a lead acid of any type is they are very easy to check the capacity as it is almost exactly linear to the voltage. With no load 11.8v is pretty much dead and 13~13.2 is full.

Running the inverter off the car will do in a pinch I guess but I would not want to rely on that if you have a lot of long outages. The wear and tear on the car battery could get you in trouble some cold night if it decides not to start... not to mention that using a 200+ HP truck motor to just loaf along running the alternator is using probably 10x or more the amount of gas a small generator will to produce the same power.

Just my not so humble opinion.

 

[clemsonfor]

I was thinking the same thing on the few gallons an hour. A truck will prolly use half a gallon to a gallon an hour. My 5000watt genny will run forever it seems on a few gallons, thankfully i have not had to really test it.

 

[Treacherous]

Depending on load I can get up to 8 or 9 hours on a gallon with one of my Honda EU2000i's. Tethered to a 6 gallon marine tank I can get 56-63 continuous hours. If I really hammered them for load it would probably be half that though.

 

[velvetfoot]

Not to get too off track, but as a fellow EU2000i owner, do you think the long-run setup is worth it? I'm thinking, occasional us for me, not long term camping or ice fishing or what not, and am trying to preserve a little floor space in the garage.

 

[Treacherous]

Not to get too off track, but as a fellow EU2000i owner, do you think the long-run setup is worth it? I'm thinking, occasional us for me, not long term camping or ice fishing or what not, and am trying to preserve a little floor space in the garage.

It's been worth it to me for the cabin as well as camping for a week and not having to bother fueling the generator for days on end.

Another option I plan to pursue once warranty is up on the EU2000's is a propane connection. This may be a better option if you primarily use generator at home since you wouldn't have to worry about a gummed up carb with stale fuel or having to treat fuel with stabilizer. Although I do like that it is so easy to empty the carb bowl and fuel pump in the EU's of fuel with a nice external connection line to collect the fuel.

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/Honda-EU2000i-Tri-fuel.asp?page=EU2000i_Tri_Fuel

 

[seeyal8r]

I was thinking the same thing on the few gallons an hour. A truck will prolly use half a gallon to a gallon an hour. My 5000watt genny will run forever it seems on a few gallons, thankfully i have not had to really test it.

I think the generator held something like 6 gallons and yes it only lasted 3 hours. I hated that thing but it was just a step down from a portable welder. It ran full blast or not at all. We used it to run some power tools when working on a cabin. Burned through the fuel. I've been around some of the little honda generators and couldn't believe how quiet, efficient, and powerful they are.

 

[rwhite]

Check the amp draw on your blower. Most are about 1/2 amp. A deep cycle battery with 100 amp/hr capacity should be able to run a blower 200 hrs until it's fully dead. That's a perfect scenario. Truth is times that by about 1/3 to get true draw time so about 30-40 hrs of run time at 1 amp (60-80 at 1/2 amp). Then add in the inverter draw, a small 300w inverter may draw about 1/2 amp so that reduces run time back to 30-40 hours. A bit more may be drawn ay start up. So theoretically you could probably run a blower for a day or maybe longer on a deep cycle battery. The item that you have is designed for cranking amps and not long draws. Long draw downs will kill a starting battery in short order. I would use it if I had to for a few hours but if you have regular outages I'd get a deep cycle and small inverter.

Edit: I have one of the cheapo chinese 2-stroke generators. It's loud and unless you can get a full load on it, it doesn't run right (loads up and sputters). But it's no louder than some of the 4-stroke cage type generators (the honda EU's and similar are a completly different animal) I think there great for true emergencies as it never has failed to start and if it did I could survive anyhow. But for $75 it was worth it. I wouldn't run it for just a stove blower though. I will say that if I am in the house I can't hear it outside and I figure during an outage most neighbors will be indoors and wouldn't hear it either. If you have another use for a good generator I say get one. If it's only for true emergencies to run a few lights and stove then I'd get another cheapo 2-stroke in a minute.