Perpetual Motion: Batteries, Inverters, Chargers

So, you want to plug a battery charger, into a power inverter, to charge the batteries that the power inverter is running off of?

You think that because your inverter is producing more power than the battery charger uses, that you'll be able to pump more power into the batteries than the inverter is using off of the batteries?

You think you have it all figured out, huh?

Think again.

You can't. What you're talking about is perpetual motion. You can't create energy from absolutely nothing. Something is always using energy.

Graphic explaining common misconception of perpetual motion for off grid electrical systems. You use energy to convert, transport and invert electricity due to line resistance, heat and the transfer process.

I created this handy little graphic to help you realize why this doesn't work.

I talk to a ton of you geniuses every day about this. Some of you even suggested I sign an NDA before you went any further to explain your grand idea.

Doesn't work.

The math doesn't lie. Inversion process is about 85-95% efficient depending on load. So you've got between a 5 and 15% Efficiency loss for your system just in the inverter process.

Battery chargers are anywhere between 60 and 90% efficient. So you've got 10-30% efficiency loss in that component.

Batteries have voltage/amperage loss over time and through temperature, voltage normalization across the cells and just in general DC resistances (much higher at lower voltages).

So for a 40A charger, to charge a 12V battery bank at 40A every hour, you're drawing off of the battery bank around 48-52Amps. While yes, you're putting about 40A back into the bank, your batteries are 8-14 amps lower than when you first started the process an hour before.

This doesn't include the amperage your power inverter is putting out for other electronics either.

So, if you think you've got this ingenious idea, where you can create FREE POWER! Then I suggest you re-evaluate yourself and learn a little math and a little physics.

How to survive an ice storm power outage using your car!

Ice Storms are some of the worst bringers of Power Outages. They rank right up there with Hurricanes in just the sheer amount of damage to the infrastructure and power grid. It could take days and weeks for your power to come back on after these events.

Being without power can really put a damper on your life. Having to rely on flashlights to find your way around at night or even to just use the bathroom.

Having to keep your food from going bad by buying huge bags of ice or bringing in snow. Even charging your only means of communication, your Cell Phone, can become a hassle.

Not today. Without having to rely on a noisy gasoline generator, you can actually use a powerful engine you most likely already have in your posession: Your Car. As long as your car has gas, you should be able to power some household appliances. I have a solution for those of you living in Apartments and High Rise Buildings too!

Starting with this 800W Power Inverter with Alligator Clamps you will be able to (with your car in the on position) to power things like some lamps, your TV, cell phone chargers and laptops. Might even be able to keep your cable or satellite modems up and going for internet service.

Connecting this is really easy. Just like jumping a car battery. On the back of the interter you have two cables, a red and black cable. On the ends of these cables you will have a set of Battery Terminal Clips.

Step 1) Turn your vehicle on. Make sure it is running. Do not run anything else (heater, lights, AC, radio) as to give your inverter the most power. There's no need to rev your engine.

Step 2) Using those supplied clips, clamp the ground wire (black cable) onto the negative side of the battery (- side or black side). Do this first as to avoid grounding or shorting out your battery.

Step 3) Next, connect the positive cable (red cable) to the positive side of the battery terminal (+ side or red side) of your battery.

Step 4) Turn your inverter on. Wait for it to beep and go into diagnostic modes. Once it is ready, you'll see the lights turn on.

Step 5) Plug your appliance in to the supplied electrical outlet on the AC (Alternating Current) side of the inverter. This will provide you with usable 110/120 Volt AC power for most of your appliances.

Step 6) Do not exceed 800 Watts for this particular inverter. If you need a bigger inverter, I'll list some recommendations below.

And you're done!

800 Watts will run the following stuff without a problem:

2x - Lamps with Florescent Bulbs

1x - 55" LED LCD Television (32" TV's are most likely to be okay)

4x - 5W Cell Phone Chargers

1x - Laptop Charger

1x - Cable/Satellite Modem

--------

If you need to run more stuff, below are some examples of what you can run with each inverter:

1250 Watt Power Inverter (Largest inverter for 4-cyl engines)

*Use 4 AWG Cable (4 Gauge Cable) or larger. Anything smaller won't provide enough power.

1x - Small Refrigerator (Energy Star rated)

2x - Lamps with Florescent Bulbs

1x - 32" LED LCD TV

2x - Cell Phone Chargers

2500 Watt Power Inverter (Use with Medium Sized Vehicles Only; 6-cyl or 8-cyl Engines Recommended)

*Note: Use with 1/0 AWG Cable rated for 3500 Watts. Anything smaller won't provide enough power.

1x - Medium Refrigerator (Energy Star rated)

4x - Lamps with Florescent Bulbs

1x - Television of any size

4x - Cell Phone Chargers

1x - Laptop Charger

1x - Cable/Satellite Modem

1x - WiFi Router

1x - 12.5 Amp/1500W Space Heater (Only with nothing else running)

3500 Watt Power Inverter (Only connect to larger vehicles like Heavy Duty Trucks, Work Vans, RV's or cars with Multiple Batteries and big alternators. V8 or V10 Engines minimum!)

*Note: Use with 1/0 AWG Cable rated for 3500 Watts. Anything smaller won't provide enough power.

 

1x - Large Refrigerator

4x - Lamps with Florescent Bulbs

1x - Television of any size

4x- Cell Phone Chargers

1x - Laptop Chargers

1x- Cable/Satellite Modem

1x- WiFi Router

1x - 12.5 Amp/1500W Space Heater (Should be fine to run this constantly at medium setting)

1x - 1200 Watt Microwave (By Itself)

1x - Coffee Pot (By itself)

8000 Watt Power Inverter (Not recommended for Vehicle Use. Must be used with an external battery bank of Deep Cycle Marine Batteries [Information Provided Below])

*Use 4 sets of 1/0 AWG Cable to 4 strings of batteries.

1x - Most Everything (110V only, no 240V appliances)

Now this bad boy is going to do some serious power production. You'll be able to run your microwave, lights, televisions, Coffee Pots and a Space Heater without issue. Run a freezer and refrigerator too. The only drawback is the sheer amount of batteries you're going to need. You will literally need a ton of batteries for this to work right and for any length of time.

The batteries will be Deep Cycle Marine Batteries with a minimum of 8 of these for the 8KW inverter listed above. That will provide a ton of power and electricity for a sustained period of time.

To recharge them, you can use a Smart Battery Charger when the power grid comes back on, or using a set of Heavy Duty Jumper Cables (and a lot of patience) you can use your vehicle to charge those batteries back if the power grid hasn't come back on.

You can do the same thing with the batteries and smaller inverters as well, if you don't want to keep your vehicle running the whole time.

-------

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments below, or e-mail me Here.

Thanks!

-Joe Clark

The guy who knows stuff about this stuff.

How to survive a blackout in an apartment

Living in a Studio aparment on the 19th floor and don't have a car? Has the power gone out and you're now in the dark? Easily remedied!

What we're going to do is teach you how to set up your own backup system with a small footprint. This will be small enough to fit in the bottom of your pantry or in a closet. It'll take up about 2'x4'x2' of space. No more than a plastic packing tubs worth of size. In fact, if you wanted to put it all in that tub, you could.

First thing you're going to need is batteries. Several of them. Specifically Deep Cycle batteries designed for deep discharge. The ones I recommend for inside of residences is going to be a sealed battery. One that won't give off toxic or explosive gasses. There are batteries out there that are massive and would be better suited for a system like this. But they weigh in at between 120 and 300 lbs. I'd like to see you lug that up a stairwell or down a hallway. It's not happening. And those batteries are huge in size. Not conducive for small apartments What we're going to look at is using several smaller batteries of about 40-50 amp hours. These batteries are smaller, and able to be carried by nearly anyone. The ones I recommend are these:

They are light weight (~23lbs) a piece. You will need at least 3 to give you a solid battery bank. You want to connect the battery terminals together, just like jumping a car battery. Red to red, and black to black. All the way down the string. This is called connecting the batteries in parallel. You're keeping the voltage the same, but increasing the runtime. The inverter you want to run is this inverter: 

This inverter is designed to plug into your wall, charge those batteries and keep them healthy until which point the power goes out. Then the inverter will automatically switch to start running off of your battery bank. So if you keep things like your computer or refrigerator plugged in to it all the time, you'll never have to worry about losing power. The inverter will connect to just one of the batteries using a set of cables. These will work just fine: 

Be careful not to put anything on top of these wires as you risk a short. So keeping them inside the aforementioned tub might eliminate that risk. You can run the extension cable through a hole you cut in the side of the tub to whatever appliance you don't want to lose power to. This is going to essentially be a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) with a much greater capacity and less money than one you can buy commercially. When the power goes out, it will switch over in less than 10ms (that's 0.01 seconds roughly, faster than the blink of an eye). So it's perfect for servers, computers, refrigerators, lights and more. You can charge your phones and laptops off of this unit. You can even run your television, radios and possibly a small microwave from this unit. With 3 batteries, you'll get between 4 and 8 hours of power if you're conservative. If you're running 800+ watts all the time, those batteries will last you about an hour. If you need to, buy about 10 of those batteries to last you 24-48 hours conservatively. Use CFL or LED light bulbs if you're only going to need it for lighting. This will last you for a very, very long time. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below. -Joe