Lessons from Sandy

[Larry]

A thousand watts is 85 amps at 12 volts. Most automotive alternators will fry if you try to run them at that level, though some heavy duty truck alternators will handle 1000 watts continuous. Your typical car alternator will put out 50 amps at 14 volts at 4000 RPM, which is above engine idle. You can retrofit a heavy duty 150+ amp alternator with a small pulley to make it spin faster, but modern cars with their tight engine well and serpentine belts make that a PITA. It would be easier to just get a 3 hp lawnmower motor, mount a heavy duty alternator and a battery, which would give you 1000 watts easily while running the engine at moderate speed.

[terryc]

Does anyone over there know anything about the Kipor copy cats? Blue instead of red, but significantly cheaper than the $2K Honda sting us for here.

[terryc]

Wow, might as well do the old spanner across the terminals trick. A 200Ah is rated to produce that figure over 20 hours, so it has to be discharged 10Amps or less for a maximum of 10 hours. That is unless you want to vastly reduce its working life.

Batteries are great, but they do have severe limitations in big power applications.

Correct.

[HeyBub]

There are several plans on the web, with parts lists, of lawnmowers repurposed into generators.

[jimtuber]

Are you talking about headlights?

I absolutely HATE those Blue headlights they put on many cars these days. But they are not LED, they are halogen or something else. They are so blinding. Worse than most white ones. Even more annoying is when someone is behind me with those blue headlights. More than once I thought there was a cop behind me, and once I even pulled over, because the idiot with his blue headlights must have had a loose bulb mounting and the light appeared to be flashing. I thought for sure I was being pulled over by a cop.

If I had anything to say about it, I'd ban those things today.

The old incandescent headlights were always satisfactory for me, and they did not blind other drivers (unless they had their brights on). Then came the halogen types, which were brighter, and at times blinded other drivers. Now they have even brighter ones that can completely blind other drivers. I thought that headlights were intended to illuminate the road, not blind other drivers.

Several times on curvy two lane roads I've completely lost all view of the road because some oncoming dickwad with blinding lights has blinded me. All I can do is hit my brakes and hope for the best till the dickwad is past me. And if they are behind me and close, I just pull on the shoulder and let them pass.

I've sent complaints to the D.O.T several times now. Those overly bright lights, especially the blue ones are a hazzard.

[terryc]

Hint, just make sure it is a working lawn mowers engine before you start.

[Stormin Mormon]

LED are OK for light, but don't put out much heat. Many power cuts, in winter, and the heat is nice.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Never needed any of them this storm, thankfully. A couple of blinks is all we had. Still cannot justify a generator. I'd do as well by setting 1000 $1 bills in the garage and burn them when needed for light and heat.

[Stormin Mormon]

72 hours of high mode should last many days. The "find me!" blinking LED sounds totally useful. Anyhow, what's your take? Are you pleased with it?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

I will have to think about that. I bought this one a few months ago. Lasts longer on D" cells, but is not rechargeable.

[Stormin Mormon]

Please see if you can get the link to open, it will be very descriptive:

Takes threee D cells in the base, and has a reflector that pivots up and down.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Are you talking about headlights?

I absolutely HATE those Blue headlights they put on many cars these days. But they are not LED, they are halogen or something else. They are so blinding. Worse than most white ones. Even more annoying is when someone is behind me with those blue headlights. More than once I thought there was a cop behind me, and once I even pulled over, because the idiot with his blue headlights must have had a loose bulb mounting and the light appeared to be flashing. I thought for sure I was being pulled over by a cop.

If I had anything to say about it, I'd ban those things today.

The old incandescent headlights were always satisfactory for me, and they did not blind other drivers (unless they had their brights on). Then came the halogen types, which were brighter, and at times blinded other drivers. Now they have even brighter ones that can completely blind other drivers. I thought that headlights were intended to illuminate the road, not blind other drivers.

Several times on curvy two lane roads I've completely lost all view of the road because some oncoming dickwad with blinding lights has blinded me. All I can do is hit my brakes and hope for the best till the dickwad is past me. And if they are behind me and close, I just pull on the shoulder and let them pass.

I've sent complaints to the D.O.T several times now. Those overly bright lights, especially the blue ones are a hazzard.

[Pavel314]

eir house brand "Ozark Trail". Use the rest of the money to buy Raoyvac D b= atteries. My experience with LED lanterns, the light pattern is really not = very even. How's yours? Are you pleased with it? Didn't mean to rain on you= r parade, but my experiences are different. Christopher A. Young Learn more= about Jesus

.=20

We like it; it's light-weight, long-lasting and can be either set on a flat= surface or hung from the hook built into the handle. I hung it from the sh= ower curtain rod to shave by in the morning. It's good for general lighting= , like going down to the wine cellar for a bottle, but I wouldn't recommend= it for reading. My wife used the flourescent lantern for knitting as it ga= ve better light. =20

Paul

- [e-mail]... Here's a good alternative to candles: htt= p://

We bo= ught one of these over a year ago and keep it plugged in and charging up al= l the time. It got its first use for Sandy and did very well; nice and brig= ht and very convenient. Besides the wall charge, it can also run off 3 AAA = bateries or you can charge it up with the generator crank on the side. We'r= e going to get a couple more for the next hurricane. The only thing I wish = I'd done to prepare was to check the drainage system by my wife's greenhous= e. It was clogged with leaves so we ended up with a 3" puddle in front of t= he door; since my boots are 6" that wasn't a problem, just an annoyance. I = start my generator on the first weekend of every month and run it for about= five minutes, just so it doesn't rust. (I changed the oil last weekend, fi= guring that it might get heavy usage during the storm.) Depending on the se= ason, I'll also start the snow blower or garden tiller at the same time to = make sure they're ready for action. Paul

[HeyBub]

I have an electric lawnmower...

Never mind.

[terryc]

lol.

umm, have you considered a hand generator for it?

[Winston_Smith]

My mini-mag lights do that trick. Twist the head to turn it on, keep turning and the reflector and lens comes off. The bulb stick up, high and proud. You can set it on the base to be an area light or hang from a bungee. It's a pretty precarious balance on the base but they sell a stabilizer and it's not hard to improvise one.

[Winston_Smith]

I got one from Harbor Fright when it was on cheap, cheap sale. Liked it so well I went back for three more. I've used it enough to trust it as the long term light source in my BOB.

The only complaint I can make is that it has a 1 LED and a 3 LED option. I can't tell them apart by intensity or light pattern. All in all, very happy with it.

[Winston_Smith]

If you are doing long term storage, you have to clean them very, very well. Even a small sugar residue can feed things you don't want in your water.

[clare]

If it's Chinese or Russian consider it a kit.

[clare]

And an engine from a tiller or snowblower or chipper will work a LOT better with the cast iron flywheel instead of the aluminum flywheel on most rotary lawn mowers. Using a rotary mower engine you will need a big heavy pulley to act as a flywheel or it will be VERY HARD to start.

[gfretwell]

That is true. There is virtually no flywheel on a lawn mower engine, they depend on the blade to be the flywheel. I couldn't even keep a regular deck style mower running without the blade.

The engine on my redneck 12v generator is from a worn out pressure washer. The Honda engine will run for years more.

[terryc]

I understood they were Indian produced, but I can not besure as the Chinese are also producing knock offs.

If it is Chinese produced, it really depends on the amount of quality nspection that the distributing company is performing at te production factory.

Plenty of people have purchased cheap chinese copies of various generators and almost all are for one use, then chuck a match on top the moment it cools down as the heat from the use has badly distorted everything.

[gregz]

Clean well, refill ever o often. I use kitty litter jugs, some at least 5 gallon. I treated with chlorine after filling. Right next to storage is 40 gallon hot water heater. More water. I could have really used a medicine dropper, will get one.

Greg