All that said, yes, if the battery bank is big enough, a whole house can be powered.....and the foregoing is all JMHO- that and a dollar might still get you a cup of coffee in some places.


“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them”
- George Mason, American Statesman (1725-92)

 

one way i am looking at it, is yes, i may spend 2-3K on this project, but my justification on this matter is if you spend 1-2k on a generator, you still have to fuel it. last year durring ike alone we spent total of 1-1500 just on fuel. 125 miles round trip to get to a station with fuel and power to run the pumps. and being out in the country we have 5-10 power outages a year some lasting up to 4 days. begining with rita in 05 we have been hit here by4 storms in 3 years. our odds arent good at this point in the hurricane cycle. it took the local stations3 days to get a generator to run them last time and the lines averaged 8-10 hours to get a 10 and some places 20 gallon maximum.

 

Understand your frustrations. Right now we have a 7kw gas driven job for backup, and if the outage is very long, fuel does become a problem. My thoughts are to go to a 8-10 kw diesel powered genset, and, needing a small farm tractor, get a diesel powered one. Then with a storage tank for the tractor, there is a good reserve for the generator if needed. Another advantage is a diesel generator can be one of the 1800 rpm jobs, not the 3600 gas job, which helps longevity. Since diesel fuel stores better than gas, seems like the way to go. With some turnover in the diesel tank, long term availability seems a better shot than trying to store gas.


“If a man neglects to enforce his rights, he cannot complain, if, after a while, the law follows his example.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

The 230 number is taking into consideration voltage drop already.
240 on the supply side, 230 on the device end of the circuit.
120 on the supply side, 115 on the device end of the circuit.

So if I look at an extension cord 50 feet long, I have 120 volts at the breaker panel.
I want to run a 20 amp tool that requires 115 volts.
10 THHN AWG copper wire has an ampacity of 40 amps so it looks like it will carry 200% of the required amps.
But at 50 feet, 100 foot total circuit length, voltage drop will have reduced the voltage to 115.4 volts when a 20 amp load is applied.

If the amperage load increases to 22 amps the voltage drop increases to 5.09 volts which drops the voltage to 114.91 volts which is below 115 volts and not acceptable.
So the wire has to be increased to #8 THHN AWG to supply enough voltage to the device.

The only way you can use 220 volts at the device when figuring voltage drop is if the spec plate on the device lists 220 volts.
If it specifies 230 volts, you are figuring in twice the allowable drop.

Back in the old days voltage was stated at 110 and 220, but increasing electric demand and the number of resulting fires has changed that to 115 and 230 which is what almost everything hasd listed on the spec plate today.

I found a nice website with decent prices on solar systems last night.
Solar panel, inverters, charge controllers all at decent prices, but the battery packs were on the high side.

I can't find it now, I forgot to book mark it.

Given the power it produced, looked like a much better deal than a generator with no gasoline involved.

 

eventually we plan on going totally solar, the sun scorches the front of our house about 7-8 hours a day which should give plenty, but the Outback and other reputable systems like that run from 46-60k, little out of the budget time being.

 

If you have a Battery Warehouse near you go there for your batteries. I recently bought 2 305 amp hour deep cycle batteries from them. They were blems and I only paid 100 bucks apiece for them. They are normally over 300 apiece. I use them at my barn and charge them with a small windmill that uses a converted car alternator. Works great. Solar power is very expensive when you factor the cost per watt. Plus it only produces peak power on average 6 hours a day. Wind power is much cheaper per watt and will work as long as there is wind nite or day, and cloudy rainy days wont affect it.

This is the unit I use if anyone is interested. You can also build these out of junk laying around the garage with just a little research. Wind Blue Power Lite Breeze Complete Low Wind Kit

 

we are at a bottom of a hill, in the middle of the woods, What is wind? all i know is 95 in the shade, 110+ in the sun...