Is it possible to run appliances on batteries/w AC inverter and a generator that only comes on occasionally..?

Question

I want to power a water heater, a blower fan, and a small water pump continuously with a diesel generator run on Biodiesel. Is it possible to set up a system of some deep cycle batteries that will carry the load for say 1/2 hour or 1 hour and have the generator kick on automatically when the voltage drops to charge the batteries...this way the generator will not be run continuously. What would you need to set this up? Anything besides what I have mentioned?

Josh

Answer 1

Absolutely. There are Inverters used for the solar electric market that have a remote generator start (providing the genset has a electronic start)

A good source of the equipment for a stand alone setup would be
http://www.backwoodssolar.com/


They run their entire business off of PV arrays with a genset backup. And the nice thing about their catalog is that it reads like a book on self generated electricity.

Answer 2

Yes, this is quite possible. What you need to do is to determine the maximum current draw, and size the equipment accordingly. One important point to remember is that batteries do not like to be re-charged rapidly. Therefore, the drain on the batteries in say 1/2 hour, may take several hours to recharge. This scheme works very well with solar energy, but what you may very well end up with huge losses in efficiency. I can tell you first hand, that if you are able to buy power from the electric company, it will be the cheapest, cleanest alternative. And, no, I do not work for the government, or the power company but I do have an old wind turbine and an empty bank book.

Answer 3

Let's say you've worked out all of the basic power balances. How many times do you expect the batteries to be recharged in a year? Even really good batteries will only recharge a limited number of times (maybe 2000??). And they are expensive!

Answer 4

What is the amp draw of the appliances how big are the batters and what is the output of the generator? too many variables for a good answer