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Going Green.....
- Thread starter Silver_Pharaoh
- Start date
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #62
Same thread homenugget...no need for 2 on the exact.same.thing.
Oh. Alrighty then, makes sense now that I think of it.
My dad said he ordered one, but he's not guaranteeing anything... (wut?)
We shall see soon if he bought one
I can't wait to get this project off the ground
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2007
If you do run some tiny wire up for voltage monitoring, I'd recomend putting a fuse on the battery side in case it somehow gets shorted. Then you won't have as much of a fire hazard... lol
But really, I wouldn't even consider putting the inverter in another room. Just use a couple < 2 ft beefy cables and have the piece of mind that your DC current has a good pipeline that won't be giving off so much heat (wasting power).
Honestly, I don't think the bicycle idea makes sense... and just for the record, deep cycle batteries, the kind you run an electric trolling motor for a fishing boat off of, would be better than car batteries. They're more like UPS batteries... meant to be drained & recharged.
As for being green, it's far more efficient to use the AC power off your wall socket than reinventing the wheel. Just like it's way more efficient to power mechanical devices off a stationary bike than using generators / alternators off the bike to power electronic devices. You could do solar, but it won't pay off for a long time... and by the time it pays off, the equipment will have aged. Batteries aren't green also, they're expensive & took a lot of energy to originally produce.
My idea... just cause I don't think there's a whole lot of great plans while trying to actually be green, would be to wire up your car to charge a large deep cycle battery. Maybe have two. I used to have a UPS with two 7 AH batteries, and that would run my pentium 3 server for around 1 - 2 hours. That box only consumed around 30w though, and I built it like that for a reason. Your desktop probably uses 170 - 220 w at the most (and that's just a guess), so let's say I was using a battery > 100 AH... I'd have roughly 7 times the run-time (amusing it works like that) and could run for 7 - 14 hrs... My point is, the car would be running anyway, it's designed to turn alternators... and maybe taking that little extra bit of turning power wouldn't hurt your MPGs too much... I'd guess a couple hours of driving would charge them up from half to full. Just a theory. Probably would want to use an additional alternator in case it wears it out quicker. Still probably not "green" in the true sense of the word. Just my 2 cents.
But really, I wouldn't even consider putting the inverter in another room. Just use a couple < 2 ft beefy cables and have the piece of mind that your DC current has a good pipeline that won't be giving off so much heat (wasting power).
Honestly, I don't think the bicycle idea makes sense... and just for the record, deep cycle batteries, the kind you run an electric trolling motor for a fishing boat off of, would be better than car batteries. They're more like UPS batteries... meant to be drained & recharged.
As for being green, it's far more efficient to use the AC power off your wall socket than reinventing the wheel. Just like it's way more efficient to power mechanical devices off a stationary bike than using generators / alternators off the bike to power electronic devices. You could do solar, but it won't pay off for a long time... and by the time it pays off, the equipment will have aged. Batteries aren't green also, they're expensive & took a lot of energy to originally produce.
My idea... just cause I don't think there's a whole lot of great plans while trying to actually be green, would be to wire up your car to charge a large deep cycle battery. Maybe have two. I used to have a UPS with two 7 AH batteries, and that would run my pentium 3 server for around 1 - 2 hours. That box only consumed around 30w though, and I built it like that for a reason
. Your desktop probably uses 170 - 220 w at the most (and that's just a guess), so let's say I was using a battery > 100 AH... I'd have roughly 7 times the run-time (amusing it works like that) and could run for 7 - 14 hrs... My point is, the car would be running anyway, it's designed to turn alternators... and maybe taking that little extra bit of turning power wouldn't hurt your MPGs too much... I'd guess a couple hours of driving would charge them up from half to full. Just a theory. Probably would want to use an additional alternator in case it wears it out quicker. Still probably not "green" in the true sense of the word. Just my 2 cents.
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #64
If you do run some tiny wire up for voltage monitoring, I'd recomend putting a fuse on the battery side in case it somehow gets shorted. Then you won't have as much of a fire hazard... lol
But really, I wouldn't even consider putting the inverter in another room. Just use a couple < 2 ft beefy cables and have the piece of mind that your DC current has a good pipeline that won't be giving off so much heat (wasting power).
Honestly, I don't think the bicycle idea makes sense... and just for the record, deep cycle batteries, the kind you run an electric trolling motor for a fishing boat off of, would be better than car batteries. They're more like UPS batteries... meant to be drained & recharged.
As for being green, it's far more efficient to use the AC power off your wall socket than reinventing the wheel. Just like it's way more efficient to power mechanical devices off a stationary bike than using generators / alternators off the bike to power electronic devices. You could do solar, but it won't pay off for a long time... and by the time it pays off, the equipment will have aged. Batteries aren't green also, they're expensive & took a lot of energy to originally produce.
My idea... just cause I don't think there's a whole lot of great plans while trying to actually be green, would be to wire up your car to charge a large deep cycle battery. Maybe have two. I used to have a UPS with two 7 AH batteries, and that would run my pentium 3 server for around 1 - 2 hours. That box only consumed around 30w though, and I built it like that for a reason
Thanks!
Ya know, it does make sense, it's not really that green, and you brought up a vaild point. You had 14 Ah, and your server lasted 2 hours tops @ only ~30 watts....
My rig uses ~ 250 watts full load so if 250/30 = 8.3.... Then 8.3 X 14AH= ~120 AH minimum for ~2 hours of run time....
I think I have ~500 AH on hand, so if I'm correct, I have ~ 5 hours of run time?
Hmmmmm, this project seems a lot harder now that I have some data to compare it to (your P1 server).
Thanks, I might re-consider this idea, but I still want to give it a test-run when (if) my dad replaces my inverter
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Location
- Doylestown, Ohio
Thought you would be interested looking at this thing.
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1533
20w but same concept.
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1533
20w but same concept.
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2012
Isee to many energy conversions here, with every conversion comes a little power loss so the pedal power thing is the ticket, a battery of any sort is a mess when it comes to green.
but, if you can find a battery from a hybrid car in a junk yard and reuse it thennnnnn perhaps....
but then, recharging a 144volt battery from an old honda will be an issue.
we did this stuff down in the islands for schools so they could use net books, lead acid batterys with solar panels( why not pencil, paper and slide rules?).
lead acid batterys give off a great gas that is real explosive, so batterys were stored outside and all stolen all the time, solar panels the same.
but, if you can find a battery from a hybrid car in a junk yard and reuse it thennnnnn perhaps....
but then, recharging a 144volt battery from an old honda will be an issue.
we did this stuff down in the islands for schools so they could use net books, lead acid batterys with solar panels( why not pencil, paper and slide rules?).
lead acid batterys give off a great gas that is real explosive, so batterys were stored outside and all stolen all the time, solar panels the same.
Last edited:
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #67
Thanks guys!
Just waiting on an inverter, then this project will be back on
Just waiting on an inverter, then this project will be back on
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #68
EDIT: WOW Double post
I think some that are doing their own conversion or electric car experimentation use electric drill batteries. I saw some documentary where they had a bunch trying to power a car or something.
I think they charge faster , but I am not sure.
I think they charge faster , but I am not sure.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
- Location
- Clearwater FL
The fact that you're killing things in the process of trying to do that and reordering things to try it and all the work involved makes me dubious to begin with.
Interesting to read though I guess.
About like when Top Gear reviewed the Prius and in actuality they cost way, way, more than they are worth, more or less.
If anything along those lines were easily doable, the Utility companies would be doing them on their own, those guys deal in energy per cent.
If it's economically viable in reality other than a major shift in transference, I'd imagine they'd have it up and running by now, they are still running Nukes plants that probably shouldn't be and they are starting to break down and receiving money to rebuild them even if they don't intend to.
Interesting to read though I guess.
About like when Top Gear reviewed the Prius and in actuality they cost way, way, more than they are worth, more or less.
If anything along those lines were easily doable, the Utility companies would be doing them on their own, those guys deal in energy per cent.
If it's economically viable in reality other than a major shift in transference, I'd imagine they'd have it up and running by now, they are still running Nukes plants that probably shouldn't be and they are starting to break down and receiving money to rebuild them even if they don't intend to.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
- Location
- Clearwater FL
Drill batteries etc work well for a short burst of high end power, I used to be a mentor on a good FIRST robotics team.
They don't stay powered up long, but have a high output and a pretty fast recharge rate for general usage.
I imagine anyone that works in construction would know that to begin with, although I don't, but is their main purpose.
Lots of torque for a short while with fast recharge.
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #72
Monster Garage made a car run off of 28 Volt batteries from (Millwaukie?)
That was pretty cool
- Joined
- May 7, 2011
- Location
- Cook->Kent
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #74
Over-unity is what that's called.
And I was really looking into that.
Thanks for the link, I will read up on that ASAP!
EDIT: I definatly want dome plans for a small scale build. If I can get this one run, that would be so cool!
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2010
- Location
- Doylestown, Ohio
I was wondering when this thread would take a dive towards free energy. Took longer than expected.
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #76
I never thought of this.But it might be a great option if anyone can find an actual working model.
Beats the heck outta pedaling a bike!
OP
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Thread Starter
- #77
Necro-update! 
I was able to complete some tests with my temporary setup.
I drew 48 Amp Hours with just 1 video card mining some cryptocoins.
That battery lasted 2 hours until voltage hit 10.7 volts, and I only have 2 of those. (They are AGM btw)
So this means there is no way to power my computer with both video cards mining and my CPU folding with just a few batteries.
So my only option is to use a "hybrid" setup. When I'm home, I use battery power. At night and when I'm gone, I'll plug into the wall.
Not the best option, but it will do I suppose.
Now I just need to make my charging system and buy a bigger inverter.
I was able to complete some tests with my temporary setup.
I drew 48 Amp Hours with just 1 video card mining some cryptocoins.
That battery lasted 2 hours until voltage hit 10.7 volts, and I only have 2 of those. (They are AGM btw)
So this means there is no way to power my computer with both video cards mining and my CPU folding with just a few batteries.
So my only option is to use a "hybrid" setup. When I'm home, I use battery power. At night and when I'm gone, I'll plug into the wall.
Not the best option, but it will do I suppose.
Now I just need to make my charging system and buy a bigger inverter.
