Posted by vaughn on January 13, 2010, 7:12 pm
> On the vital bus are my lights (all 120 volt CFLs), the fan in my wood
> stove and my computer stuff. There is an outlet in each room on the
> vital bus, designated by a red receptacle, in case I need to plug in a
> portable light or a guest needs to run something like a CPAP machine.
If I were starting from scratch, I might do something like that, but this is a
60's house & I am stuck with the circuits as they are. Every circuit right now
has a mixture of what I would consider both "vital" and "non-vital" loads. I
would love to have overhead lighting and a single outlet in each room in each
room as a "Vital bus, but there is no good way for me to put extra circuits,
(even though I happen to be a licensed electrician).
>... I'm tired of schlepping gasoline up the mountain and paying
> road tax on the fuel (or having to do the paperwork to get the
> refund).
We are lucky enough to have natural gas, so fuel is not a problem. Of
course, living on a mountain would be nice.
> Because of the high winds we have here, power outages
> lasting 24 hours are a monthly affair so my system gets a lot of use.
We live in hurricane country. So we plan on longer outages, but fortunately
less often.
Nice to hear from you John.
Vaughn
Posted by Jim Wilkins on January 13, 2010, 10:45 pm
wrote:
> ...
> If I were starting from scratch, I might do something like that, but this is a
> 60's house & I am stuck with the circuits as they are. Every circuit right now
> has a mixture of what I would consider both "vital" and "non-vital" loads. I
> would love to have overhead lighting and a single outlet in each room in each
> room as a "Vital bus, but there is no good way for me to put extra circuits,
> (even though I happen to be a licensed electrician).
...
> Vaughn
I found I could get by with a small lamp on a computer UPS in most
rooms, just enough to rummage through a drawer or not trip on a chair.
They are my normal 120VAC 10W - 20W CFL reading lamps and I move the
plugs.
I bought two second-hand UPSs cheap, replaced one's battery and
successfully reconditioned the other with a discharge/recharge cycle.
The comments here reminded me to check the wattage of my dorm-sized
backup refrigerator. The KAW shows 105W running.
jsw
Posted by vaughn on January 14, 2010, 12:30 am
>I found I could get by with a small lamp on a computer UPS in most
>rooms, just enough to rummage through a drawer or not trip on a chair.
>They are my normal 120VAC 10W - 20W CFL reading lamps and I move the
>plugs.
Yep, that was my first try. A little APC UPS with a fresh battery ran our CFL
lamp for less than 2 hours. I think most of the juce just went to heat up the
innards of the UPS. What I quickly realized was that 2 HOURS is not much help
when you are looking at a 2 WEEK power failure. With my little PV system, I can
have lights and other limited 12 volt loads through an indefinite power failure
without any battery charging or other attention...it just works!
>The comments here reminded me to check the wattage of my dorm-sized
>backup refrigerator. The KAW shows 105W running.
That sounds a bit higher than what I would have expected. It has been a long
time since I checked, but I seem to remember that my double-door kitchen monster
takes only about 180 watts steady-state. However, that is only part of the
story. The starting surge is a monster, and the defrost cycle takes nearly a
full KW for several minutes.
Vaughn
Posted by Jim Wilkins on January 14, 2010, 2:21 am
wrote:
> Yep, that was my first try. A little APC UPS with a fresh battery ran our CFL
> lamp for less than 2 hours. I think most of the juce just went to heat up the
> innards of the UPS. What I quickly realized was that 2 HOURS is not much help
> when you are looking at a 2 WEEK power failure. With my little PV system, I can
> have lights and other limited 12 volt loads through an indefinite power failure
> without any battery charging or other attention...it just works!
> Vaughn
Whenever I rebuild my decrepit tool shed I'll add a vented space for
batteries. I've seen even "sealed" lead-acids ignite and shatter in
the lab in tests. The State restricts their use indoors anyway.
I only used the CFLs when I needed both hands to carry something and
couldn't use a hand-held lantern. I doubt they were on 10 minutes a
day.
The load table for one UPS implies that it runs out in about three
hours with no external load at all,
We get hurricanes, but we normally lose power for long periods only in
the winter, after ice storms. Last time it was calm and overcast for
the next week, and the sun is low and weak in December when it does
shine. I ran a generator a few hours a day to watch the news and
recharge the batteries. This year I have this laptop for Internet
weather.
jsw
Posted by Jim on January 20, 2010, 7:57 am
On Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:08:28 -0500, "vaughn"
>> Hello Vaughn;
>>
>> I wonder what inverter you settled on? There are hundreds of brands
>> to choose from, and what size did you settle on for the modified sine
>> wave, the one you run your little fridge with?
> At this point, I have decided to run my fridge off of the generator only.
To
>be practical for the fridge, I would need a much larger battery bank, so it is
>cheaper to just plan on running the generator a bit longer each day during
power
>outages. My main inverter is an ancient Tripp-Lite, but I seldom use it. It
>can plug into my transfer panel the same as my generator.
>>
>> I found the SELSUM 11 watt lamps really put out a lot of light for the
>> wattage. They draw about 0.8 amps at 12 volts, and are hard to look
>> at directly they put out so much light. I plan to try one of their 7
>> watt lights next for comparison.
>I will look into those. As I wrote in another post, I have been using the Feit
>13-watt lamps.
>>
>> Do you put just 1 each 12V light in each room, or are you trying to
>> light up the whole place with the low voltage?
>I started my little system with just outside lighting. I use the Feit lamps in
>ordinary porch light fixtures. I now have 12-volt lights in 2 rooms, which
>serve as our "everyday" lighting in those rooms. I will soon install one
>fixture in our kitchen, which will serve mostly as emergency lighting. I also
>plan to install one in our laundry room, which is also where the fuse
>box/transfer panel resides. Each place where I have a lamp, I also have a
>12-volt outlet for charging laptops, and running battery TVs etc. My home is
>typical Florida slab/concrete block construction with the additional barrier of
>no access to the attic, so running new electrical circuits is a real problem!
I
>doubt that my 12-volt system will ever reach every room in the house.
>>
>> I also tried some 8w long flourescent fixtures with the 12v ballast,
>> and they draw about 0.8 amps also, but they are not as bright as the
>> Selsum lamps, but are not hard on the eyes and give a softer type of
>> light.
>They are also expensive!
>>
>> I'm just getting started, getting prepared for the "crunch" time
>> ahead.
>>
> Where I live we have a built-in "crunch time" every year. We call it
>"hurricane season".
>Vaughn
I'm in a hurricane alley too..
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> stove and my computer stuff. There is an outlet in each room on the
> vital bus, designated by a red receptacle, in case I need to plug in a
> portable light or a guest needs to run something like a CPAP machine.