EcoRenovator

EcoRenovator (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/index.php)
-   Solar Power (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15)
-   -   Home made solar inverter generator hybrid (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4544)

oil pan 4 09-02-15 12:36 AM

Home made solar inverter generator hybrid
 
7 Attachment(s)
This is my little off grid stand alone set up.

The current configuration is based around my 7kw rated 10,500w surge, 2 pole, 3600rpm gasoline powered single cylindet 420cc 13hp troybuilt generator with 8 gallon fuel tank.
This generator was a warrantee turn in at lows, I picked it up for $100. It had bad brushes, broken wheels and a dead battery. $14 got me a new set of brushes plus a spare to get it producing power again.

I knew this generator and ones like it suffer from catastrophic fuel consumption (the particular one uses .77gal/hr at half load and around .5 to .66 gallons per hour at light to no load).
That is perfect for me because I needed a fairly strong generator to run welding equipment and I wanted to to build a cart to put it on, give it more fuel capacity, put a huge battery and pure sine wave inverter to save on gas and run time.

The current configuration is this generator, with an additional 5.5 gallon fuel tank, spot to hold an additional 5 gallon red gas can, on a cart I originally built for a welding machine, an optima battery to replace the dead riding lawn mower battery and power the 1,000 watt Kisae pure sine inverter.
I rewired the generator to use actual real QO series breakers made by square D. Then installed L14-20, L14-30 and 10-50 receptacles.
With all cords, full fuel and everything else I added it weighs about 350 pounds.

I have found that I really like using the inverter to power stuff as opposed to running the generator. But due to the batteries limited size I have only ran tiny devices off it like drills, small saws, power tool battery charger, briefly run my 1hp air compressor of it to fill a tire or shoot a wire finish nailer a few times.
Its a great inverter, on a tiny battery. The optima battery was free.
I have had the battery and inverter on there since summer of 2013, now I am adding solar panels, charge controller and might upgrade to a larger battery.

The main problem with the battery is the generators built in magneto charger is only designed to replenish the power used by a tiny riding lawn mower battery used only for starting the engine, so it has to be charged up with a external battery charger to get a proper charge.

The new configuration will have:
A Morningstar prostar 30 amp solar charge controller.
At least two 80 watt solar panels (4 to 4.5 amps per panel).
My home made 240 volt powered odd voltage battery charger (supplies 16 to 19 working volts like a "12 volt solar panel"), this hooks into the Morningstar to supply up to 20 amps in place of or in addition to the solar panels.

The working configuration as of feb 2016 has a Morningstar 30 amp PWM charger and Morningstar 15 amp MPPT, the home made 240v batt charger, 1000w kisae inverter.
The Morningstar 15 MPPT handles the solar, the 30 amp PWM is a backup and handles charging from the battery charger.
The 240v powered battery charger produces up to 27 amps.
The Morningstar 30 amp PWM and 15 amp MPPT work great together.

I would like to add solar trickle power into the battery and be able to run more small items or intermittently run larger items like my air compressor or a refrigerator with out immediately killing the battery.
Then put the bigger battery charger on there to more quickly charge the battery with the generator and go back into battery+inverter only mode.

I would like the to new configuration to stay under 500lb after I add a bigger battery.

Future up grades will include:
A much larger deep cycle battery (when this battery quits).
An electric fuel pump to make swapping out the fuel after it sits all winter easy and to turn this into a gasoline dispenser for power equipment so even if it doesn't get ran I will still have fresh fuel in it.
A hot water heating system using exhaust heat

This is when I was working out building the battery holder and where to put it:
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441171700

Rewiring the generator to use the types of receptacles I like.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441171703

Here is the genset with the battery and inverter installed and just after installed the additional fuel tank (free from the scrap yard).
The solar panel need to stow on the side so I can use those lifting rings.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441171703

Unused room to stow solar panels. Solar panels will need to be removed before starting the engine.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441171703

I don't have any 5-15 or 5-20 receptacles on the generator its self as of now, but do have this L14-30 power distribution cord I made and another L14-20 power distribution center that came with the generator (not shown).
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441172119

This is the 240 volt battery charger I am working on. When I apply 240vac to the 380v input terminals of the transformer gives 16.3VAC, which after rectification gives a max theoretical open current voltage of 23vdc.
The capacitor was pulled from a broken battery charger. The heak sinks and rectifiers are left overs from my AC to DC welding machine conversion.
Heat sinks came from the scrap yard, paid maybe $1 for both.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441171700

The water proof DTSP input power switch. 16ga SJ cord is sealed with a gland seal type strain relief at the switch. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a water proof, 240 volt powered battery charger....
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441172123

I would like to mount a solar panels to keep the sun off the fuel tanks and inverter. I have rubber shock absorbers to put between the panel and the rest of the structure. Will that be enough?
Or can solar panels not withstand any vibration?

I could not find a solar charge controller that had a generator power input for backup battery charging. Does any one know of one?
It looks like I will just build my own, but any suggestions are still welcome.

EDIT: Morningstar does not recommend running a battery charger through their PWM charge controller.

Basic lay out of how the components interact.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1461649142

jeff5may 09-02-15 09:09 PM

Wow! What a summer project. Better keep the tourists away from it: someone will give themself a heart attack!

oil pan 4 09-03-15 02:38 AM

The buss glass tube fuse holders I ordered came in, $14 for 4 double 30x5mm glass or ceramic tube fuse holders. I put a 3 amp fuse on each line.
I did a functional check on the battery charger components as a whole system.
With input voltage of 245 volt AC made an output of 21.5 volts DC.
Which is perfect solar panel replacement voltage.

Next put a 20 amp fuse on the output, secure everything inside the case, attach to the generator and hook it up to the Morningstar, with battery and see if anything gets fried.

oil pan 4 09-03-15 12:14 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Picture time.
This is kind of what the lay out will consist of.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441300395

The heat sink I am using for this is one just like I pictured but with about 1/3 cut off it and painted flat black.

On my big AC to DC welding machine conversion I run these same bridge rectifiers at up to 100 volts and at 25 amps each for 90 seconds at a time when I burn an 18 inch long 3/16'' 7024 electrode. They are on a slightly larger heat sink with a fan.
This application will put one bridge rectifier on a big heat sink, with no fan and only up to 20 amps going through it continuously.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441300395

oil pan 4 09-08-15 08:55 PM

4 Attachment(s)
Getting the box put together.

The transformer is bolted through the box, through the generators frame in 2 places.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441763190

The rectifier looks like its sunk down into the box, but its actually sitting on top of a heat sink that extends off the edge of the frame but has a caster support under it.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441763190

Now with the battery charging capacitor installed. All wire is 12 gauge, if I have to I will up grade to 10 gauge, I have plenty of TH or TW 10 gauge on spools.
My automotive fuse holder says it is "30 amp" but its only on 12ga wire. I had a heavy duty "40 amp" automotive fuse holder but I used it and can not remember where I bought that big 10 gauge wired fuse holder.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441767418

Then I moved where the input power comes into the enclosure. It did go in at the switch.
I also installed a 4 hole gland seal for 10 gauge wires incase I want to add more or bigger wires later and its the closest gland seal I had to fit the bill.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1441767418

FedEx is just taking their time getting my Morningstar controller to me. They have had it since august 31 and it has only made it to dallas.
I bought two 80 watt solar panels, FedEx has them too, they can take their time getting them to me I don't want them to get smashed.

oil pan 4 09-09-15 11:07 PM

The Morningstar came in, installed it, wired up the battery inputs and tested the output terminals by wiring in an old headlight.
I did not get to wire up the "solar" power inputs.

oil pan 4 09-15-15 04:06 PM

It works so far.
I hook my Kisae inverter up to my refrigerator, which I already know works turned it on and power started dropping, as usual.
I had already hooked my 240vac charger up to the Morningstar controller. After powering the fridge for a little while battery volts dropped to 12 even.
Figured this would be a great time to test my battery charger. It was already hooked up to grid external power all I had to do was flip the switch.
About 3 seconds later I herd a click that sounded like a fuse blowing. My 20 amp blade fuse blew. So I turned off the battery charger and plugged in a 25 amp fuse.

The 25 amp fuse did not blow. So I put my fluke325 on there and it was reading 26 amps going to the battery and inverter. The inverter was only drawing 11 amps at 14 volts.

So now I will upgrade to 10 gauge wire on my battery charger. And put on a 10 gauge 40 amp NAPA in line blade fuse holder. I will fuse the circuit at 30 amps to reduce nuance fusing.

I may also install a charge limiting resistor like I have seen used on NiCd batteries.
This battery charger need to be able to charge low batteries with out fusing.

oil pan 4 09-15-15 04:40 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Here are some thermographs I took while torcher testing my charger, charging batteries and running the inverter to power my refrigerator.
The bridge rectifier gets too hot for my liking.
It was showing 250'F while at or near 25 amps and at 11 amps it would only cool down to 214'F.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1442352162
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1442352162

I am going to install double heat sinked rectifiers to keep them from burning up. Then install 24 volt fan to circulate air through the enclosure.
The 25 amp fuse was showing 330'F at 26 amp full load. It only cooled down to 225'F with 11 amps going through it.
I am going to get that gigantic NAPA fuse holder and 30 amp fuse, I hope they still sell them.

I think this flir is saving me from a lot of future arse pain.

The idea behind the battery charger isn't to power loads and charge the battery at the same time but I still want it to be up to the task.
I may use the generator to power my plasma cutter which takes every bit of power it has, so I may leave the battery charger plugged in which only uses up to about 2 amps of 240 vac power to at least charge the battery while the generator is running, I may also have to power some important load like a refrigerator that is starting to get too warm. The refrigerator would not like being plugged directly into the generator while the plasma cutter or welder is going.

At that point the generator, battery charger, solar, Morningstar and inverter will form some kind of primitive uninterruptable power supply.

Daox 09-16-15 09:25 AM

Sounds like you're doing a quality build. I'm looking forward to more.

oil pan 4 09-16-15 02:24 PM

2 Attachment(s)
This is what it looks like.
I also added a 50 amp Anderson connector to the load side of the breaker, this makes attaching a small 110 volt charger/maintainer easy. I lopped that Anderson connector and a lot more just like it off a pile of bad UPS at the scrap yard. They cost almost nothing in that state.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1442431563

I was going to use inline fuse holders and terminal boards to make connections. But then I found this at advanced auto.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1442431563

Looks like I am going to upgrade the wires coming out of the charger to 10 gauge, can the inline fuse holder idea all together and use that busman. Then from the fuse block to the Morningstar and from the Morningstar to the battery install 8 gauge wire.
Because the Morningstar can be overloaded by 25%, which would put it at 37 amps.

The busman will also make it easier to connect and disconnect solar panels.

Also I believe I need to replace a battery in one of the vehicles, which just happens to be able to take a group 78, which is the size of my optima.
I was thinking about replacing the optima with a larger and heavier Diehard group 34M AGM battery.

I went with the sears AGM because I found out that they are made by odyssey.
Also I was looking up specs on the group 34M, its as wide as my optima and about 1 inch longer and it should fit into my battery holder.

oil pan 4 09-16-15 10:16 PM

I was looking at sears diehard AGM group 31 marine.
Its 13 inches long, standard 7 inches wide, 9 inches tall and weighs 70 pounds.
Electrically it has a reserve capacity of 205 minutes. Reserve capacity is equal to 85 amp hours if the power is used at 25 amps for 205 minutes. Or 92 amp hours at one C over 10 hours (That works out to about a 9 to 10 amp load). And 100 amp hours if you stretch 1C over 20 hours (about a 5 amp load).
There is no way it will fit my current battery holder.
I think I am going to buy it anyway and play make it fit with my plasma cutter.

The optima battery by comparison had 100 minutes of reserve capacity, or about 40 amp hours.

oil pan 4 09-19-15 09:31 PM

All my MC4 connectors arrived yesterday and today.

The solar panel's listing said they came with MC4 connectors. I didn't realize that meant the only ones were attached to the panels. If I would have known, I would have ordered a pile of MC4 connectors at the same time as the solar panels.

oil pan 4 09-25-15 01:14 PM

3 Attachment(s)
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443204730
Keep the sun off the gas, inverter and charge controller with solar panels.
I am going to attached the top panel to the top on a hinge and lock.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443204730
New batt.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443204730
Have to make that fit.

oil pan 4 09-27-15 12:48 AM

1 Attachment(s)
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443332247

Welding the hinges on to the solar panel's moveable rack/frame.
That's 0.024'' L-56 electrode, 10L/min CO2, 22VDC filling a 1.5mm open root.
The frame is 1/8 inch thick, the heavy duty hinge was slightly thinner.
My welder had been acting odd today, later I figured out I had a worn contact tip, I have put about 30 to 35 pounds of wire through that tip so yeah it was worn out.

Robaroni 10-06-15 04:43 PM

Hi,
I'm not sure how this works, you're using the PV modules to do what? Also a 1k inverter at 120 volts will only put out a little over 8 amps at 220, only 4 amps. Did you say you want to run welders with this? It won't do it, perhaps I'm missing something?

Rob

ps:

A 40 AH battery really only has 20 AH's. You don't want to drive a battery to less than 50% charge because battery life is rated in charge cycles and the deeper you discharge the fewer cycles you have. Even 50% is less than I'd ever want to discharge even a good deep cycle battery like a Rolls or a Trojan.

ham789 10-06-15 06:45 PM

Looks like a fun project.
I don't have any direct experience, but I do have some concerns.
I'd worry about the generator shaking the life out of both the
solar panels and the battery.
I do about a hundred miles a day of garage sales on a motorcycle.
I put the booty in a box on the back end. When I get home,
it's not unusual to find a bunch of screws in the bottom of the
box that were shaken out of the stuff I bought.
I had an analog voltmeter in the back for a year or so.
When I needed it, I discovered that the insides were about the
consistency of a pile of sand. That's with an OHV twin engine
shaking the stuff.

You don't seem to have any charge control. I'd at least stick
a big SCR with a zener like a typical cheapo battery charger.
You wanna be careful about overcharging the expensive battery.

I'd get the component temperatures WAY down.
Reliability doubles for every 10 C you can get the temp
down. When the diodes fail shorted, there's a lot of
current that's gonna go somewhere you probably won't like.

Fast charging/discharging the battery/inverter setup might not be very
efficient and is hard on everything.

You might be trying to do too much with one system
and compromising everything.

Might be more reliable/efficient to run the big generator
for the big stuff and a 1KW generator for small stuff
on the battery/inverter system.

I have a Coleman PM500 generator. It's a 2-stroke PITA,
but it weighs 12 pounds as I recall.

Compare that to lugging around a big battery.

oil pan 4 10-06-15 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robaroni (Post 47264)
Hi,
I'm not sure how this works, you're using the PV modules to do what? Also a 1k inverter at 120 volts will only put out a little over 8 amps at 220, only 4 amps. Did you say you want to run welders with this? It won't do it, perhaps I'm missing something?

Rob

ps:

A 40 AH battery really only has 20 AH's. You don't want to drive a battery to less than 50% charge because battery life is rated in charge cycles and the deeper you discharge the fewer cycles you have. Even 50% is less than I'd ever want to discharge even a good deep cycle battery like a Rolls or a Trojan.

All the battery, inverter and solar panel do is prevent running of the loud generator for small items. This generator will burn about a half gallon per hour at no load.
The solar, inverter and battery are only going to run small items such as battery chargers for tools, computer phone, run drills, saws all, portable band saw, lights (12v dc and high voltage AC). Or a larger item such as a refrigerator for several hours at a time, intermittently run my 1hp air compressor, electric pole saw or run my skill saw at reduced power using my varrac.
As far as battery discharge I have no reason to run it way down, its got multiple charging sources to replenish it.

The generator powers large items such as welders, plasma cutter, microwave, skill saw, electric chain saw, provides power at night, charges the battery and runs everything while the battery charger is charging.

oil pan 4 10-06-15 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ham789 (Post 47274)
Looks like a fun project.
I don't have any direct experience, but I do have some concerns.
I'd worry about the generator shaking the life out of both the
solar panels and the battery.
I do about a hundred miles a day of garage sales on a motorcycle.
I put the booty in a box on the back end. When I get home,
it's not unusual to find a bunch of screws in the bottom of the
box that were shaken out of the stuff I bought.
I had an analog voltmeter in the back for a year or so.
When I needed it, I discovered that the insides were about the
consistency of a pile of sand. That's with an OHV twin engine
shaking the stuff.

You don't seem to have any charge control. I'd at least stick
a big SCR with a zener like a typical cheapo battery charger.
You wanna be careful about overcharging the expensive battery.

I'd get the component temperatures WAY down.
Reliability doubles for every 10 C you can get the temp
down. When the diodes fail shorted, there's a lot of
current that's gonna go somewhere you probably won't like.

Fast charging/discharging the battery/inverter setup might not be very
efficient and is hard on everything.

You might be trying to do too much with one system
and compromising everything.

Might be more reliable/efficient to run the big generator
for the big stuff and a 1KW generator for small stuff
on the battery/inverter system.

I have a Coleman PM500 generator. It's a 2-stroke PITA,
but it weighs 12 pounds as I recall.

Compare that to lugging around a big battery.

I have no ideal if the solar panel can take the vibration. I am going to find out. The solar panel is racked to the generator with rubber vibration isolators.
The battery is AGM, good vibration resistance.

I have a 30 amp Morningstar prostar PWM charge controller. I run solar and my home made 220vac powered battery charger through it.

oil pan 4 10-06-15 09:13 PM

2 Attachment(s)
This is what it looks like.
Only thing that is missing is my 220 volt battery charger. Its finished just need to install it. It goes beside the battery.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1444183261

Here is the charge controller and fuse block.
The collector wires are all 10 gauge from the solar panel and battery charger. Then from the fuse block to the charge controller and charge controller to the battery is all 8 gauge.
The battery to the inverter is all 4 gauge and protected by an eaton aviation rated 100 amp breaker.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1444183261

Daox 11-10-15 12:55 PM

Have you used it yet?

oil pan 4 11-11-15 12:03 AM

This little thing gets use it all the time. I roll it out of the shed because its in the way and use it because its there, turn on the inverter, put the panel up, plug in a soldering pen, drill, band saw, saws all, small grinder, but very limited grinder use.

I also ordered a 15 amp Morningstar MPPT charge controller for the solar panels. The original 30 amp PWM controller will still be used for additional solar panels, the battery charger and as a backup.

Daox 11-11-15 09:51 AM

Thats great to hear. It is a very cool project. Thanks for sharing the build.

oil pan 4 11-17-15 11:18 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Here is the new charge controller I need to put on.
15 amp Morningstar sunsaver MPPT charge controller.
For my configuration using AGM batteries I removed the negative load jumper and turned dip switch 1 on.
Dip switch 2 regulates load cut out voltage. I am leaving it off so shut off is at 11 volts, turning it on raises cut out voltage to 11.5v. Since I run a huge power inverter and use that battery for starting leaving the low voltage cut out switch off works best for me.
If you were only ever going to run all the loads through the "load terminals", thus limited to 15 amps then turning the low voltage cut out switch on would be recommended.

Dip switch 3 is equalize, I will turn it on if I ever think I need the panels to equalize for me.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1447780308

Once installed you will see excessive fusing on inputs and outputs. MPPT controllers can not tolerate a short circuit fault on the input side while charging the batteries.
Each panels will be fused for slightly higher than what it produces and then all the panels together will only be on a fuse slightly higher than their output. Each 80 watt panel will be on a 7.5 amp fuse and then the fuse block will have a 15 amp fuse going to the charge controller and a 20 amp fuse going out to the battery. I figure each 80 watt panel will only produce 4 or 5 amps, so never more then 12 amps going into the charge controller and it will ramp that up to almost 15 amps on the output.

This is very unlike on the PWM controller where I just stuck 20 amp fuses on each panel and wired the fuse block into the charge controller and called it good.

I figure I can throw $10 or $15 worth of fuse holders on there and maybe not have to buy another $240 charger controller if something goes wrong.

oil pan 4 12-01-15 03:02 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Now I can tie the Solar assist: Vehicle roof top solar panels - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com to the home made solar inverter generator.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1449002996

My UPS plug to MC4 adaptor turns all the roof top solar panels into 1 pair of solar panel side MC4 connectors.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1449002996

I know its looks short but I have a pair of MC4 extension cables that are 12 gauge and 10 feet long, if I need anything longer I have a bag full of MC4 connectors and two 500 foot spools of 10ga wire.

You may have noticed in another picture I installed a gray Anderson connector on the battery. I use those for regulated battery power only, nothing higher than 14.8 volts.

MC4 and white UPS plugs are for raw solar panels power, up to 22 volts.

You maybe wondering why I have 2 plugs for raw solar panel out put. I noticed the MC4 connectors don't disconnect that quickly. They lock together so if they get pulled on they don't separate. I needed something I could just pull on to separate for my external vehicle applications.

oil pan 4 04-25-16 04:32 PM

I believe that I have found a proper 50/60hz 120v voltage regulator.
This will allow me to reduce generator speed down to 50hz. Reducing RPM from 3600 to 3000 will save fuel running the generator at light and partial load.
For running the welder and plasma cutter I will need full 60hz power.

Robaroni 04-25-16 04:50 PM

Hi Oil Pan 4,
The formula for power is P=EI or Power = Voltage times Current. Frequency doesn't change power.

The generator running a 50hz alternator still has to put out 120V , 240V or whatever voltage you need and that takes the same energy and amount of fuel.

One HP = 746 watts, this times the efficiency will basically determine your expenditures.

If the load doesn't change than the power required doesn't change regardless of the frequency.
Rob

oil pan 4 04-25-16 05:08 PM

I know that frequently doesn't change power.
But the engine makes less horse power at 3000 RPM compared to 3600RPM and the plasma cutter and large welder use every bit of horsepower the engine can make.
The generator will use less fuel at 50hz at low power utilization. I already know they do or I wouldn't bother.
When I was in Africa I took care of generators 50kw generators that ran about 15kw worth of lights. These generator sets were 50/60hz selectable. They would only run for 2 and a half nights on 60hz, before they ran out of fuel but when I turned them down to 50hz they ran 3 nights between fueling no problem.
At low load I expect 50hz speed reduction savings to be between 15% and 20%.

Robaroni 04-25-16 06:00 PM

You're matching your load more closely with the lower speed but a smaller generator regardless of frequency would have saved you more.

The reason your African generator used more fuel at 60HZ was because it had to run higher speeds to reach the frequency, not the power. Again, if you only needed 15KW you could have used a smaller generator that matched the load closer regardless of frequency. A 20KW generator running at 60 Hz would have used less fuel than your 50KW generator at 50Hz. Your generator was above the power your needed at night regardless of the frequency so running at the lower speed saved fuel.
There is a point of diminishing returns, running a 60Hz generator at no load uses less fuel than a 50Hz generator running a load. If you needed 50KW during the day and you could get it with 50 or 60HZ you would have realized very little if any saving. It depends on the range your engine gets its best efficiency at, if that's the higher rpm than during the day 60Hz would yield better fuel savings.
Power out equals power in minus efficiency losses.

What is the highest power you'll need? That's basically the generator you want. Don't worry about frequency, power needs are the important factor.
Rob

oil pan 4 04-25-16 07:26 PM

A smaller generator can't run the plasma cutter or welder. 7kw has just enough to run the plasma cutter and can only run the stick welder at about 60% of full power which is fine for pretty much everything.
To run the stick welder anywhere near full power would take a t least a 12kw generator.
Running 50hz at full power is kind of pointless I don't expect it to save a measurable amount of fuel and running at the lower speed will reduce generator output capacity.
Plus I installed a smaller generator in the form of the solar, battery inverter system. 180w of solar (expandable to 210w to 500 watts) and the 1000w pure sine inverter can take care of all the little stuff.
Then my 2000w samlex (not part of this build) can take care of the intermittent medium loads.

The smaller 30kw units were broken. Eventually I reconfigured all the generators around the camp so about 1/3 were no longer needed and I made them my spares. To include the lights, I wired them into another generator that ran tents 24 hours a day. When I got there most of the generators ran between 10% and 30% after I changed things around I had fewer generators running 50 to 60% load.
These were all US made machines.

oil pan 4 04-26-16 12:39 AM

1 Attachment(s)
This is a basic diagram of how the various systems interact.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1461649142

oil pan 4 05-19-16 04:10 PM

Next round of updates will be to install an amp meter on the output of the MPPT and PWM chargers. That will make it easier to adjust the solar panels to find the most amps.
And a frequency 50/60hz meter for the main generator.

oil pan 4 02-05-17 10:52 AM

I have been using my 7kw generator here and there.
The solar panel attached to the top is doing fine.
The muffler is not doing as well.

oil pan 4 02-09-17 03:13 PM

My generator failed to start my 2.5hp compressor that runs at about 5hp at shut off.
I put the generator on the compressor when it was empty and the starting surge bogged the engine down to the point where it wouldn't get back up to speed.
I would like for the generator to be able to run this generator. So I am going to add some performance enhancements to the engine and add a soft start to the air compressor.
Since the generator needs a new exhaust I am going to make a 4ft long primary tube exhaust pipe and a better intake. The intake came on this engine what you also find on 5 to 7 horsepower mowers and pressure washers.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:26 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Ad Management by RedTyger