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41

Users Projects / Re: Going off-grid in Idaho

« Last post by bj on November 07, 2022, 03:54:08 am »

   Doc---just to let you know that you aren't just posting for yourself.
   Personally, I think you've done pretty well.  Wife, myself, and this place are getting to an age
that all we can do is keep up with keeping things running.
   BJ

42

Users Projects / Re: Going off-grid in Idaho

« Last post by dochubert on November 06, 2022, 11:07:25 pm »

Since there has been no activity since I last posted in late August, I guess I'm just posting for myself.  Oh well...

Had two straight days of no sun and rain.  Absolutely no charging all day so had to switch over to grid.  Bums me out even though I know I did well for the season.  Mid March to November 4 staying off grid 24/7.

Still looking for a way to produce enough power to stay off grid even in winter, but no luck so far.  I'm even revisiting some things I looked at (and discarded) years ago.  Over unity devices and such.  Mostly scams or at best someone succeeds in powering an led.  Whoo hoo!  Not usefull in the real world of charging a large battery bank like mine.

Tesla supposedly produced power from an antenna.  So did T.H. Moray.  Played with a couple of circuits I found with at best about 2.77v output.  There's that led again!  A couple more seem worth trying but not getting my hopes up.

High voltage pulse charging of batteries seems interesting, but looks to be something that would damage my inverter or other electronics if connected to my working battery bank.  So possibly a second 'auxilliary' battery bank kept charged with pulse charging that then runs a motor/generator set that in turn puts a charge into the large main battery bank.  Gives isolation but creates a lot of losses.  The pulse charging would have to produce enough to be worth the effort (and the losses).  If it could run a couple of hours at night to hold the main bank voltage above 52v overnight that would be enough.
I have a couple of dc motors out of treadmills to rig the motor/generator.  4 100ah gel batteries for the second 48v battery bank.  Easy enough to rig some controls to make it automatic.  Just need to produce enough to supplement my existing setup overnight and/or on cloudy days.  Who knows till I try it?

Haven't written off Bedini or Don Smith either but I'm no genius so taking some time to try and absorb the info.  The obvious answer is that if it was that simple, why isn't everybody doing it?  Tesla claimed it worked so it probably does (somehow!) 

43

Users Projects / Re: Going off-grid in Idaho

« Last post by dochubert on August 21, 2022, 04:09:10 pm »

Had an odd failure yesterday...
Went into my 'power room' and about half of my voltage and temperature displays were off!  Inverter was running fine, batteries were charging, water heater was up to temp, but no indicators!

Turned out it was one of my (formerly) faithfull 12v dc-dc power supplies.  Oztules pointed me to them years ago for low cost, trouble free, reliable 12v from 48v power to power my controls and indicators.  I'm using 5 or 6 of them for various things.  They used to cost about $5 USD.  Just looked and the cheapest comparable I found is this one at about $7.50;

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/314046054255?hash=item491e9a7f6f:g:3nIAAOSwv8xdAjy9&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoGHzSpuJw3WGn2UOm4Gta7PZb%2FzQ8eyRBxJKqmnYsa1J0xZ%2BpmEVoxT1AIR56qypMD2NV8tDiqXN5pttfpf3o8LiA93PI0JAMxJpGOOZ2jlqt%2F3uRgkz9Tnhe71pJFZ66PDxgTPNu9msiB2UPkFOndsA4xQ4Gv8pSHJ3vDI9EZo0wImzFu9KMpzGNB1jp3KLZeiNKsBvcwj%2BgRdAHH0%2Bu9E%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-CL5aHYYA

There are some without a enclosure for about $4.50 but they are differently built, and possibly not as stable.
The one that died looks like this;


It had been working for over five years. Not smoked so suppose the 12v regulator just quit. 
Interestingly, the new one I tried wouldn't work on my 24v bank like the old one had been doing, so had to power it off of my 48v bank.

So indicators and fan controls all working again.  Hopefully won't lose another one for five more years.  I have a couple more that have been operating for 3 or 4 years so will have to keep an eye on them....

44

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by lighthunter on August 10, 2022, 08:19:05 am »

Ha! I was way off. Looks like i need 17 in hand, 23 turns = 391 total for primary, the 120v will need 2 in hand x97 turns=194 total for 120v. Thats a total of 585 additional turns. Wonder if theres a formula for hole size required?? Seems like that will be hard to do with a 63.5mm hole.  Cross section of 14awg is 2.08mm so 585x2.08 is 1217 sq mm 63.5mm circle is 3167sqmm so it should fit. The thing is already very heavy.😁

45

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by lighthunter on August 08, 2022, 06:21:57 pm »

Hey Pete! Am beefing this up for a friend. How many 14awg in hand for 100A, seems like 5 is right number but if i remember pj formers had more than 5 i dont wanna go too short. The original is a 2kw 120/240 and i need to lay on the low v primary and another 120 to stiffen it a bit more and make it true split phase. It should make 5kw continuous if i do it right. Yep it will b an 8010 inverter Hope you and everyone is doing well.

46

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by lighthunter on July 25, 2022, 09:19:35 pm »

Hi all! The compressor has been behaving well with winding temps that peak around 190F 88C, i cant say it works constantly flat out at 3590rpm but it does what needs to be done.

Another question about windings, hopefully an easier one HA,  Im planning to make a large boost converter. If i use a laminated core from a toroid power transformer as an inductor, how high can i go with frequency?  Or is that totally not a good idea? Ive some E55 ferrites i could use too but im looking to get a couple kw with an 8 to 1 ratio so id likely need to parallel a few. An 8 to 1 is tough to achieve anyway and i may need to series two windings on the same core to get the lift i need at that power level so the donut just gives lots more room to do it. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

47

Product Reviews / Re: Mini Split

« Last post by dang on July 03, 2022, 10:49:39 pm »

https://ashp.neep.org/#!/

48

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by rossw on June 29, 2022, 07:31:31 pm »

Spray drift

nowhere is safe from chemical sprays.

It can be a real problem.
I'm on a modest 22 acres. We moved here 20 years back and one of our conscious decisions has been to use mechanical and biological weed control measures - we cut and dig out blackberry roots and all, we encourage the Chrysolina beetle to control St John’s wort, slash and leave Pattersons Curse, and over-graze some areas where the sheep and alpacas can control nuisance weeds.
The amount of bird life here has increased by an order of magnitude both in diversity and quantity, we have heaps of frogs and lizards and other critters that were virtually absent when we got here, and lots of sensitive native flora like various insectivorous plants, kangaroo grasses etc are re-establishing.

We have neighbours who still choose to spray poisons around, and the council, but all are well aware of our concerns and "organic" status and most do actually make a decent effort to ensure we get no spray drift.

49

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by Pete on June 29, 2022, 06:53:22 pm »

Spray drift eh. I was talking to a beekeeper years back and he was totally confused because he lost something like 100 hives and could not work out what caused it.
I asked him where they were and if there were any tree plantations nearby. He told me and I knew his problem straight away.
Spray drift from the plantations was it.
The plantations were sprayed regularly with a chemical called Alphacypermethrin. It is used to kill the eucalypt beetles that eat the trees.
Well as we know if it kills one insect it kills them all and the bees were not far from the plantations.
I had a friend who had his whole crop of Flowers that he had been selectively breeding for 20 years wiped out by the farmer next door spraying 2-4-D.
The farmer denied it but also happens to run a dairy and has a well frequented cheese factory. Unfortunately for my friend and his 20 year Hellebore  program the farmer was from a rich family with political connections and nothing was done about the spray drift.
Our state claims to be a Clean Green state, but nowhere is safe from chemical sprays.
Glad the documents are helping and hope the problem with the motor stays fixed
Pete

50

Renewable Energy Q&A / Re: Max winding temp

« Last post by rossw on June 26, 2022, 03:41:49 am »

Crops are doin great

Hah, you're lucky.
Where I am, the *WEEDS* are doin' great. Other things ok, but weeds are going bonkers!