my home built 12dc volt to 120ac genny

[joe]

been checking out this news group for a little while.
thought i would give a URL for some pics of the
12 volt dc to 120 ac genny i put together.

http://members.rogers.com/jduarte0421/

 

[joe]

muffler is home built.
add a tube with a few baffles to the original equipment one
to quiet it down and improve air flow.

 

[developer]

can u change the grass -cutter into a generator?

 

[Steve Spence]

nice. what hp is the engine, how many amps is the alternator, how many watts
are the inverters? do you have a battery bank so the genny doesn't have to
run full time?

 

[joe]

5 horse
100 amp
1000 amp and 1500 amp inverters
4 deep cycle batteries make up the bank.

 

[Steve Spence]

impressive so far. you should slap another 100 amp alternator on there
though. www.amplepower.com has dual alternator on single engine charge
controllers (regulators). what amp hour rating are the batteries?

 

[Steve Spence]

I think you mean 1000 watt and 1500 watt inverters. If your batteries are
120 amp hour at 12volt, and you have 4, then you can store 5760 watt hours,
or run that 1000 watt inverter for 5.7 hours continuously (100% depth of
discharge), between engine runs. For safety and long life, you'd not want to
discharge the batteries more than 20%, or 1152 watt hours between charges.
The 1500 inverter is pushing the envelope for maximum draw rate for the
batteries I mention, and you would not want to run both inverters at maximum
load simultaneously.

 

[joe]

Dual Alternator Controller

intersting item, but i think if i put another
alternator on the 5 horse engine it will stall.
all i use it for is to power a few things around the house for a few hours
if power goes out.
i do not recall the amp hours

it was a fun project, i want to see what i can do with alternative fuels
next for a project...hope i do not blow up the shed.

 

[Steve Spence]

your 100 amp alternator is only drawing 1200 watts.

5 hp is good for 2500 watts

 

[clare @ snyder.on .ca]

your 100 amp alternator is only drawing 1200 watts.

5 hp is good for 2500 watts

Assuming he is running the engine at 3600 RPM. If he runs it at the
"quiet" 1800, he is pretty well at max.

 

[joe]

Steve you are probably right about i can run two alternators.

the lag on the engine is not too bad when the fridge goes on.
the noise tho is the prob , that is why i expanded the muffler.
i will not run the engine at max its would be just to loud for
someone that likes the country life.

 

[Steve Spence]

interesting. another rule of thumb.

The one I live by is 1 hp = 500 watts (practical. in a perfect world it
would be 1hp = 768 watts)

so a 100 amp alternator should be practically considered to be a 50 amp?
more reason to go with permanent magnet generators.

 

[Steve Spence]

I have a number of 36 volt tape drive motors I use (dc permanent magnet)
don't seem to exhibit this behavior. I'll do some tests.