Inverter Upgrade

My commander and chief (wife) is annoyed at me now and has ordered me to stop this monkey business.

I’ll see you’ll next time.

 

I have a Trace/Xantrex DR3624 inverter and two banks of Trojan T-125 batteries. I've been able to run a fridge, chest freezer, computers, television/satellite box, fish tank, and boil up some hot water with the oil fired bock hot water heater. With judicious use I can get a few days out of both banks and nothing I have has sounded "funny" on the inverter other than the microwave and I think that was more a product of the 2000W load than the shape of the waveform. This setup lets me run silent at night (while Sandy had our power knocked out) which keeps the neighbors happy and lets me sleep.

 

Wow, I didn’t expect to hear any more from this forum but I think I’ve now I think rmchambers has just told me exactly what I wanted to hear.

The two small inverters I have now are Xantrex so I’m glad to hear that I can stay loyal to them………..they have always treated me good.

Thanks rmchambers.

 

Glad to have some useful information. I'll tell you a bit more about it if you like... I have two big plastic tubs (like those huge boxes you put clothes in) on a sturdy shelf I made, Bank 1 sits on the floor on a piece of plywood and bank 2 sits on the shelf above it. 4 6V Trojan T-125s in series comprise the banks each go up a pair of buss 150amp DC breakers (you can get them on Ebay) from there they go to one of those red rotary switches you use in boats to switch between battery banks. It has 4 positions off, bank 1, bank 1+2, bank 2 and from there the positive single cable goes to the inverter. The negatives from each bank go to a double connector on the negative.

The "mains" input for the inverter is a L14-30 outlet from a 120V breaker (I connect X, white and ground). Why use a 110/220V plug when you only have a 120v inverter you ask? because that was the only pre-made beefy 10ga extension cord I could get. I also have another L14-30 socket which is connected via 10ga Romex to an generator connection box on the corner of the house nearest the garage where my generator lives (and runs when needed).

The generator is one of BTPosts favorites a 1973 Onan 3.0MDJA (3kw Diesel, water cooled) I restored it and have put 60 hours on it since I did that (50 hours of which were during the 6 day outage of Sandy). So in order to avoid pulling permits nothing is "permanent" in my setup. If the power goes out I go to the inverter and select a bank and turn it on. I run extension cords to the chest freezer and hot water heater (oil fired) in the basement and plug those in. Run another extension from the quad output from the inverter upstairs to a 3 outlet whip and send one to the fridge, one to a CFL lamp and one over to the TV equipment. Oh my computers are on another UPS in the basement that is wired upstairs in a separate outlet and I just move the input from that UPS to the Trace Inverter so the computers stay up.

If it's night time I do all that and run on batteries, the banks last a good day and a bit each depending on use so I can sleep without worry. If it's cold I light a fire in the woodstove and run another cable from the whip to the fan unit so it forces hot air around the firebox and keeps my relatively modest Cape style home warm. In the morning if the power has not returned I fill up a trashcan of water and put a copper coil in it that is the heat exchanger for the generator and fire that up. Once it has come up to speed and warm I turn on the outlet and connect the 10ga twistlock extension from the generator to the house wall. Move the plug in the basement from the (dead) outlet from the breaker to the extension from outside and the Onan starts running the house loads and whatever power is left over goes back into charging the batteries. So that's how I keep the house going.

Things to take advantage of in the future (on my list):

1. solar panels to help float and generate power.
2. use the waste heat from the generator to heat the house? perhaps heat some hot water in a storage tank thus offsetting more oil use.

If I can find myself a nice 6-7.5kw generator I will pick one up and then I can bring 220V into the house with no rewiring needed and potentially run the A/C if needed.

Why a Diesel? well they are awesome engines, relatively simple, reliable and since I Heat with oil I have a 275 gallon tank of fuel available. The problems on Long Island was the folks with generators ran out of gasoline for them and the gas stations couldn't pump the fuel because of power. As long as I can siphon out some #2 fuel oil into a tank I can run my generator. At normal loads I can run almost 4 hours on a gallon of fuel. I also used 3 quarts of new ATF for a car I no longer have, I burned kerosine, and I even burned some road Diesel too but I tried to avoid that because it costs $1 more/gallon than heating oil.

As a funny aside, when I got the inverter and first bank of batteries my wife said "what do you need that for? we never lose power" but I wanted it so I got it... well we had a tornado touch down nearby 2 summers ago and lost power for a day and a half which I used the inverter and bank of batteries to keep the house nice and her fish tank alive. After that she wasn't quite so negative so I used the lull in that to buy another bank of batteries then hurricane Irene blew in and we lost power for 3 days. Inverter saved fridge/freezer/fish and sanity for those days and when the power came back the last remaining bank that was running the house immediately went to charge and when I got home from work (it had fully charged) I put it on bank 1 and charged it. So then the hunt for the generator began in earnest which is how I stumbled across BTPost from the Smokestak forums. Got a line on the generator and bought it from a fellow stak member. Took it all apart and stripped it to bare metal, primed and painted it, made some new gaskets, put a new head gasket on it, a new injector pump, a valve job and an exhaust system and I was ready. "Why do you need that big smelly thing in the garage" answer "I don't need it yet but I wanted it so I got it" After Sandy took power away for 6 days and that "thing" kept us living in a decent style it became referred to in conversations with her friends and family as "Our generator" funny how things change huh?

Robert

 

Hi Robert and thanks for your reply,

I’m sorry to be so late getting back. My mother is hospitalized and I’ve been very busy with handling her affairs.

I really enjoy discussions (when I have time) with other folks who have gone through the trials and tribulations of this off grid stuff. It soundslikewe’ve had some similar experiences (and problems……..my wife used to question a lot but nowlikesthe house) and maybe solved things a little differently. I think we all do. There is a little history of my house on my website but I don’t know if it’s permitted for me to put it here………..some forums don’t allow it.

I started messing with solar (passive solar house in Texas) about 40-45 years ago and knew maybe a little more than my butt from a hole in the ground about it. I just did things wrong repeatedly until I finally found solutions that would work…………if not optimum. I’m still doing that with my house (the one I’m talking about) at 9000 ft. in New Mexico.

I also have two banks but they are separate and delegated to different jobs in the house have separate inverters/controllers, breaker boxes, PV arrays etc. and are independent of each other. I also have a little generator but haven’t had to use it for the house in the last 6-8 years. I use it sometimes to run power tools e.g. table saw, chop saw, tig welder etc. It’s a noisy little gas bugger (works good) so I have it in its own little sound proof (but ventilated) chamber.

I do try to take advantage of waste heat. My fridges are propane and I have an ancient, on demand, propane water heater. They make heat and I collect and channel it. I also have a little propane heater but my fireplace is designed so that it’s enough……….the house is passive solar. My favorite part of the day is sitting in front of it each evening…………I don’t allow TV in this house. We are only there in summer……….too cold for me at 9000 ft. in winter.

I wouldliketo know if it’s ok to out my website link here.

My wife is fussing at me right now to go somewhere so I’ll have togetback later. Thanks for your input.

 

Thanks Robert,

I think I have been given permission to refer to my website to point out stuff in my replies. You have been kind enough to describe, in detail, a lot about your set up and experiences. I've tried to do something similar on my site. I don’t have much time for it (it’s just a hobby) so it’s always out of date but occasionally I get around to Updates. They are a little history of my house in the last few years. The site is mostly about food but “Home off the Grid” is abut the house.