Alternative Power Set Up

[LSU2001]

Oh Yeah Dankellfla my handle is LSU not ISU, I just screwed up and used a lower case L so it looks like ISU. Love my tigers. but Cajunmama calls me lswho!!
See ya,
Tim

[Alladin]

Isu, are you going to use a bigger inverter with the batteries or a car/truck? Also, have you compared the price of the bigger inverter with a small generator? My neighboor bought a small generator from Pep-boys for ~$350 that is very efficient. Less than a 1/2 gallon per hour. I think it is 3000 watts.

Next Comment:
Alladin, I used synthetic oil for the first 50,000 miles of a civic that I sold with 256,000 miles on it. I never even changed the head gasket. Synthetic is great stuff. Nor have I ever heard or read anything that says using it durring a break-in is bad or good. But I still won't bother to use it on my generator. For my personal use, it isn't worth it. Typically, I go for about 75 hours after a storm without power. It will take years before I even come close to using up the life of my generator. If I was in business and using it every day that would be different. I would do all that I could to protect my equipment.

I have recently purchased two 750 watt inverters from Wal-mart for 69.99 each. This gives me plenty of power but will run the batteries down quickly with full load. I takes about 4-5 hours of sunlight to recharge the batts so I will use the addtional power sparingly. Your question dankellfla, about the "small genny" is a good idea and in my original post I stated that a smaller genny would be good. However, 1/2 gallon per hour still means 12 gal of fuel per day for full run time. 3-7 days is 36-84 gallons of fuel. That is for non-stop running. After Katrina we had a very very hard time getting fuel for about 2 weeks here in BR and when we did get fuel it was $3.00+ per gallon. I really like the solar charger/battery/inverter system for light loads and the genny for A/C at night.
Tim

Have you been able to test your battery, solar charger and inverter system under real conditions? It has been my experience that photo-voltaic arrays combined with batteries are only useful for very limited and specific applications. They just don't seem useful for emergency power after a hurricane. The cost to benefit ratio seems to exclude this option.

[LSU2001]

I use this system at my fishing camp almost every weekend. so I guess that is under real conditions. I only use the batt system for Lights, fans, and TV. not for refrigeration, A/C or any other high demand appliances. I use the genny when I need to use high wattage devices. The cost is really only $250-300 as I have it set up. I am NOT using photovotaic arrays. I am using simple solar battery chargers, available at west marine for as little as $19.99. Harbor Freight tools also has a 45 watt system for $199.00 so cost is not really a problem. YOu have to understand that this in NOT used for large power needs only for small needs. I would not reccomend this set up if you need refridgeration, A/C etc, However it came in quite handy after Katrina for watching TV, using Laptop, running portable fans etc. It also was handy to have lighting readilly available without using my scarce supplies of gasoline.
Tim