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Old 02-04-2023, 06:22 PM   #1 (permalink)
redpoint5
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Run Whole House on Wimpy Generator?

I've been seeing "deals" on "power stations" lately; battery plus inverter combos in one. My natural reaction to "all in one" things is that it limits usefulness by locking you into several parameters, and doesn't allow selectively choosing each component for quality, performance, etc.

This got me to thinking I could build my own "power station" using a 12v pure sine wave inverter and battery of my choosing. Once down that rabbit hole, that got me to thinking I could select an inverter sufficiently powerful to run all 120v circuits in my house. The only 240v things I run are the AC, and the oven (range is gas). So, I could switch off my 240v breakers and the mains in a power outage, and wire an inverter directly into the panel (not recommending anyone do this).

I had impulse bought an 800 watt Sportsman GEN1000i generator for $159. This got me to thinking that since my average household load is 600 watts, I should be able to run off my generator if there was a buffer to handle peak loads.

So, my idea is to run generator > 12v battery charger > 12v battery > inverter > breaker panel.

Does this seem feasible? If so, I could potentially run my whole house on 2 gallons of gas per day on a quiet and efficient generator during outages.

Generator


Battery charger TBD. Dad has a 40 amp charger to test the theory with.

Battery... whatever is laying around

Inverter- torn between the $50 cheaper 2500 watt unit that has an LCD screen

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQ3WYBZL...g_paid-20&th=1



and the 2500 watt more expensive unit that has AC out terminals instead of just outlets.





Anyhow, that's the silly project I've been pondering. The advantage of such a system is it can be portable for camping if I wanted to.

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