Laundry by battery

[Cybrvanr]

We're getting a nice little tropical storm this afternoon here in Richmond, and it's dumping tons of rain on us here. About an hour or so ago, I started a load of laundry thinking the worst of the storm was over with, and the power wasn't going to go out. Well, I was wrong. About 10 minutes after loading up the Danby with a load of whites, BZZZT, the lights flickered a few times, and the power went out.

Well, I had to get all that soapy water out of there somehow. Luckily, I charged up my big 200 ah deep cycle battery for such an event. That, connected to a 1000 watt inverter, and I was back up and washing away about 10 minutes later. The Danby was very happy running on the inverter, and it went through a few more rinses on cold, and barely even scratched the surface on the battery's charge. I have enough battery left over to plug my laptop into the inverter, and my DSL modem to write this message, and even light a few compact fluorescent lamps!

 

[tomturbomatic]

That's pretty impressive. How many hours did the battery last? Did you have to use it for the refrigerator? I guess the current from a battery is more constant than from a backup generator. People have told me that it is not good to subject electronics to the electricity coming from a backup generator.

I read that they opened the big culvert in Richmond to prevent the bottom from flooding; hope it worked, but hope even more that it was not needed. Since the storm did not turn NW, we received only about 2.5 inches of rain, on average, in the DC area; most of it fell over the bay and ocean. While we had some wind gusts, we did not get the forecasted torrential tropical downpours of one to two inches per hour and the ground seems to have soaked up the rain pretty well.

I hope you got through the storm with no further inconveniences. Thanks for the battery report.
Tom

 

[Cybrvanr]

Looks like we dodged the bullet on this one. Only minor wind and water damage..only localized flooding, and shockoe bottom didn't even have so much as a puddle in a ditch! They got my power up and running late last night. I had gotten the refrigerator going in my camper, which is gas absorbtion, and moved most of my stuff out there. Things like soda pop and stuff, I just let get warm.

I'm not sure how long my battery would have ended up lasting. I took it out to the car and put the jumper cables on it every so often to keep it topped off. I know it ran several compact fluorescent lamps around my house for several hours between charges...It looked like the power had never even gone off. And the nice thing was I didn't need to listen to a racous generator running either. Haven't tried it on my fridge though. It's got a 2KW surge current on it, but it may not be quite enough to turn over the compressor in my fridge.

The biggest reason why you don't want to run electronics off of a generator is because the frequency is so unstable. In order to achieve a 60hz frequency, the engine must be kept at a constant 3600RPM...which also explains why they make so much noise. If the load changes, obviously more or less throttle will be needed to maintain the correct speed. The problem comes when the load changes, and the engine has not had an opportunity to re-adjust the govenor for the proper speed. You will get all sorts of wild frequency variations till the generator re-stabilizes itself under the new load. Running a refrigerator or any other sort of AC induction motor along with an electronic device on the same generator is asking for trouble.

Solid-state inverters however put out near perfect frequency out of a quartz controlled oscillator. I believe Honda has a generator out nowadays that is frequency and voltage stabilized electronically. IIRC, it uses a DC generator that makes about 120 volts DC. That voltage then goes to a DC to AC inverter where it's changed to 60 Hz AC current. It is designed so one can run sensitive electronics like computers, phones, and other business-critical equipment during an outage

 

[toggleswitch]

Well, I had to get all that soapy water out of there somehow

Wouldn't lowering the drain hose alone work?

Glad to hear you found a hi-tech way!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Actually Laundry by battery caused me to think of beating the clothes clean or some violent washing action like assault & battery.

 

[toggleswitch]

off-the-(electrical)grid living fascinates me. I love reading about 12 volt stuff as well.

I always wanted to have permanently-wired 12v emergency lights at home with a car battery or two ready and being trickle charged constantly

http://www.roadtrucker.com/12-volt-cooking/12-volt-cooking.htm

 

[toggleswitch]

12v toys

http://www.baproducts.com/12vdc.htm

 

[toggleswitch]

12 toys 2

http://www.myles-rec.com/12 Volt City/12 Volt Accessories/page21.html

 

[toggleswitch]

12 volt toys 3

http://www.hilltoprv.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=203

 

[toggleswitch]

12 volt toys 4

http://www.automotivepartsnetwork.com/store/pc/viewCat_P.asp?idCategory=183