Posted by Gigawatt on May 27, 2004, 7:17 pm
One step for Man, and One Giant Leap for Gig
Today I bought the 600 watt Sunbeam Microwave Oven from Wal-Mart for
$29.87... and took it into my bedroom for testing... Since my all my PV
equipment is in the bedroom, I could check out the oven while the oven was
in operation.... At another Wal-Mart grocery store I had bought a frozen
Banquet Boneless Pork Rib meal for my first Microwave Oven Experiment...
I plugged the Kill-A-Watt meter into the heavy duty extension cord that went
to my inverter, then plugged the new Microwave Oven into the Kill-A-Watt
meter, to see if the oven had a Phantom load... and there were none... so
the idle time when the Oven is not used, does not consume any power... I
noted the line voltage from my inverter was 117.4 volts, which was OK... My
Batteries were charging at 14.41 volts, and the input amps from the charge
controller to the batteries was about 30 amps...
So I put the frozen Boneless Pork Rib on the glass carousel inside the oven,
closed the oven door, and set the heat level to high... (there are several
heat levels, starting with Warm, Defrost, Low, Medium, and High).... I
turned the timer to 3 minutes, and the oven came on... it was so quiet, that
I thought that it might not be working.... but the Kill-A-Watt meter
indicated that there was a 750 to 780 watt load.... the extra wattage used
over 600 watts is probably used by the oven's internal electronics...
Back on the batteries, my digital VOM meter, indicated that the battery
voltage dropped to 12.85 volts, during the heating process, and the amps
from the charge controller increased from 30 amps, to 42 amps...
I noticed that the Carousel turned nicely, so the oven was probably working
OK.... after about a minute of operation, the little fan inside the Xantrax
Inverter came on... which is the first time I have ever heard it operate....
after 3 minutes of heating the food, the clock timer on the oven 'dinged' a
bell, and shut off... the frozen meal was thawed, but the potatoes were
still cold.... the instruction on the cooking package said to stir the
potatoes then recook for another 3 minutes... and I did....
The meal was good, and the Inverter handled the load OK... and the little
fan on the Inverter went off, shortly after the Oven finished its heating
process... and it didn't take but 10 minutes for the batteries to return to
their full charge... I think the experiment was good...
So as I said, this is a Giant Leap for me... this smaller microwave oven
allows me to finally take my microwave cooking off the grid, and it will be
especially helpful on those days where I am not able to solar cook....
onwards and upwards I guess... and I will be looking into what kind of low
powered solar fridge I can use.... that may be my next experiment...
Gig
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Posted by Harry Chickpea on May 27, 2004, 5:41 pm
>I noticed that the Carousel turned nicely, so the oven was probably working
>OK.... after about a minute of operation, the little fan inside the Xantrax
>Inverter came on... which is the first time I have ever heard it operate....
>after 3 minutes of heating the food, the clock timer on the oven 'dinged' a
>bell, and shut off... the frozen meal was thawed, but the potatoes were
>still cold.... the instruction on the cooking package said to stir the
>potatoes then recook for another 3 minutes... and I did....
We have a microwave on an inverter in our van, powered by a trolling battery.
(There is a weight vs. power trade-off in a vehicle, and the reduced milage
from heavier battery banks made me decide on a cheap replaceable battery that
wasn't too heavy.) I've noticed that cooking times are a little longer in
general, especially if the battery isn't fully charged. I forget how many amp
hours your system has, but be aware that the return to "full" after a heavy
drain on a smaller system can be only a surface charge. Too many cloudy days
with microwaved food might be hard on your batteries as well as your arteries.
:-)
Posted by Gigawatt on May 27, 2004, 9:05 pm
> We have a microwave on an inverter in our van, powered by a trolling
battery.
> (There is a weight vs. power trade-off in a vehicle, and the reduced
milage
> from heavier battery banks made me decide on a cheap replaceable battery
that
> wasn't too heavy.) I've noticed that cooking times are a little longer in
> general, especially if the battery isn't fully charged. I forget how many
amp
> hours your system has, but be aware that the return to "full" after a
heavy
> drain on a smaller system can be only a surface charge. Too many cloudy
days
> with microwaved food might be hard on your batteries as well as your
arteries.
My system is 800 amp hours... and the batteries were near full charge before
I started... which might explain why they recharged so quickly....
Have you ever considered using some PV panels on top of the van for charging
a larger battery bank?
Gig
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Posted by uguess on May 27, 2004, 7:14 pm
wrote:
>>
>> We have a microwave on an inverter in our van, powered by a trolling
>battery.
>> (There is a weight vs. power trade-off in a vehicle, and the reduced
>milage
>> from heavier battery banks made me decide on a cheap replaceable battery
>that
>> wasn't too heavy.) I've noticed that cooking times are a little longer in
>> general, especially if the battery isn't fully charged. I forget how many
>amp
>> hours your system has, but be aware that the return to "full" after a
>heavy
>> drain on a smaller system can be only a surface charge. Too many cloudy
>days
>> with microwaved food might be hard on your batteries as well as your
>arteries.
>My system is 800 amp hours... and the batteries were near full charge before
>I started... which might explain why they recharged so quickly....
>Have you ever considered using some PV panels on top of the van for charging
>a larger battery bank?
>Gig
My personal experience with mounting collectors on the roof of a
vehicle is like mounting a big flat wing. It generates lots of noise,
lots of vibrations, and if not extremely rigidly mounted, can be
dangerous to anyone following behind. It can be done, but one should
be wary of the many possible issues.
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Posted by DJ on May 28, 2004, 8:21 am
uguess@nowhere.net wrote in message
> My personal experience with mounting collectors on the roof of a
> vehicle is like mounting a big flat wing. It generates lots of noise,
> lots of vibrations, and if not extremely rigidly mounted, can be
> dangerous to anyone following behind. It can be done, but one should
> be wary of the many possible issues.
I can believe it. But now they have those "roofing tile" panels, like these
ones:
http://www.uni-solar.com/cons_products_marine.html
Did you consider those?
DJ
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>OK.... after about a minute of operation, the little fan inside the Xantrax
>Inverter came on... which is the first time I have ever heard it operate....
>after 3 minutes of heating the food, the clock timer on the oven 'dinged' a
>bell, and shut off... the frozen meal was thawed, but the potatoes were
>still cold.... the instruction on the cooking package said to stir the
>potatoes then recook for another 3 minutes... and I did....