[PVPost] Emergency electrics

[PVPoster1]

[This is an edited re-post of a topic that existed before the forums were hit by a virus in June 2005. Please feel free to add comments at the end, however if you are reading this soon after it was posted, it's likely that more old' replies will be added in the next hour or so and therefore please wait before replying a) to see if your point will be covered and b) to let the original sequence of posts make sense. Thank you

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For those new to emergency electrics I would suggest that you should look at www.purpleline.co.uk. I have just purchased the 12 volt inspection lamp which will provide me with an emergency strip light that should run for about 6 hours on an average car battery, fully charged. Used judiciously this should last me for the longest blackout we are likely to get. The cost was ?4:95 in my local caravan dealers.
If you visit I would suggest that you check out the other 12 volt kit. There is a very nice small fan heater for ?9:45. A free hanging cigarette lighter socket onto which I could put a couple of crocodile clips for attaching to a battery is ?1:45. (I can then run things like CD players, radios, cassette players and the like).
A windup torch, windup power pack for the mobile phone a small camping stove with gas bottles and we're ready to rock and roll!!! Not expensive as a starter kit!!!

[PVPoster1]

corrected link: http://www.purpleline.co.uk/

Interesting site for getting hold of electrical stuff. I wonder if you're going to run electronics off a car battery, you need to do something to stabilise the voltage?

This page at Maplin is interesting: Link

They have kits for 12V battery chargers, battery over-discharge protection, solar battery charging reverse-current protection.

[PVPoster1]

Personally I do not use any sort of controller on the batteries. These are car batteries that I have been given becaue they are "junk". With the use of a de-sulphator and charging and discharging a few times I now have four fully charged ready to use 12 volt car batteries. I have been promised more "junk" batteries as they come in. These are from a second hand car dealer in a small way of business with not a great turnover. Each time he sells a car he has to put a new battery on it because the old battery has sulphated because it has sat and not been charged or discharged. He is in the process of selling a diesel car and has promised me the old battery (these have a much higher amp/hour rating as diesel engines have a higher compression ratio than petrol cars). This will be great stuff for my emergency lighting scheme.
I have discovered that the low voltage lighting bulbs (see your local B&Q etc for low voltage lighting) will also work on a car battery. These can be as high as 50 watt/12volt and give an enormous light but will discharge the battery much faster. These will be great for short bursts (meal preparation first aid etc). I shall be making my own holders for these so I can have the shape that I want. In B&Q I did notice however a clip on 12 volt LED spotlight only ?8:95 and I am going to buy one of these to see how it performs. The LEDs will give a brilliant light and yet soak up so little juice that the battery will last for ages the best of both worlds I think.
Thanks for the link to Maplin. This is just the sort of kit that I shall be wanting next year when I start putting in solar panels and windmills. Small windmills directly connected to the motors from cassette players printers CD drives etc. can be used to charge up AA batteries and look at the sort of kit that uses these small batteries. The electric car with the world speed record uses AA size batteries( mind you it uses over 18000 of them in packs!!!!). When I have experimented a little more I shall post again. I am the original inpert and if I can do it anyone can!!!

[PowerswitchClive]

corrected link: http://www.purpleline.co.uk/

Interesting site for getting hold of electrical stuff. I wonder if you're going to run electronics off a car battery, you need to do something to stabilise the voltage?

Guys, I wouldn't get too excited, about this link www.Purpleline.co.uk
They sell the most basic of solar power equipment. If you want meaningful usage, you are going to need at least 40watts. The 13watts generator that they sell, would be ok for charging rechargeable AA or C/D cell batteries, but will only trickle charge a car battery.

A 40watt panel means that it will produce up to 40 watts in strong sunlight.
So for 9-10months of the year where Britain, doesn't have strong sunlight, your 40watt panel is producing a lot less than 40watts. So you need a much bigger panel than this if you want to run anything more than a portable stereo or some basic lighting.

EBay is the best and cheapest place to buy 40/80 or 100 watt panels
You will also need deep cycle batteries (85-100 amp hours, at least a couple of them), of the AGM or Gel type, as your car batteries will not hold much charge... a
600 - 1500 watt inverter is useful for supplying mains power... but it is better to run the appliance directly from the car battery if possible.

Fluorescent strip lighting is available that will run directly from 12 volts and last a lot longer than 6hours from a deep cycle battery. With an 80 watt panel or 2 40 watt panels (and a charge controller) you should be able to get enough power into the battery to power a portable 12volt colour TV and a couple of Fluorescent lights for a good few hours a day.

A couple of good quality leisure battery (gel cell) chargers are also useful for charging your batteries up, when mains power comes back again.

There are good quality solar charged camping lanterns available, if you just want light

http://www.unlimited-power.co.uk/solar_ ... _lamp.html

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SolarMAX-Solar-Pa ... dZViewItem


I would consider the following as good basic kit

1 80watt solar panel

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sharp-80w-Solar-P ... dZViewItem

or

2 40watt solar panels

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/40-WATT-POLYCRYST ... dZViewItem

1 or 2 charge controllers

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10AMP-12V-Solar-P ... dZViewItem

At least 2 AGM or Gel cell deep cycle batteries 85-100ah

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPER-AGM-LEISURE ... dZViewItem

One battery can be used for lighting and the other for powering a stereo or small (12inch) portable 12v TV

1 12v to 240v power inverter - must be at least 600 watts or more

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1000-Watt-mains-p ... dZViewItem

1 or more tubes of 12v strip lighting

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LUMO-1-caravan-mo ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-12v-Volt-Fluo ... dZViewItem

Forget about trying to power high energy devices... e.g. heaters, kettles, washing machines, fridges. If you want power to run these, you will need a proper installation and many more solar panels and batteries.

[snow hope]

Fantastic info. Thanks!

[Rach121]

This is great info. Can it be saved to a permanent reference place?

[mikepepler]

Fluorescent strip lighting is available that will run directly from 12 volts and last a lot longer than 6hours from a deep cycle battery. With an 80 watt panel or 2 40 watt panels (and a charge controller) you should be able to get enough power into the battery to power a portable 12volt colour TV and a couple of Fluorescent lights for a good few hours a day.

Talking of lighting running directly off 12V, try this place:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/
I've bought some LED "lamps" which have a cluster of 20-30 LEDs. They use about 1-2W, but produce light equivalent to a 20W incandescent bulb - I bought 5 of them. I also got a small (7Ah) gel-cell battery, a 10W solar panel and a charge/discharge controller. Not a huge amount of power at all, but enough to run the LEDs for a few hours a day, and the controller will cope with more power if I want to get more panels.

I'm not sure how the LEDs compare to a fluorescent for efficiency, but they might be slightly better. A big advantage though is that, properly looked after, they could last for decades, while fluorescent lights need new tubes after a while, and are more fragile.