What's with all the brown outs?

And now for the rest of the story:

Turns out that my next door neighbor claims to have Asthma. Countless generators running all over town but my diesel truck, on idle, caused her asthma to act up so she complained to the landlord who insisted I turn my truck off. Rather than get evicted or stuck for the neighbor's medical bills, I complied so there went my plan. Now I shall look for a battery big enough to power the inverter for 4 hours or more.

To robertk: I looked for a smaller fan but the numbers on all the boxes all claimed they draw 50 watts. That goes contrary to my logic as I figured a smaller fan would draw less but with those numbers in mind I went with what I already had. The laptop battery is shot. Won't last 5 minutes without being plugged in and a replacement is 5,000 pesos so I am always using the plug in charging cord.

Thanks for the link for the battery stuff for dummies. I shall go though that and eventually buy a battery to run my inverter quietly (recharging it when the power comes on). Trial and error will guide me on how many batteries I need, if more than one.

But that leads me to one important question. Since the battery is a back up for brown outs it shall have to be stored for weeks/months at a time until needed; Should it be stored empty of charge (in which case it is useless to me) or kept at half charge? Or full charge? Or constantly plugged in to keep it topped up at all times? Which method gives the best battery life?

 

It takes a tremendous amount of current to convert 12 V to 220 ac to run an electric motor. Why not buy a 12 volt fan? You can get them at most larger auto parts stores, then if your laptop battery is t*ts up you just have to power it with your alternator, makes much better sense electrically.

Larry

 

The way we overcome the Brown/Blackout, we have several PET bottles full of ice in the frezzer, we put some of the ice into the refrigerator until power is back, we read a book(that's this two covers with a lot of pages in between them), or play a game of cards, go swimming, or work in the garden. We actually enjoy a day without the distractions of everyday gadgets...
I would say that anything mentioned by Dave or Robert is to be considered in an emergency but for a short interuption, it's overkill and diregarding your neigbours peace with your polution...

Thanks for the link Robert...

 

If Dave_Hounddriver had provided power to his neighbours TV, it would not have triggered her asthma.

 

Never store a battery in a completely discharged state, doing so will permanently ruin it. Keep it fully charged (12.7 volts is usually what a fully charged battery eventually reads after you let it "calm down" for a while after disconnecting the charge source) with a trickle charger (a 5 amp charger or solar panel is plenty to keep 1 battery charged up) and add distilled water to it as needed to keep the cells full. Maybe I missed it, but are you using a deep cycle battery for this? If not, a starting battery will not last very long after being repeatedly charged and discharged.

 

Dave, if all fans of whatever size say they draw 50 watts, I can only suggest looking for one that claims to push fewer CFM run it at low speed and closer to you. Larry is correct that if you have the battery inside close to you running a 12 volt fan would save on the conversion loss for that item. You might also with the battery close to you get a car charger for the laptop. My laptop charger has 19.5V output and stepping up 12v to 19.5v is probably going to take less power than stepping it up to 220v and back down to 19.5v. Of course you are going to want the batteried brimming with 13.25 volts when the power goes off, so a dedicated trickle charger would be my choice and maybe a 10 or more amp charger for when the battery bank is depleted. It can be done but without the alternator in the systen, I think it will cost enough that you might be better off checking into a hotel with a generator for the day since the truck alternator is going to be out of the system when you consider startup cost and system maintainance.

 

Perhaps sending you neighbor flowers ( or goldenrod, if available) with a note of apology will let her know how you REALLY feel regarding her intermittent asthma!!!!

 

The local remedy for asthma is "Lagundi" and it flowers with tiny lila blossoms...