meathead said:
You can buy a 3000 watt genset for $200.00?
Right - all you have left to do is rig an electronic ignition to your genset portable generator and then rig that ignition to a system that senses the charge of your battery bank and shuts the generator off when the bank is charged and turns it back on when the bank needs charging. Not sure what the cost for this system would be - maybe someone could do it with tinfoil and a hairclip but it would cost me and just about anyone else money and time.
Just bought a couple of brand new, 3500 watt gas-engine genets onsale from ALDIs. $199 each.
Very quiet, four stroke overhead valve engines, with full 20 amp receptacles which is kind of rare in small gensets (most are only 15 amps each).
Sounds to me like you don't have any hands-on experience with any of this. Your argue in the style of a politician using common types of flawed logic - especially "reducing to the rediculous" , yet you lack hard facts.
I have two automatic backup systems. None use any of the Rube Goldberg contraptions you mention. A good, automatic, low-end sytem - IF you wanted all factory made parts would require something like - #1 A load-sensing, automatic combo inverter/charger like a Trace DR2412. Four - eight 220 AH 6 volt deep cycle batteries, and a means to recharge them. It has an engine autostart feature for those that want it hooked to an electric-start generator. For that total system if you buy all new, it can run around $3000. If you make some of the stuff, and/or improvise, and/or buy used - it can be done cheaper.
My system at my farm and home uses two Outback full-wave inverters, a 5250 watt solar-electric array,and a large battery bank with Rolls-Surrette batteries.
I also have a cheaper system used the Trace inverter/charger and is used at a remote camp I own. It is hooked to two to forur, 120 watt solar panels and also, a large, automatic start, Fairbanks Morse gas-driven 17KW generator. I paid less than $200 for the generator. I rarely start it unless I need some high amps for electric arc welding that the inverter can handle. If the batteries get low, however, it self-starts and charges them up. In most cases, just two of the 120 watt solar panels do all we need while we're there. I have quick disconnects, and sometimes I plug in an extra two ot make a total of four hooked in parallel.
As to your mention of the my system drawing attention from neighbors? Well, for one - I have no neighbors, thank God. And, my system is always hooked up. No expensive Prius sitting near the house, with a cobbed up set up cables and an inverter of some sort hooked to it. That, along with what-ever means the guy is using to get the power into his house and hooked to his applicance and toys. Wonder why it is not accurately de
meathead said:
And all of that aside - I asked if you knew of a generator that would modestly power a house for 3 days on 5 gallons of fuel or less and doesn't cost a sum nearly equivilent to the prius. Only thing I know of that accomplishes this feat is solar panels - and they 'aint cheap. I didn't ask if you could find a cheaper way to gerry rig the same systym - which as of yet you haven't done.
That question can't be answered as asked. That's why that article is silly. It does not give any useable figures - like how many actual watt-hours of power were made by the Prius on those few gallons of gas? It's easy to write BS articles like that. Leave just enough facts out so it can't be argued, yet - it seems to sound good.
The reality is - a well built diesel powered generator can make 14,000 watts of power for an hour on one gallon of fuel. So as to your three gallons worth of power question? A good generator can make 14,000 watts or power, steady, for three hours. I guarantee you that the Prius, using its gas engine, is not near that efficient. A cheap, bottom dollar 3600 RPM gas generator can make 1200 watts an hour per gallon. That is the very low-end of the scale.
The key issue to getting your best money's worth from a fuel driven generator is to run that engine at its max. efficiency which is also usually at the peak of it's torque curve. That means you work it hard and shut if down, and make sure the generator is sized for the job so it IS worked hard and not too big for the load. If it sits just idling, it loses efficiency. That's the beauty of a battery bank. You mainly run off the batteries, and when low - let the genset quickly charge them up while it runs at max. efficiency.
By the way. Many times we have camped for weeks with just a few batteries, inverter and two 120 watt solar panels. I ran power tools, ran a Sundanzer 12 volt chest freezer, lights, TV, computer, DC water pump, and a DVD player - no problems and in poor New York state sun. I could probably write and article in such a way to make that all sound very amazing, but it's not at all.