[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Build your own portable power station: An ARFcom tutorial (very pic heavy) (Page 2 of 5)
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I am building a similar but smaller setup. For my net book and cell phone. 12 watt sunlinq panel 2 battery's 12v 7Ah $11.88 at Academy 120W power inverter with usb .5A AC powered charger/maintainer $9.99 at Academy old 6pack sized cooler (plastic insert soft side) And it all fits inside the cooler Academy had a clearance sale on the deer feeder stuff. That sounds like a slick setup 
Can you post pics when you put it together? I'd love to see pics posted here from anyone who puts together their own portable power station. Everyone has different ideas and methodologies used to solve problems, so your builds would become an excellent resource for the rest of us to draw from 
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If you have alrady made the battery box but want it mobile, may I show you this
I saw them yesterday. Well made and can carry 200lb, but folds up for storage. |
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Noob question. If I have a cigarette lighter adapter, can I wire that straight to my battery and use an automobile adapter to power my computer? In effect bypassing an inverter? Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Yes you can. In this version the cigarette lighter adapter was used to power 12v chargers (phones and laptops) directly, bypassing the inverter: 
The cigarette lighter adapter was also used as a charging port for the battery itself
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Thanks I totally see that now. I was looking at the wiring harness when I had the epiphany. I am assuming you just ran the cig socket right to the terminals? Precisely! Looking at this pic, instead of using the powerpole connectors at the end of the charging pigtail, just wire in your cigarette lighter socket instead
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Here is my version of the portable power pack. I found the wheels didn't work too well with the heavy battery so I bought a hand cart like the one someone pointed out at Northern Tools. I bought a $30 version at Lowe's and it works slick.
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Here is my version of the portable power pack. I found the wheels didn't work too well with the heavy battery so I bought a hand cart like the one someone pointed out at Northern Tools. I bought a $30 version at Lowe's and it works slick. Is that the Doc Wattson meter? How do you like it? Is there an advantage over the Watts Up for this size of system? |
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Any reason to put a digital meter in the setup to see where your battery power stands without having to pull a multimeter? Or would it be a unnecessary power loss? thanks and I like your idea/ nct 
$8.41 Check your Black and Decker outlet store Vector VEC008 Digital LCD Voltmeter, 12 Volt |
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Optima Yellow Top batteries are 75 amp hours. You can find batteries with higher capacity, but they will also be heavier and affect portability. I found a 105 amp hour agm deep cycle battery, but it's 72 lbs. I just wanted to throw that out there. If a person doesn't need to move it much, or rigs it up on a dolly, you could greatly increase the capacity. Figure 105 amps gives a guy dang near 50% more runtime than 75. ETA: The dolly cart starts giving me crazy ideas about potentially stacking 2, or even 3 of those batteries... Starts getting spendy in a hurry, though. |
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Optima Yellow Top batteries are 75 amp hours. You can find batteries with higher capacity, but they will also be heavier and affect portability. I found a 105 amp hour agm deep cycle battery, but it's 72 lbs. I just wanted to throw that out there. If a person doesn't need to move it much, or rigs it up on a dolly, you could greatly increase the capacity. Figure 105 amps gives a guy dang near 50% more runtime than 75. ETA: The dolly cart starts giving me crazy ideas about potentially stacking 2, or even 3 of those batteries... Starts getting spendy in a hurry, though. if your going with a cart look into 6v golf cart batteries. there a little heavy, 62lbs each but your talking 200-225ah's. well worth the money and the weight compared to a standard 12v battery. |
| Amazing thread, thank you very much for sharing this with us. Definitely going to have to blatantly copy your setup, as that could come in mighty handy in many instances. I had something that popped into my head for helping with portability that may or may not work well. Why not just bolt on a length of say 2" nylon webbing that way you could have yourself a shoulder strap? I know moving batteries is always a PITA, but maybe something long enough to use as shoulder strap would ease things, especially for those who may struggle moving that kind of weight. One of the best threads I have read in a while, for sure. |
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Here is my version of the portable power pack. I found the wheels didn't work too well with the heavy battery so I bought a hand cart like the one someone pointed out at Northern Tools. I bought a $30 version at Lowe's and it works slick. Is that the Doc Wattson meter? How do you like it? Is there an advantage over the Watts Up for this size of system? None that I could tell. I had bought Doc Wattson meter for my HF radio box and ended up using it on the portable battery pack. These meters will show you amps used, which tells me a lot more than just volts. |
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Hmmmm...what advantage does this rig offer over having a big box of giant candles? I've got a case of these ginormous survival candles...I think each one burns 24 hours. They are cheap and can be stored almost forever. I have very similar rigs on my sump-pumps. But for lighting, I guess I don't see why candles wouldn't be a cheaper and longer lasting solution. |
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Hmmmm...what advantage does this rig offer over having a big box of giant candles? I've got a case of these ginormous survival candles...I think each one burns 24 hours. They are cheap and can be stored almost forever. I have very similar rigs on my sump-pumps. But for lighting, I guess I don't see why candles wouldn't be a cheaper and longer lasting solution. because with candles you can only get light from them. with a setup like this you can charge batteries or even power things like a radio or even a tv and dvd/sat to entertain the kids silently and without burning fuel. this also could give you the starting point for doing a complete battery back up to go along with the genny. run the genny during the day to ower what you need and to charge the batteries and run off batteries at night. |
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Hmmmm...what advantage does this rig offer over having a big box of giant candles? I've got a case of these ginormous survival candles...I think each one burns 24 hours. They are cheap and can be stored almost forever. I have very similar rigs on my sump-pumps. But for lighting, I guess I don't see why candles wouldn't be a cheaper and longer lasting solution. I think that my pellet stove running for 12+ hours puts out slightly more heat then a "big box of candles". That said, IKEA had a sale on candles one time. Note the word "had". |
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Here is my version of the portable power pack. I found the wheels didn't work too well with the heavy battery so I bought a hand cart like the one someone pointed out at Northern Tools. I bought a $30 version at Lowe's and it works slick. Luther, that looks awesome! Thank you for posting it. There are so many innovative ideas and variations for these portable power boxes it's inspiring to see them.
Thanks again. Cjsls, depending on the size of the inverter I use breakers or fuse blocks from 30 to 100 amps. Quoted:
Hmmmm...what advantage does this rig offer over having a big box of giant candles? I've got a case of these ginormous survival candles...I think each one burns 24 hours. They are cheap and can be stored almost forever. I have very similar rigs on my sump-pumps. But for lighting, I guess I don't see why candles wouldn't be a cheaper and longer lasting solution. Back in 2008 when I built these boxes it was all about continuity of business. I work for a dot com company, and at the time we could ill-afford to lose a week (or more) of revenue. After the ice storm hit we were in pretty deep shit. Both our primary call and data centers were offline, and our fiber and backup trunked T1s and voice PRIs were down. Without electricity our PBX, VoIP gateway, web, data, and e-mail servers were offline. The only thing that was working was our data center in Dallas. These power boxes were intended primarily for our remote employees who work from home. If I could keep their laptops, cable modems, and cell phones running they could still generate revenue. It became a Herculean effort to save the company and protect our livelihoods. I built two massive external battery arrays to feed our APC Symmetra UPS cabinets to run our e-mail server, PBX, and VoIP gateway. We used generators to power some equipment, as well as run battery chargers. Using the VoIP gateway, we forwarded thousands of phone calls to cell phones, laptops, and offices in other states. To answer your question directly, if these boxes were only about providing light I would completely agree with you-there are much simpler ways to do that I provided the mini 14w CFL fixtures because I didn't want people to start plugging regular electric lights into the inverters and run the batteries down faster. We provided flashlights, lanterns, candles, batteries, Eton crank radios, Heater Buddies, water, and scads of other equipment to help our employees get through the mess.
The executives at my company were fantastic and extremely supportive of our efforts. |
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+1 CJ I have been quoted during the last power failure as saying, "light is easy". http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff124/flytosail/624320_1816Lrg.jpg Well, it also makes hot chocolate or tea. Agreed 
When you have to support dozens of people it gets much, much harder. Some of the equipment and supplies stockpiled at my office I showed you the other day are intended for our off-site employees. It can get mind boggling when you start to figure out the logistics of supporting 100+ people. Gets expensive too. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Optima Yellow Top batteries are 75 amp hours. You can find batteries with higher capacity, but they will also be heavier and affect portability. I found a 105 amp hour agm deep cycle battery, but it's 72 lbs. I just wanted to throw that out there. If a person doesn't need to move it much, or rigs it up on a dolly, you could greatly increase the capacity. Figure 105 amps gives a guy dang near 50% more runtime than 75. ETA: The dolly cart starts giving me crazy ideas about potentially stacking 2, or even 3 of those batteries... Starts getting spendy in a hurry, though. if your going with a cart look into 6v golf cart batteries. there a little heavy, 62lbs each but your talking 200-225ah's. well worth the money and the weight compared to a standard 12v battery. I'm a bit weak on the technical side of electrical, so maybe someone can answer this. If a guy runs 12v from 2 6v 200ah batteries, is it 400ah, or does the doubling of the voltage negate the doubling of the batteries? |
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I've had the best luck finding those breakers at AutoZone and Pep Boys. They are Buss brand-the same guys who make automotive fuses. Buss also sells a really slick fuse block with bolt-on terminals. It's a lot cheaper than a breaker, and does the exact same job Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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I've had the best luck finding those breakers at AutoZone and Pep Boys. They are Buss brand-the same guys who make automotive fuses. Buss also sells a really slick fuse block with bolt-on terminals. It's a lot cheaper than a breaker, and does the exact same job
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Plus lots cheaper then the marine version. |
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Optima Yellow Top batteries are 75 amp hours. You can find batteries with higher capacity, but they will also be heavier and affect portability. I found a 105 amp hour agm deep cycle battery, but it's 72 lbs. I just wanted to throw that out there. If a person doesn't need to move it much, or rigs it up on a dolly, you could greatly increase the capacity. Figure 105 amps gives a guy dang near 50% more runtime than 75. ETA: The dolly cart starts giving me crazy ideas about potentially stacking 2, or even 3 of those batteries... Starts getting spendy in a hurry, though. if your going with a cart look into 6v golf cart batteries. there a little heavy, 62lbs each but your talking 200-225ah's. well worth the money and the weight compared to a standard 12v battery. I'm a bit weak on the technical side of electrical, so maybe someone can answer this. If a guy runs 12v from 2 6v 200ah batteries, is it 400ah, or does the doubling of the voltage negate the doubling of the batteries? you would wire them in series, you double the voltage but the AH's stays the same. so 2 6v 220am batteries gives you 12v 220AH. now, double your batteries, 4 6v 220AH to 12v and you now have 440 AH's. to run the 4 batteries you have to change your wiring from series to series/parallel. there are diagrams on the net that can guide you as well as sites that can walk you through wiring them up to the grid but also to solar. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Optima Yellow Top batteries are 75 amp hours. You can find batteries with higher capacity, but they will also be heavier and affect portability. I found a 105 amp hour agm deep cycle battery, but it's 72 lbs. I just wanted to throw that out there. If a person doesn't need to move it much, or rigs it up on a dolly, you could greatly increase the capacity. Figure 105 amps gives a guy dang near 50% more runtime than 75. ETA: The dolly cart starts giving me crazy ideas about potentially stacking 2, or even 3 of those batteries... Starts getting spendy in a hurry, though. if your going with a cart look into 6v golf cart batteries. there a little heavy, 62lbs each but your talking 200-225ah's. well worth the money and the weight compared to a standard 12v battery. I'm a bit weak on the technical side of electrical, so maybe someone can answer this. If a guy runs 12v from 2 6v 200ah batteries, is it 400ah, or does the doubling of the voltage negate the doubling of the batteries? you would wire them in series, you double the voltage but the AH's stays the same. so 2 6v 220am batteries gives you 12v 220AH. now, double your batteries, 4 6v 220AH to 12v and you now have 440 AH's. to run the 4 batteries you have to change your wiring from series to series/parallel. there are diagrams on the net that can guide you as well as sites that can walk you through wiring them up to the grid but also to solar. Ok, so it would pretty much have the same end result as if you paralleled two of the 105ah 12v batteries. Just looked at the price for the 220ah 6v cart batteries: Almost $340 each, $680 to get 220ah 12v. A pair of the 105ah 12v is $250 each. $500 to get 210 ah 12v. I wonder how bad used golf cart batteries are by the time they are looking to get rid of them. |
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Ok, so it would pretty much have the same end result as if you paralleled two of the 105ah 12v batteries. Just looked at the price for the 220ah 6v cart batteries: Almost $340 each, $680 to get 220ah 12v. A pair of the 105ah 12v is $250 each. $500 to get 210 ah 12v. I wonder how bad used golf cart batteries are by the time they are looking to get rid of them. HOLY CRAP. that is WAY overpriced for the 6v batteries. HERE is a link with them $250 for 2 and more deals on the more you buy. you can also check out your local walmart auto dept and see how much they can get 6v batteries for. in that link you could double your AH's for the same $500 for the 2 12v's. |
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Quoted: The one I priced was an agm battery so I'd be comparing apples to apples price-wise with the original examples. I didn't shop around much for the example, though. It really does start leading down the solar road, though. "Batteries, batteries, charing, inverters..." It's like you're halfway there. It starts making a guy wonder what sort of panel you would need to recharge a small (like op example) power station each day for use in the evening. Quoted: Ok, so it would pretty much have the same end result as if you paralleled two of the 105ah 12v batteries. Just looked at the price for the 220ah 6v cart batteries: Almost $340 each, $680 to get 220ah 12v. A pair of the 105ah 12v is $250 each. $500 to get 210 ah 12v. I wonder how bad used golf cart batteries are by the time they are looking to get rid of them. HOLY CRAP. that is WAY overpriced for the 6v batteries. HERE is a link with them $250 for 2 and more deals on the more you buy. you can also check out your local walmart auto dept and see how much they can get 6v batteries for. in that link you could double your AH's for the same $500 for the 2 12v's. |
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Seems like a lot of work and expense for a very niche product.
Me, I don't feel too wedded to AC power but now that I'm getting married, I'm making allowances to keep the better half more comfortable and hence, in a better mood should difficult times pop up. Here's something that's cheaper and easier, IMHO. 
I've got one of these at home (1350VA) and it's programmed to shut the computer down after two minutes unless over-ridden and it will run for about an hour at a 90 watt load (computer running) or three to four with just the cordless phone, router and cable modem. It's computerized to give a readout on the load, time remaining, etc. It utilizes sealed batteries and it's portable, safe and easy to use. I even programmed it to run in silent mode. All for about $120 delivered. Yeah, I've got a couple of marine deep cycle batteries and a couple of inverters, but feel that relatively inefficient conversion from heavy battery to relatively small AC current just isn't worth it for me. For small loads, I've got a tiny little 1000W genset that sips gas (12+ hours per gallon at 50% IIRC). I can charge a lot of small batteries, all of my deep cycle batteries, run my CFL construction floods (think efficient quartz halogen lamps) or CFLs in the house and still have enough to run a couple of fans and a small refrigerator. For bigger loads, I've got bigger gensets. The point I guess I'm trying to make is that you can get a decent quality, high capacity UPS that will offer you many of the same features in a tidy package for less money and trouble. John |
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You are absolutely correct John about simplicity of deployment, but what you need to consider is an apples-to-apples comparison of dollars spent versus reserve capacity/run-time. On a dollars-per-amp basis, your UPS is a lot more expensive than my portable power box.
The small, consumer-grade UPS you pictured has a run-time estimate measured in minutes, rather than hours. A small 1350VA UPS will typically have a single 10 or 12Ah battery on-board to power it's inverter. They are designed not to keep your PC running without grid power, but to give you enough time for a graceful shutdown. You would need around five of them to equal the output potential of one of the 55Ah boxes I put together. When you do the math, my power boxes priced out to be around $275ea to assemble, while five of yours would cost $600. Also keep in mind that for liability reasons my company asked me to make them as safe as possible, which resulted in me using one of the most expensive cost-per-amp batteries that money can buy. You can buy a traditional 110Ah deep-cycle marine battery for around $120, which would have brought the per-unit cost of what I put together down to around $225. You would need around nine 1350VA units to get that kind of capacity. When I speced out these boxes originally the intention was to power the minimum amount of hardware necessary to get a remote office up and running. I assumed a laptop, cable modem, BlackBerry, and a compact light fixture. This worked out to be between 150 and 200 watts, depending on the size of the laptop. I advised our remote employees to run their boxes for 3-4 hours before starting up their cars and recharging them via the cigarette lighter. The 3-4 hour mandate was me being super conservative. Since I didn't know how long the power outage was going to last I didn't want people to destroy their batteries prematurely by running them completely flat. After doing some testing I discovered that some of the inverters I used would still run on as little as 11 volts. As an aside, all of our remote employees have an APC 1500VA UPS installed in their home offices-and most of those APCs were completely dead within an hour of them losing power. Edited, because I can't spell for shite 
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According to this:
B/D 750 watt inverter The inverter has a "Low battery shutdown prevents total battery drain" |
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According to this: B/D 750 watt inverter The inverter has a "Low battery shutdown prevents total battery drain" Good point Surf-but I wonder what the actual shutdown point is. The 750w Duralast inverters ran as low as 10.8v before cutting out. The Vectors cut out around 11v, if I remember correctly. I didn't get a chance to test the Black and Deckers, Huskies, Tripp-Lites, and Cyber Powers-so I don't know where they cut out. |
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First I want to compliment CJan for a very nice construction job and thank him for taking the time to spread the word.
With that said, I need to point out that CJan's use of 10 gauge wire to connect his inverter to the battery works for him because of his decision to limit power draw to 200 watts. Anyone who duplicated his setup but tried to use the inverter at its full 750 watt capacity would quickly be disappointed. At 750 watts the inverter will draw something like 70 amps which is way beyond the safe capacity of 10 gauge wire (you'd need at least 4 gauge). In addition, the resistance of the 10 gauge wire will have a significant voltage drop at high inverter currents which will cause the inverter to shutdown sooner that it needs to. Again, what CJan has built is completely safe given his intended usage. Those who want to use the inverter at its full capacity however should use 4 gauge wire (and an appropriate fuse/circuit breaker) to connect it to the battery. |
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First I want to compliment CJan for a very nice construction job and thank him for taking the time to spread the word. With that said, I need to point out that CJan's use of 10 gauge wire to connect his inverter to the battery works for him because of his decision to limit power draw to 200 watts. Anyone who duplicated his setup but tried to use the inverter at its full 750 watt capacity would quickly be disappointed. At 750 watts the inverter will draw something like 70 amps which is way beyond the safe capacity of 10 gauge wire (you'd need at least 4 gauge). In addition, the resistance of the 10 gauge wire will have a significant voltage drop at high inverter currents which will cause the inverter to shutdown sooner that it needs to. Again, what CJan has built is completely safe given his intended usage. Those who want to use the inverter at its full capacity however should use 4 gauge wire (and an appropriate fuse/circuit breaker) to connect it to the battery. I agree about the thicker wire....however you should see what B/D gives you for clamping to the car battery. My pellet stove draws about 300 watts. Add a cell phone charger, cable modem and laptop and I am still warm, communicating, and surfing ARFcom at under 400 watts. |
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Hey, I thought the factory supplied stuff would be overkill.  I am kind of figuring on the wires supplied with the 750 unit being what I use with the 400 watt invertor and I will use some spiffy wires for the 750 unit just in case I ever want to be able to use the invertor close to its capacity. I am glad someone posted about it, I had been thinking about it but have not read up on it to have decided on wire size for the length of run I will have. I have been looking hard at the factory built ups stuff that wally world and staples and other places carry and I think they would be perfect for my aunts and uncles or parents or someone like that who is basically just going to need to finish what they are doing very quickly and shut things down. For being able to charge my laptop completely in a few hours or jump start a vehicle I am going home built and still debating what I will actually wind up with for a battery since I know I am going to wind up with something on sale before worrying much about sealed vs vented. I decided that my jumper cables are going to be some old jumper cables I have that still have good insulation and I will just cut a couple alligator clips off them and add power poles to the battery box and the jumper cables. Going to order some extras since I might wind up making jumper cables for my vehicle that could plug into a power pole I install on the vehicle and skip the alligator clip fun. Everyone has to decide what they want to mess with and what will work best for them. I have almost everything sitting around here at home or in a storage unit other than a battery, battery box, some of the wire, the connectors, and any kind of digital meter I might get. I like that digital meter that just goes in the cigarrette lighter, would be nice to check on vehicles that need a jumpstart as well. For the past couple years all my relatives have had newer vehicles, so have I. Now things are getting a few years on em and we are back to me being the one who gets a call to go check on the dead vehicle, we have some spare vehicles so they usually just leave the problem vehicle for me to look at and decide if it is something we can do or if it dealer level information that is needed. |
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The one I priced was an agm battery so I'd be comparing apples to apples price-wise with the original examples. I didn't shop around much for the example, though. It really does start leading down the solar road, though. "Batteries, batteries, charing, inverters..." It's like you're halfway there. It starts making a guy wonder what sort of panel you would need to recharge a small (like op example) power station each day for use in the evening.
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Ok, so it would pretty much have the same end result as if you paralleled two of the 105ah 12v batteries. Just looked at the price for the 220ah 6v cart batteries: Almost $340 each, $680 to get 220ah 12v. A pair of the 105ah 12v is $250 each. $500 to get 210 ah 12v. I wonder how bad used golf cart batteries are by the time they are looking to get rid of them. HOLY CRAP. that is WAY overpriced for the 6v batteries. HERE is a link with them $250 for 2 and more deals on the more you buy. you can also check out your local walmart auto dept and see how much they can get 6v batteries for. in that link you could double your AH's for the same $500 for the 2 12v's. HERE are some cheaper AGM 6v batteries. they are 200AH. if you have a HF close buy they sell a 45w solar setup for less than $200 i believe. there is a writeup somewhere in the outdoor section but cant remember if its in the survival section. |
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How about using a UPS for the inverter/charging function? In my case I have a APC 750 SmartUPS that has a dead battery.
I was planning to wire the UPS battery connectors to a Optima battery. this should give me much longer run time along with pure sine wave power. (looking to power a medical applicance for a relitive) will this work? or am I looking at a epic fail? |
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How about using a UPS for the inverter/charging function? In my case I have a APC 750 SmartUPS that has a dead battery. I was planning to wire the UPS battery connectors to a Optima battery. this should give me much longer run time along with pure sine wave power. (looking to power a medical applicance for a relitive) will this work? or am I looking at a epic fail? no reason it shouldnt. |
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How about using a UPS for the inverter/charging function? In my case I have a APC 750 SmartUPS that has a dead battery. I was planning to wire the UPS battery connectors to a Optima battery. this should give me much longer run time along with pure sine wave power. (looking to power a medical applicance for a relitive) will this work? or am I looking at a epic fail? Codesmith, you can absolutely do what you are asking
After the 2008 storm I built external battery arrays for three different types of UPS units. Several of our small desktop units for individual pieces of equipment: 
Medium sized rackmount units for servers: 
And two large, refrigerator-sized units for large servers and network backbone: 
ETA: Be mindful of heat if your are running your UPS at or near it's max rating with a large external battery. Most smaller UPS units don't have cooling fans, because they weren't intended to run for long periods of time on battery power. ETAA: Your 750VA UPS is probably equipped with a single 7Ah sealed lead acid battery. When you get into the rackmount and larger units like the ones I pictured, they usually require battery arrays of 48 to 96 volts DC to operate. For obvious reasons this requires a lot of 12v batteries 
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