On 5/26/2021 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote:> In article <s8k313$ofq$1@dont-email.me>, blockedofcourse@foo.invalid > says... >> >>> Bought a propane/gasolien fuel generator >>> about 2 years ago and only use propane in it. >> >> We thought of buying a small one (2KW portable) that we could >> transport without having to worry about liquid fuel leaking >> inside the car. >> >> We figured we could leverage the propane for the grill >> as an on-hand supply. And, if "small", it shouldn't >> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having >> to support bigger loads. >> >> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy >> fuel during an outage] > > I think the 5 kw gas generators are about right for most people unless > going with the inverter type generators. Go much larger and you burn a > lot of fuel even if not using much power.Exactly. In our case, we'd "need" to go a helluvalot bigger to run the ACbrrr (4T). OTOH, it would be silly to cool the entire house during an outage -- so, a smarter solution is to purchase a small, portable ACbrrr and opt to keep *a* room/area cool. This puts the power requirement in a more rational range.> I caught a 3500 watt dual fuel generator on sale so bought it . The > book says it will run 5 to 8 hours on a 20 lb propane tank depending on > the load.Yes, but then you're off to the store for more. A friend originally suggested diesel (a nod to how long the engines last) -- but, we don't use diesel for anything (he used it for his trucks... including a 160G "auxiliary" tank on one of them!). Not wanting to "store fuel", we opted for gasoline and rationalized away the "engine durability" issue: "How many *hours* do we actually think this is going to be used?" Sort of like 50 year old snowblowers (cuz you only put a few hours on the engine each season!) Another friend has been pitching propane, lately. The "other use" being the grill, camp stove, camp lights, etc. (I am assuming there is a way to transfer fuel to smaller containers for these "appliances"?) But, I have to also question how much use we'll get of those "other" items (there's WAY too many things I want to spend time on and that means lots of "would be nice" activities go by the wayside)> Good thing about the propane is that the fuel never goes bad > or gums up the carborator.Yes. And you only discover you have a problem the moment you go to USE the device (after it "sitting", unused, for a while). Sort of like discovering the batteries in your flashlight are spent -- at the start of a power outage!> Also there are lots of places like the Blue > Rino where you can swap out the tanks.We have lots of nearby places to refill. Costco and ACE have large propane "dispensers"; Home Depot appears to swap out tanks; etc.> However they often only have 15 > pounds in the tank instead of the 20 lb it can hold. I don't have a gas > grill, but for those that do you have a reserve for either activity. I > did buy 2 tanks of propane and thinking about buying 2 more. Around > here it is about $ 12 to fill them and the tanks are about $ 35 empty. > > I am not sure which is really safer to store,but I have a small building > about 50 feet away from the house that I store the fuel in, from 5 to > 18 gallons of gas and a propane tank.We store gasoline in the garage -- in the vehicles' tanks. We store propane in the garage (small cylinders for torch, etc.) and back porch (attached to the grill).> The other tank stays connected to > the generator that is in a 'dog house' next to the house where it is > plugged in when needed.We drag the genset out into the yard, when needed (it is stored with tank empty). Any sort of shed would need to be made of plastic as termites will consume any wood that sits *on* the ground -- even branches that fall off trees (and in short order)! Plastic, OTOH, doesn't like being exposed to our continuous sunlight and fades, gets brittle, etc. So, any "sheds" tend to be those sheet metal affairs -- pretty large for something as small as a genset. And, *any* place outside of the house, itself, is a potential haven for packrats. Not a good thing for a device with yummy *wires*!> I do keep a gallon can of mixed fuel for the 2 > cycle engines in a seperate carport type garage that has my truck and > lawn tractor and weedeater and leaf blower. >
Running garden tools on 40-60V DC instead of 120VAC?
Started by ●May 24, 2021
Reply by ●May 26, 20212021-05-26
Reply by ●May 26, 20212021-05-26
onsdag den 26. maj 2021 kl. 22.10.27 UTC+2 skrev Joerg:> On 5/26/21 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote: > > In article <s8k313$ofq$1...@dont-email.me>, blocked...@foo.invalid > > says... > >> > >>> Bought a propane/gasolien fuel generator > >>> about 2 years ago and only use propane in it. > >> > >> We thought of buying a small one (2KW portable) that we could > >> transport without having to worry about liquid fuel leaking > >> inside the car. > >> > >> We figured we could leverage the propane for the grill > >> as an on-hand supply. > Real men do not use gas to grill :-) > > No kidding, I generally use real wood. Mostly Almond and Manzanita. > > > >> ... And, if "small", it shouldn't > >> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having > >> to support bigger loads. > >> > >> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy > >> fuel during an outage] > >> > That's one reason why we have a gas generator, not propane. You can buy > a squeeze pump from Harborfreight for under $10 and that plus a small > extra section of clear fuel hose allows to siphon off gas from your car. > Provided one fills up before a potential emergency a car gas tank stores > much more energy than a barbecue cylinder. > > Come to think of it, I wonder if a Tesla can be used to generate a kW or > so of 120VAC to run a frigde plus some little things.https://insideevs.com/news/490113/hyundai-ioniq-5-tows-charges-stuff/
Reply by ●May 26, 20212021-05-26
On 5/26/2021 1:10 PM, Joerg wrote:> On 5/26/21 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote: >> In article <s8k313$ofq$1@dont-email.me>, blockedofcourse@foo.invalid >> says... >>> >>>> Bought a propane/gasolien fuel generator >>>> about 2 years ago and only use propane in it. >>> >>> We thought of buying a small one (2KW portable) that we could >>> transport without having to worry about liquid fuel leaking >>> inside the car. >>> >>> We figured we could leverage the propane for the grill >>> as an on-hand supply. > > Real men do not use gas to grill :-)Funny, I measure the length of *my* penis with a ruler -- not with the type of fuel I use to heat up animal protein.> No kidding, I generally use real wood. Mostly Almond and Manzanita.And likely store wood on your property -- a nice place for termites, packrats, snakes and other critters to set up shop. In addition to the grossly inefficient use of space that it represents! (do you keep a team of horses to pull your wagon through town? REAL men do!)>>> ... And, if "small", it shouldn't >>> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having >>> to support bigger loads. >>> >>> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy >>> fuel during an outage] > > That's one reason why we have a gas generator, not propane. You can buy a > squeeze pump from Harborfreight for under $10 and that plus a small extra > section of clear fuel hose allows to siphon off gas from your car. Provided one > fills up before a potential emergency a car gas tank stores much more energy > than a barbecue cylinder.Only if you have an older vehicle. The newer ones are considerably harder to get a hose into the tank (from above). There's an added "valve" that gets in the way.> Come to think of it, I wonder if a Tesla can be used to generate a kW or so of > 120VAC to run a frigde plus some little things.
Reply by ●May 26, 20212021-05-26
On 5/26/21 1:53 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote:> onsdag den 26. maj 2021 kl. 22.10.27 UTC+2 skrev Joerg: >> On 5/26/21 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote: >>> In article <s8k313$ofq$1...@dont-email.me>, blocked...@foo.invalid >>> says... >>>> >>>>> Bought a propane/gasolien fuel generator >>>>> about 2 years ago and only use propane in it. >>>> >>>> We thought of buying a small one (2KW portable) that we could >>>> transport without having to worry about liquid fuel leaking >>>> inside the car. >>>> >>>> We figured we could leverage the propane for the grill >>>> as an on-hand supply. >> Real men do not use gas to grill :-) >> >> No kidding, I generally use real wood. Mostly Almond and Manzanita. >> >> >>>> ... And, if "small", it shouldn't >>>> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having >>>> to support bigger loads. >>>> >>>> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy >>>> fuel during an outage] >>>> >> That's one reason why we have a gas generator, not propane. You can buy >> a squeeze pump from Harborfreight for under $10 and that plus a small >> extra section of clear fuel hose allows to siphon off gas from your car. >> Provided one fills up before a potential emergency a car gas tank stores >> much more energy than a barbecue cylinder. >> >> Come to think of it, I wonder if a Tesla can be used to generate a kW or >> so of 120VAC to run a frigde plus some little things. > > https://insideevs.com/news/490113/hyundai-ioniq-5-tows-charges-stuff/ >Cool! I will still cook over wood fire though. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●May 26, 20212021-05-26
On 5/26/21 2:00 PM, Don Y wrote:> On 5/26/2021 1:10 PM, Joerg wrote: >> On 5/26/21 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote:[...]>> No kidding, I generally use real wood. Mostly Almond and Manzanita. > > And likely store wood on your property -- a nice place for termites, > packrats, snakes and other critters to set up shop. In addition > to the grossly inefficient use of space that it represents! > > (do you keep a team of horses to pull your wagon through town? > REAL men do!) >Nah, this is my manly wagon, gets through just about everything: http://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/bike/Muddy5.JPG>>>> ... And, if "small", it shouldn't >>>> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having >>>> to support bigger loads. >>>> >>>> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy >>>> fuel during an outage] >> >> That's one reason why we have a gas generator, not propane. You can >> buy a squeeze pump from Harborfreight for under $10 and that plus a >> small extra section of clear fuel hose allows to siphon off gas from >> your car. Provided one fills up before a potential emergency a car gas >> tank stores much more energy than a barbecue cylinder. > > Only if you have an older vehicle. The newer ones are considerably > harder to > get a hose into the tank (from above). There's an added "valve" that > gets in > the way. >Since I prefer not to add such "added value" to my stuff I won't buy such vehicles. Ours are both standard fare and you can get in there. The upside is that they also contain close to the "legal minimum" in electronics or other fluff and, therefore, we had no breakdowns in the more than two decades we own them. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●May 27, 20212021-05-27
On Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 3:40:06 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:> On 5/26/21 1:53 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote: > > onsdag den 26. maj 2021 kl. 22.10.27 UTC+2 skrev Joerg: > >> On 5/26/21 7:19 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote: > >>> In article <s8k313$ofq$1...@dont-email.me>, blocked...@foo.invalid > >>> says... > >>>> > >>>>> Bought a propane/gasolien fuel generator > >>>>> about 2 years ago and only use propane in it. > >>>> > >>>> We thought of buying a small one (2KW portable) that we could > >>>> transport without having to worry about liquid fuel leaking > >>>> inside the car. > >>>> > >>>> We figured we could leverage the propane for the grill > >>>> as an on-hand supply. > >> Real men do not use gas to grill :-) > >> > >> No kidding, I generally use real wood. Mostly Almond and Manzanita. > >> > >> > >>>> ... And, if "small", it shouldn't > >>>> burn through that supply as quickly as it would if having > >>>> to support bigger loads. > >>>> > >>>> [The LAST thing we want to do is have to run out to buy > >>>> fuel during an outage] > >>>> > >> That's one reason why we have a gas generator, not propane. You can buy > >> a squeeze pump from Harborfreight for under $10 and that plus a small > >> extra section of clear fuel hose allows to siphon off gas from your car. > >> Provided one fills up before a potential emergency a car gas tank stores > >> much more energy than a barbecue cylinder. > >> > >> Come to think of it, I wonder if a Tesla can be used to generate a kW or > >> so of 120VAC to run a frigde plus some little things.Not sure about Tesla. Might void warranty. But i have a 2kW inverter on my Leaf (without warranty anyway). I also have a few hundred 18650 buffers as well. I can run my circular saw and drill without problem. The new USB-C 2.1 (48V 5A) will also be able to charge my Leaf, or at least the buffer batteries.
Reply by ●May 27, 20212021-05-27
tirsdag den 25. maj 2021 kl. 19.51.11 UTC+2 skrev Joerg:> On 5/24/21 4:59 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote: > > or something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K/6 > > > That would require also buying a big 12V battery and soon you are out > north of $400 just for getting rid of extension cords. Nah.it's a single box with battery, charger and inverter all in one, with 120V, 12V and USB outputs though 250W might be a bit low
Reply by ●May 27, 20212021-05-27
On 5/27/21 1:58 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote:> tirsdag den 25. maj 2021 kl. 19.51.11 UTC+2 skrev Joerg: >> On 5/24/21 4:59 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote: >>> or something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K/6 >>> >> That would require also buying a big 12V battery and soon you are out >> north of $400 just for getting rid of extension cords. Nah. > > it's a single box with battery, charger and inverter all in one, with 120V, 12V and USB outputs > though 250W might be a bit low >This one has 300W but IME such small inverters trip off all the time because most power tools have a much larger start-up power draw. That is one of the advantages of direct DC, no trip-off. Even regular draw at 120VAC is higher than that. My hedge trimmer and the weed whacker are the most used tools here and they each pulls 4 amps at 120VAC, almost 500W. On 50V DC that drops to about half yet the power is still reasonably ok. Not for a professional gardener but for me. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●May 27, 20212021-05-27
In article <7a82705c-022e-4250-ad69-14bf507a2404n@googlegroups.com>, langwadt@fonz.dk says...> > tirsdag den 25. maj 2021 kl. 19.51.11 UTC+2 skrev Joerg: > > On 5/24/21 4:59 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote: > > > or something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K/6 > > > > > That would require also buying a big 12V battery and soon you are out > > north of $400 just for getting rid of extension cords. Nah. > > it's a single box with battery, charger and inverter all in one, with 120V, 12V and USB outputs > though 250W might be a bit low > > >It is almost misleading withthe word Generator. I think it does have solar cells for charging, but they would take a long time and not at all in the night. I would think that genertor would mean a useful generaor that would be gas or propane powered.
Reply by ●May 27, 20212021-05-27
On 5/27/2021 2:51 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:> In article <7a82705c-022e-4250-ad69-14bf507a2404n@googlegroups.com>, > langwadt@fonz.dk says... >> >> tirsdag den 25. maj 2021 kl. 19.51.11 UTC+2 skrev Joerg: >>> On 5/24/21 4:59 PM, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote: >>>> or something like this, https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K/6 >>>> >>> That would require also buying a big 12V battery and soon you are out >>> north of $400 just for getting rid of extension cords. Nah. >> >> it's a single box with battery, charger and inverter all in one, with 120V, 12V and USB outputs >> though 250W might be a bit low > > It is almost misleading withthe word Generator. I think it does have > solar cells for charging, but they would take a long time and not at all > in the night. > > I would think that genertor would mean a useful generaor that would be > gas or propane powered.If it is like the unit that I have, it can be charged from a wall-wart. Think of it as a "generator" with a very limited "fuel supply". I use mine to power a 60W-equivalent light fixture during outages; I can carry it to any light fixture in the house. Of course, it's also good to stuff in a bug-out-bag, knapsack, etc.
