back up battery bank to run home essentials

[t0mmy91]

ok great, thank you all very much all for your replies. i really apprecaite it. you all have provided good information for me to look further into.

[littleharbor]

[QUOTE=PNPmacnab;n339652]Do you actually want to learn something with this hobby? I have a summer home which is off grid, has about 1,200W of panels and a single car battery to run everything.

1200 watts of panels and ONE car battery? That battery must've been screaming outloud on sunny days.

[SunEagle]

[QUOTE=littleharbor;n339677]

Do you actually want to learn something with this hobby? I have a summer home which is off grid, has about 1,200W of panels and a single car battery to run everything.

1200 watts of panels and ONE car battery? That battery must've been screaming outloud on sunny days.

He probably runs all of their electric loads during the sun insolation hours and whatever is not directly used hopefully charges that battery.

At night I would presume he has very minimal load or that battery would be dead by 3 am.

Otherwise I agree with you, 1200 watts would cook a single car battery if there were no other loads being used.

[Brian53713]

He described the careful way that he uses power, and that's obviously what it would take. And I have similar results from 200 Watts, now 400 watts of PV.

[Sunking]

Do you actually want to learn something with this hobby? I have a summer home which is off grid, has about 1,200W of panels and a single car battery

Yeah a car battery says it all and proves he is an expert. Trust this guy and listen to him please all of you. He knows what he is talking about.

[solar pete]

Look I am not trying to be hard on you, but look what has happened so far. Solar Pete is a solar biz owner who would love love to make that sale, and two experienced engineers have told you how bad the idea is. If you insist they both might help you. .

Just want to correct the record, I am NOT a solar business owner, I work for a solar business in Australia, so I wont be selling anyone anything in the USA

[Mike90250]

If you manage your loads, you can cut batteries way back, and an even smaller generator. But even if you just start the pump 1x a day to pump up 50 gallons to use, you still need the beefy inverter to start it (or a honking big genset) You can get a small diesel genset, but it's much more expensive than a cheap gas genset. Throwing $30K at what is almost a non-problem is nuts.. When the power is out for a month, after a week, you wont have anything worth refrigerating (unless it's a side of beef in a deep freeze) Do you have a propane grill/stove to cook on?

[inetdog]

No one has caught all this. Your only mistake was getting a Gasoline Generator. Stationary generators should not be gasoline because gasoline becomes stale in 6 month so cannot be stored an din short supply during natural disasters. That is why people and pros use NG/ LPG, or diesel. Convert your generator and you get what you want.

Just keep in mind that for any generator the LPG conversion (or factory configuration) will produce slightly less power than the gasoline configuration. NG will be even lower power, but not enough to outweigh the advantages of either.

[SunEagle]

Just keep in mind that for any generator the LPG conversion (or factory configuration) will produce slightly less power than the gasoline configuration. NG will be even lower power, but not enough to outweigh the advantages of either.

I guess it is a matter of choice.

Does someone give up "power output" for a more stable fuel source or go with a higher power output with the chance of not having the fuel "stable" or available. It comes down to each person's decision and what they feel is a better solution to run the gen set.

[inetdog]

I guess it is a matter of choice.

Does someone give up "power output" for a more stable fuel source or go with a higher power output with the chance of not having the fuel "stable" or available. It comes down to each person's decision and what they feel is a better solution to run the gen set.

Actually, the third choice is to recognize the difference and specify a larger generator if necessary.
The conversion loss is only an issue when dealing with an existing generator.
When looking at specs for a new generator I would hope that most people would read the per-fuel power spec rather than just deciding on the basis of the nominal power output advertised.

[t0mmy91]

thankyou all, i would be doing like the poster above and using very carefully.

[sdold]

Personally I like the sound of a four-pole generator It gives me the warm feeling of reliability.

[TommyDre]

A 17,500 Watt generator? How much gasoline does that burn at 80% throttle for an hour?

[Sunking]

A 17,500 Watt generator? How much gasoline does that burn at 80% throttle for an hour?

Generators are sized to minimize run time and fuel use. 80% of full load capacity. If that genny were to charge a battery bank in 8 hours would mean you have a 9000 pound, $27,000 battery to protect so you do not have to replace it more than every 5 years. Worth every drop of fuel.

Keep in mind you do not go off-grid to save money or planet earth. Exact opposite you will pay 5 to 10 times more for power and become a very heavy polluter with a huge carbon foot print robbing future generations of precious resources by wasting them. In other words you do give a crap what it cost in terms of money and pollution. They do not teach that in school, exact opposite and big arse PC lie. .

[t0mmy91]

A 17,500 Watt generator? How much gasoline does that burn at 80% throttle for an hour?

its really horrible on gas usage, thats why i was looking for other options. the tank holds 16 gallons and it rips through it quickly. i keep the tank full and 50 gallons in reserve but it would only last 2-3 days.