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How do i power my house on batterys

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marko

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:mad:please can some one tell me the best way to connect up batts to power my house, ive got 6 volt yuasa 160 amp batts and 18 in total my idea was to slpit the house power into 3 sections, one set of batts for my lighting ive got about 450 wats of power in my lights to cover and i have a 12v / 1500w invertor for this, i then wanted to run x amount of batts to cover my bedrooms and bathrooms plug useage,maybe a 1000w at any one time ,again i have got another 12v/1500w invertor for this ,,and finally the last set up was to run living room side ie cooker ,fridge freezer,etc for this i was going to get a 3000 wat inverter:confused: my idea is to power my house for maybe 2-3 days and then say the third day my generator would kick in and run the house for say 8 hours but also recharge the batts,then go back over to batt power i have been told if i run in paralel i would keep the same volts but keep doubleing the amps; am i right in thinking that i need more amps than volts?:confused::confused: as my 2 invertors at present are 12 v input then i will have to series my 2 6 volts up to give me 12volts am i right in thinking i will only get 160 amps and not 320 doing this , Iwould like to use a bank of 8 batts to run the say 3000 inverter and then 4 batts to run the 1500 inverter and the same with the last inverter leaving me two batts as spares can you please please please advise me maybe a diagram i am looking to get the best useage from my batts time wise i know this will depend on what i use but the only appliance that will run 24 hrs is the fridge which is A rated, thank you:eek:
 
Desperation? Such a project will take ages to sort out. Most likely it be be impractical to get what you're after. How do you plan to recharge the batteries?

im going to use the generator on say the third day and run that to power the house and also recharge the batts i was told i may be able to get some small solar panels to trickle charge the batts
 
im going to use the generator say on the third day to charge the batts and power the house that day, i thought if i used the washing machine this day i would not zap the batts

Charging the batteries isn't free, so you're using more fuel charging the batteries than you will save by using them.
 
Wow!

:mad:please can some one tell me the best way to connect up batts to power my house, ive got 6 volt yuasa 160 amp batts and 18 in total my idea was to split the house power into 3 sections, one set of batts for my lighting ive got about 450 wats of power in my lights to cover and i have a V / 1500w inverter for this, i then wanted to run x amount of bats to cover my bedrooms and bathrooms plug usage,maybe a 1000w at any one time ,again i have got another V/1500w invertor for this ,,and finally the last set up was to run living room side ie cooker ,fridge freezer,etc for this i was going to get a 3000 wat inverter:confused: my idea is to power my house for maybe 2-3 days and then say the third day my generator would kick in and run the house for say 8 hours but also recharge the batts,then go back over to batt power i have been told if i run in paralel i would keep the same volts but keep doubleing the amps; am i right in thinking that i need more amps than volts?:confused::confused: as my 2 inverters at present are 12 v input then i will have to series my 2 6 volts up to give me 12volts am i right in thinking i will only get 160 amps and not 320 doing this , Would like to use a bank of 8 batts to run the say 3000 inverter and then 4 batts to run the 1500 inverter and the same with the last inverter leaving me two batts as spares can you please please please advise me maybe a diagram i am looking to get the best useage from my batts time wise i know this will depend on what i use but the only appliance that will run 24 hrs is the fridge which is A rated, thank you:eek:

Over 300 words in one sentence, who is going to read that! Must be some kind of record.
 
Firstly you need to cut the energy consumption to a minimum.

Replace all the incandescents with CFLs which should cut your lighting budget by a quarter. You might also want to consider using 12V directly for the lights as you can buy 12V CFLs for use in caravans and cars. You shouldn't even need to re-wire the house but make sure the existing cable is thick enough for the required current which might be slightly higher at DC.

Forget about powering any high powered appliances such as heaters and electric cookers - they really drain batteries very quickly. If no electricity is available use gas such as propane or butane for all heating appliances.

Use as higher voltage to power the inverters as possible. I'd recommend 48V as it's low enough to be reasonably safe but high enough to cut the current required for the power drawn to a safe level.

So you could wire two banks of eight batteries in series to give you two 48V supplies and keep the remaining two in series for 12V which can be used for lighting.

Keep the batteries as near to the inverters as possible and all DC wires as short as possible - it's much better to run the mains cables longer distances than thick and heavy DC cables.

Make sure that the DC cables are adequately rated for the current and beware that you'll need to increase the conductor size if the cables are going to be burried in walls.

Where's your primary power source coming from?

Is it a solar, wind power or do you just want battery back-up in case of a mains failure?

EDIT:
There were a few replies between me writing the post and posting.

Nigel Goodwin said:
Charging the batteries isn't free, so you're using more fuel charging the batteries than you will save by using them.
Generators are more efficient when running at full capacity so charging batteries might result in a significant fuel saving - think of it as a similar principle to using a hybrid car.

He could also experiment with using the waste heat from the generator to heat water or his house.
 
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Firstly you need to cut the energy consumption to a minimum.

Replace all the incandescents with CFLs which should cut your lighting budget by a quarter. You might also want to consider using 12V directly for the lights as you can buy 12V CFLs for use in caravans and cars. You shouldn't even need to re-wire the house but make sure the existing cable is thick enough for the required current which might be slightly higher at DC.

Forget about powering any high powered appliances such as heaters and electric cookers - they really drain batteries very quickly.

Use as higher voltage to power the inverters as possible. I'd recommend 48V as it's low enough to be reasonably safe but high enough to cut the current required for the power drawn to a safe level.

So you could wire two banks of eight batteries in series to give you two 48V supplies and keep the remaining two in series for 12V which can be used for lighting.

Keep the batteries as near to the inverters as possible and all DC wires as short as possible - it's much better to run the mains cables longer distances than thick and heavy DC cables.

Make sure that the DC cables are adequately rated for the current and beware that you'll need to increase the conductor size if the cables are going to be burried in walls.

Where's your primary power source somming from?

Is it a solar, wind power or do you just want battery back-up in case of a mains failure?
Hi ive replaced my lights with low energy or led and my main power at the mo
is a generator
 
Power inverters are not 100% efficient.

That's true but as I just said, generators are extremely inefficient unless loaded to their full capacity.

It might be better off charging batteries and running the generator less often but harder.

Another thing you might want to consider is charging the batteries to a higher voltage and cutting the power when the current drops below a certain level. Just float charging the batteries to 6.9V takes ages to charge them, if you want to fast charge them, you need to charge them to 7.3V.
 
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That's true but as I just said, generators are extremely inefficient unless loaded to their full capacity.

It might be better off charging batteries and running the generator less often but harder.

Another thing you might want to consider is charging the batteries to a higher voltage and cutting the power when the current drops below a certain level. Just float charging the batteries to 6.9V takes ages to charge them, if you want to fast charge them, you need to charge them to 7.3V.

i was told that my invertors will cut the power when the batt level drops so far ,and the spec on the batts say they need 2.26v per cel on the chargeing am i right in saying there are 3 cells in each batt so i will need to charge at say 7 v each batt, do i multiply the charge volts say 7 over the bank of batts ,7x8 batts 56 volts?
 
Why not one inverter to power the whole house? having three separate inverters seems like extra trouble and waste. Get an inverter with an inbuilt battery charger and generator connection if possible, for wind/solar addition down the line.

Surely you are not thinking of using battery power to run your cooker and refrigerator? Just about any solar type home is going to offload those power hogs to LPG. Get a purpose built propane refrigerator, or scavenge one from an RV/Caravan. Some substantial solar panels are going to be required to top off that kind of battery bank.
 
Why not one inverter to power the whole house? having three separate inverters seems like extra trouble and waste. Get an inverter with an inbuilt battery charger and generator connection if possible, for wind/solar addition down the line.

Surely you are not thinking of using battery power to run your cooker and refrigerator? Just about any solar type home is going to offload those power hogs to LPG. Get a purpose built propane refrigerator, or scavenge one from an RV/Caravan. Some substantial solar panels are going to be required to top off that kind of battery bank.

most of my appliances are lpg the fridge freezer is not but A rated for energy,this was the problem with my gene useing all that power just for maybe a tv or the odd light my main concern was keeping the fridge running 24/7
 
i was told that my invertors will cut the power when the batt level drops so far ,and the spec on the batts say they need 2.26v per cel on the chargeing am i right in saying there are 3 cells in each batt so i will need to charge at say 7 v each batt, do i multiply the charge volts say 7 over the bank of batts ,7x8 batts 56 volts?
What sort of batteries are these?

Are they sealed lead acids or are they flooded?

Generally it's all right to charge batteries to higher voltages for a short length of time, in fact most battery manufactures recommend it for fast charging.

You're right about the the voltages being added together when you connect them in series.

Why not one inverter to power the whole house?
Why not connect all those batteries in series to get 108V?

You can buy large inverters that work from 100VDC.

Obviously at this voltage you need to be careful.
 
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