OT: battery power and generation

[keith smith]

I'm kinda interested in this too, however from a different angle.

I would like to build a fully self contained car that runs off solar and would allow me to drive to and fro say 30 miles one way and re-charge the batteries while my car is parked all day or some part of the day and return home on the days charge.

I would like to do this experiment with all readily available parts.  Oh and so it is not too far off base.... I wrote this using Yahoo webmail on a laptop running XP while thinking of my PHP/MySql project that runs on a Linux..Apache etc server.

Keith


Nathan England <nathan at paysonlinux.org> wrote: 
No, I don't have to switch anything, I just plug unplug. Basically my system 
is fully powered by the 2 12 volt batteries. When I plug into shore power it 
powers the inverter to charge my batteries and run the A/C and microwave.


On Monday 18 September 2006 15:43, you wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 18, 2006 at 10:43:44AM -0700, Nathan England wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > I live in a travel trailer full time and move from place to place. I
> > always hook up to power at the camp ground / trailer park and have never
> > needed to use my batteries unless the power goes out, which in northern
> > AZ is quite often.
> >
> > Anyway, I want to start using my batteries more and not paying APS for
> > electric, so I am looking into solar generation or a gas generator to
> > supplement. But I am completely ignorant of the way power works or what
> > amp/hours means and all that.
> >
> > I have two 12volt deep cycle batteries, what do I need to charge them and
> > how long could it take to charge them?
> >
> > I know I could ask this on an RV forum, but being a tech junkie, and you
> > all as well, I'm assuming someone will know some tricks so I could
> > possibly build something myself... Possibly creating an interface to my
> > computer to monitor/control any of this.
>
> I looked into solar chargers a while ago, and the bottom line is that it
> takes a lot to provide enough power to run much on. A lot meaning money
> and surface area. Most of the stuff out there for RV/marine is meant to
> recharge and keep charge on seldom used storage batteries.
>
> Do you have to switch over between A/C and battery, or can you just
> plug/unplug whenever you feel like it? If you don't have to switch over
> then it should be pretty easy to add solar to the mix to reduce your
> electric usage.
>
> FYI, I am NOT an expert at this. I just did some reading on the net.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nathan England
PaysonLinux User Group 
nathan at paysonlinux.org
http://www.paysonlinux.org/

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