S
sno
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
How about a 12V motorcycle battery and solar charger....check here for
something....
http://www.batterystuff.com/
hope helps...have fun.....sno
something....
http://www.batterystuff.com/
hope helps...have fun.....sno
N
Neon John
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
A motorcycle battery, like any other SLA battery, is quickly destroyed by deep
cycling. Besides a motorcycle battery is wet and that's not a good solution.
An AGM or GELL type battery is appropriate. If convenience is important, one
can buy 4 and 7ah gell batteries at Home Depot in the lighting department as
replacements for their emergency lighting products. Ditto Lowe's. Not the
cheapest source but very convenient.
To the OP (a name would be nice), Now that I see your usage plans, my first
suggestion would be to turn off the damned cellphones and teach the kids how
to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
If you really must, a battery/inverter/power strip/cellphone chargers
arrangement would work. Or a batter/12 volt multi-outlet/car adapter
chargers.
I'd just compute the total power you'll be using and carry a battery that
size. A 100 amp-hour AGM trolling battery (about $120 from Outdoor World)
should do the job. If there is no shade and you know the weather won't be
cloudy then a solar panel could be useful. Figure another $150 or so for one
large enough to matter (5+ amps).
I have a nominal 120 watt (12 volt, 10 amp) panel on my MH but with the rare
exception when I travel to Florida or south GA, it's mostly decoration. Even
in the heat of the summer up at this latitude (and heat decreases the panel's
output), I rarely see more than 3-5 amp. It is not optimally aimed (flat on
the roof) and, while still in the South, I am fairly far from the equator.
If I were camping in that situation, I'd pack along a medium sized battery
(maybe 30-40 amp-hours), a suitable battery charger and that nifty little 1000
watt ChiCom special generator that I write about on my blog. Northern sells
it during the Christmas season for $99.95. It can be found on the net in the
$100-110 range any time.
With a suitable charger, a couple of hours every couple of days would be
enough generator operation to get the job done. That'll leave you plenty of
time to play with steam toys.
Here's an idea for play. Get one of those model steam engines that are widely
available. The kind with the little electric or alcohol or solidox burning
boiler and articulating cylinder engine. Some even come with a little
generator mounted. Good for 10 or 20 watts.
to do your campfire thing, take an old disposable propane cylinder, remove the
valve, drill and tap the neck for a 1/4NPT thread and insert a steel tube
fitting. Attach some steel tubing (brake line works well) long enough to
reach the engine. At the fire, remove the fitting and fill the cylinder
partly full of water. Replace the fitting and toss the cylinder in the fire
or even better, onto a grate over the fire. Or even better still, hung by a
stand you fabricated that will keep the cylinder vertical and just in the
flame. Play with the engine until the water runs out. Rinse and repeat
When prepping the cylinder, remove the safety valve off to the side (a
standard car shraeder valve tool will work), poke some steel wool in the
bottom of the hole and then fill the rest with melted lead or solder. This is
your blow-out disc in case you over-pressure or overheat the cylinder.
The little generator could provide some charge to the battery or light a 12
volt CFL or whatever. That way you can separate your play from your power
supply.
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
Remember, amateurs made the Ark, professionals made the Titanic.
E
[email protected]
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
In alt.energy.homepower said:
Nice site. But I think that a stadard starting battery is the wrong
choice - Ithink that a deep discharge battery is necessary.
E
[email protected]
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
In alt.energy.homepower said:
Dave is fine, or Esk.
Now that I see your usage plans, my first
Well, we try to do both. A cellphone is nice for games while laying in
the hammock, listening to the waves lapping the shore.
I've thought about an inverter, but given that most rechargeable stuff can
plug into a car lighter jack, I thought that standardizing on 12v made
sense.
That might be the best solution.
Really? I've been looking at model steam engines, and cold never find any
kind of power output spec. I assumed this was becausethey didn't put out
any usefull power. The model ones I've seen with a generator just light a
tiny bulb - I figured 1.5v at some low current.
to do your campfire thing, take an old disposable propane cylinder, remove the
valve, drill and tap the neck for a 1/4NPT thread and insert a steel tube
fitting. Attach some steel tubing (brake line works well) long enough to
reach the engine. At the fire, remove the fitting and fill the cylinder
partly full of water. Replace the fitting and toss the cylinder in the fire
or even better, onto a grate over the fire. Or even better still, hung by a
stand you fabricated that will keep the cylinder vertical and just in the
flame. Play with the engine until the water runs out. Rinse and repeat
That's a good idea. I was thinking of using a kitchen-type pressure
cooker.
N
Neon John
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
That would probably actually be dangerous. The OD is relatively thin plus it
is shallow, not enabling a full NPT thread to be cut. The neck is machine out
of solid stock so there is plenty of wall thickness left. IF you're nervous,
go down to 1/8NPT but that'll just make filling it with water more tedious.
BTW, propane tanks make EXCELLENT steam rockets. Drill out the valve socket
to receive a 1/4" steel tube. Soft solder it in place after filling the tank
about 3/4 full of water. Attach a 500 psi pressure gauge. Arrange the bottle
base up and surrounded by a ring burner inpinging on the tank about a third of
the way up. Arrange another burner to heat the neck. Heat the tank (from a
distance, preferably from a bunker) to about 300 psi. Turn on the neck
heater. When the solder softens, the tank launches. I've never found the
tank to re-use it. It goes far out of sight, though I have been able to track
it with my homemade radar gun.
Caution: yadda yadda yadda. If you need cautions, you shouldn't be playing
with adult toys. I have a whole national forest to fire mine off in. Make
sure you have similar spaces.
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man -Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
N
Neon John
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hi Dave
the little generator that comes with these things is typically garbage - just
a cheap chicom toy motor being spun as a generator. You can replace it with a
stepper motor and rectify the output or a higher quality PM motor for direct
DC. The larger models produce considerable power, especially if you supply
more pressure than the toy boiler typically makes. Mine has a safety that
lifts at about 30 psi. Twice that would make the l'il sucker scream. Since
it has no governor, however, you'd have to be careful to keep the generator
loaded or else it could sling the thing apart.
I'm leery of pressure cookers, especially the larger ones. My grandmother had
the lid blow off a canning cooker when I was a kid. The lid went through the
roof - literally. It penetrated the plaster ceiling, the roof decking and the
shingles. That was with a mere 15-20 psi on the thing.
Another factor is the rubber gasket that will either decompose or get extruded
out by higher pressure. I use pressure cookers as vacuum chambers, an
application at which they excel, and I replace the rubber with pure annealed
copper. Even so, I'd be very leery of trying to get much more pressure out of
one. I'm probably being over-cautious but I still vividly remember how much
damage that damned lid did. My grandmother was just lucky to have been out of
the kitchen when it went off. The thrust caved in the stove top and the steam
blast and bursting jars trashed the kitchen. He had granddad install her a
stove on the back porch for future canning.
The beauty of the propane cylinder is two fold. One, it doesn't contain much
water and thus not all that much stored energy. Two, It is a solid pressure
vessel with no joints to come loose - other than the center one if you grossly
overheat it.
John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
Serenity: That feeling of knowing that your secretary will never tell either of your wives.
D
Daniel Who Wants to Know
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Neon John said:
Funny you should mention this because my grandma had almost the exact same
thing happen to her and similar your story she had just went outside when it
happened. She said the lid went through the roof and the stove top was
pushed down into the oven cavity and the shock wave knocked all of her
picture frames off of the walls.
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