Who has seen the adds for "Mysolarbackup"?

[Wallybear]

Who has seen this? Who is using it? Who thinks it is a good idea?

 

[Wifezilla]

I have seen the ads. No clue on whether it works as promised.

A quick review search did come up with this...
http://trado.info/node/112

 

[Wallybear]

It's just a battery hooked up to a solar charger and has an inverter on it. You keep the battery charged until you need it.

Now I am a northern boy and plan on moving even further north so the whole solar thing is not going to work for me.

What if, that concept was done with a small steam engine hooked to a small generator set up on top of the wood stove?

 

[Marianne]

When I think about the steam that comes off the pot of water that I keep on my woodburner, I don't know that I could generate enough power to do much of anything. But I use an big stock pot, too. Maybe if it was something smaller, more steam could be generated faster? How small of a steam engine could be built? For me, the noise would be a huge factor. Wouldn't both the steam engine and the generator be noisy?

What if -- you lived in a windy area, could you hook up a big wind turbine type roof vent or squirrel cage fan to use as a trickle charger? Weld a rod to it, put a coupler on the end of the alternator shaft (to the rod of the roof vent). Then hook up the alternator to the battery? Then you'd have a wind powered trickle charger. In theory. Might have to play around with a pulley system so it'd be easier to get the speed up on the alternator - like a larger pulley on the 'wind turbine' and a smaller one on the alternator. I think you need about 750 RPM (?) on the alternator to get it to act like a trickle charger.

If you were lucky enough to have a running stream, wouldn't the same setup using the squirrel cage fan work as a mini hydro trickle charger?

Recently I saw a video of some guy that hooked up his extra battery to his car, and after about 40 miles of driving, it was charged up. Then he brought it into his house and used the power. There weren't any real details on how he did it, but I remember that it was a simple setup.

 

[patandchickens]

Now I am a northern boy and plan on moving even further north so the whole solar thing is not going to work for me.

Not in midwinter, but for at least half the year, solar works fine at high latitudes. The "not in midwinter" part makes it a bad idea to install expensive setups but if this is something small and relatively cheap, it certainly might be worth it to you for the long-day parts of the year.

Recently I saw a video of some guy that hooked up his extra battery to his car, and after about 40 miles of driving, it was charged up. Then he brought it into his house and used the power. There weren't any real details on how he did it, but I remember that it was a simple setup.

That's a pretty common thing for off-the-grid people who want to use only small am'ts of electricity in non-super-remote areas, AFAIK. Really it *is* as simple as putting a good deep-cycle type battery into your car (I think I've read of someone who jury-rigged a mounting for a second battery so the car could keep its 'permanent' battery and a switch could be flipped when you have the 'house' battery in for charging. (You're using your car as a battery-charger instead of running a small generator; this makes sense if you are driving your car around a good bit anyhow, but not, obviuosly, if you are carless or don't drive much)

Pat

 

[k0xxx]

Who has seen this? Who is using it? Who thinks it is a good idea?

I've seen it and I think that it is a good idea. However, it is a good idea that you could do your self and save A LOT of money. It is very expensive for what you get, although it is certainly packaged quite nicely.

Purchase a decent panel, a charge controller, battery, and an inverter, and you have your own at a much better price. I just takes a little bit of research to make sure that you have everything sized (electrically) correctly.

Just be realistic about what you expect the system to be able to run, and for how long.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I would add, that battery backup has some very real drawbacks.
The batteries have a lifespan of about 10 years, and you do need quite a few of them.
Using alternative power sources are not a way to really save money in many places of the country.
They can cost you more in the end or just break even.

 

[k0xxx]

Using alternative power sources are not a way to really save money in many places of the country.
They can cost you more in the end or just break even.

Yep, Just like a gasoline powered generator, you probably won't realistically save any money. But as an emergency power source, it can come in handy.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I built a system like that one when I first came to SD. I did exactly what K0xxx described by taking the PV off of an electric fence system but I also bought 12v LED light bulbs that draw about 1 to 3 watts. I could have 20 lightbulbs and only be using the equivalent of one incandescent bulb. My HAM radio works off 12 vdc so I didn't need an inverter for that but I got one for a regular radio. As Mark said, you can build it for a lot less than they sell but their package is very pretty although not as capable as what you can do for the same amount of money.

Using alternative power sources are not a way to really save money in many places of the country.
They can cost you more in the end or just break even.

Yep, Just like a gasoline powered generator, you probably won't realistically save any money. But as an emergency power source, it can come in handy.

I keep getting asked "so, how long will it take to recoup your investment?" which I admit is substantial. I put up a Whisper 500 turbine, and 16 170 watt PV panels. I have a 6000 watt inverter and 24 305 AMP/HR AGM batteries.

My answer is a qualified "I'm not certain until I watch the figures for a few months, but it is immediate if the power shuts down up here". (which it does quite often) While I don't expect to "save money" in the sense of having to not spend money, the saving is the ability to have a future without big electric bills. My farm is able to support me when I won't be working. Therein lies the true savings.

Yesterday, the final step in the process was turning on the brand new geothermal heating system which is run off of power generated currently (no pun intended) by my solar panels since my wind turbine is in the box to be shipped back to the factory for repairs after a severe wind storm. It takes about 3500 watts to start the motor and running consumes 2400 or so. However since that is NOT a continuous use item, it will not drain my batteries and hardly puts a load on them according to the monitoring system I have. While I have not timed the system for how long it does run, I can say that I increased the demand by 2 F and it came on, ran for a few minutes, the temperature came up very nicely and the system shut off as expected. Nice!

OK so the investment is large and the materials used in society now are designed to fail but just the same, any day it is -30F and I have heat/cooling coming up out of the ground, I am a happy boy!