Status: Sheltering in place, we have plenty of food and supplies. (And TP)
- 07:00 I’m up sipp’n coffee and reading E-Mail
- 08:00 Watching our shopper get our groceries.
- 09:00 Doing research on the substitution of Kroger Mini Wheats
- 10:00 Talking to mom about the farm in Florida.
- 11:00 Eating lunch
- 12:00 Looking for High Voltage Fuse Holders and fuses.
- 13:00 Building a cable to run an inverter from a golf cart charging cable.
- 14:00 Nap
- 16:00 Received 48V inverter and mounted cable, took pictures.
- 17:00 Dinner
- 18:00 Tested Inverter on 48V battery bank and two 500W heaters.
- 19:00 playing Scrabble and calling it a day.
Plans: Put away Groceries, take walk and work on mom’s Inverter for her refrigerator.
Narrative: I had fun today playing with the Inverter. One because it was larger than any previous purchases. Two because it ran on 48V (Which is really 56V) which requires special fuses. (Automotive fuses are rated at 32V) Buying fuses rated at 15A at 60VDC was a challenge some years ago when I bought my first 48V UPS. My downfall was that the Eaton 48V 1500VA UPS could not run my refrigerator like a 24V 1000VA Triplite UPS has been doing for about 10 years. This Inverter is Surge rated at 3KW which should easily start the compressor in the refrigerator. I am a little scared to try it with all of our food in the fridge and this Pandemic situation.
Engineering: Fridge part 3. It took several days to find out that the 18AH batteries were actually 1/2 a standard U1 size battery. A U1 battery is 35AH and almost as common as the 18AH batteries I have so many of, they are also cheaper per amp/hr than the 18ah batteries. 105AH of U1 batteries is half the number of 18AH batteries on my bench.
It still was quite a few wires, but much more manageable. I had to change the stakon ends because the bolts in the batteries were larger. The batteries were roughly $100 each and I have 16 so far.
If you’ve read other sections of this Blog you’ll know that I bought 4 and have 5 of these tiny 25Lb china made generators.
They get bogged down at about 500Watts resistive even though they should be able to handle 688W with a .8 power factor and 860W resistive. 364Watts is 53% of the rated capacity of the generator and about all I can get out of a pair of 28VDC power supplies to charge the batteries at about 13Amps. I’ve tried to run connect the UPS directly to the generator with mixed results. (Depends on the generator) If the refrigerator is in defrost cycle, half of my generators won’t run the UPS directly. Using DC power supplies appears to be the most effective way of running the fridge from these small generators with the high refrigerator compressor startup currents. I have total control of the amount of current and the end charge voltage with them.
Feelings:
Tomorrow:Friday, my last payday with the company.
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accmplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Repairs: Pi News:
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To