Portable Solar Energy

[shocker]

^^^

[katilea]

No generator is all that quiet, but some are better than others, steer clear of cheap Chinese ones and go for one made by a reputable company, they'll have a decibel level for comparison, they also come with various different outputs, someone that knows more than me will comment with more info, I've used generators but I'm not an expert, the only generator I use regularly these days is the five litre V8 on my boat!

They run on either petrol or diesel, diesel ones are generally more expensive but diesel will last longer in storage, there's also a limit on how much petrol you can store legally, diesel is a lot safer and you can store as much as you like, BUT, you want to store it outside, or in an outbuilding, its safer than petrol but it's still flammable.
As shocker mentioned, you can convert a petrol one to run on gas, gas bottles are heavy though.

The ones I've used had a 16 amp plug like you'd get on a caravan hookup, you can get adaptors in any camping shop for people in posh tents, but some have a weird plug that I don't know much about. 3 pin 13 amp plugs like you have in your house aren't all that safe outside, they're not protected against water ingress.

Don't ever run a generator inside your house, you'll die.

ok thanks that wouldn't be an option then, just trying to look at what options would be manageable for me if getting any or enough electricity was going to be a major future problem.

Does anyone watch 'Life below Zero' on ch42 at night? The people live in different regions of the arctic circle so are pretty much 'off grid' one guy had some solar panels which gave me that idea. Another item that's come up a few times is a small portable wood stove in a kind of oblong tin they fit loads of pipes to it so the stove can be inside a tent to keep them warm and cook on but the pipes take the smoke outside the top of the tent/building.

I wondered if anything similar could be bought online. In my spare room the back window is large and opens really wide so pipes could be made to go out of that window whilst the stove was just under the window to cook food/boil water for hot water bottles etc without me having to sit outside in the freezing cold (most powercuts happen in winter from high winds or snow) Also means can shut that room door to keep cold from the rest of the house while there's still ventilation for the wood stove without me having to sit outside (which would be difficult if snow was the reason no power with my mobility)

I got the idea when I saw 'Sue from Kavik' attach a series of pipes with corners together to use 2 old fridges as smokers for her meat - one end of the pipes being connected to a small burning camping stove. and yes she was doing that outside but have also seen the family with kids use one in a big wigwam style tent and on the program 'New Lives in the Wild' (with Ben Fogle) have seen a similar small wood stove being used inside tents (with pipes leading to the outside for the smoke to go outside) so wondered if could set something similar up in spare room for emergency use. . wouldn't charge my trike batteries but I'd at least have hot water and hot food!

though speaking of USB I'm sure I saw a USB port on one of those trikes so a phone could be connected and charge from trike batteries so if a USB port is already present would one of the bio stoves with USB charger option not work? ..especially if it was only topping up as battery was only being used on hills (up) ...so it wouldn't be like trying to charge it from flat on a trickle charge?

I like to set myself these little scenario's to see if I could work out a way to survive as a disabled person on their own! ...being dependent on electric to charge scooters/trikes to get anywhere is my biggest problem.

[Jamesey1981]

A USB output on the trike wouldn't be able to be used as an input, but even if it could, think about how much power you need to move a person, and compare it to how much power you'd need to charge a phone, that's what the little Biolite stoves are made to charge, you could scale the technology up but it would have to be huge, and USB is designed to take 5 volts, more than that it wouldn't be suitable.

Looking at one of the trike attachment things, the charger they supply puts out 36 volts at 2 amps, so that's 72 watts, so you could conceivably charge that from a solar panel in optimal conditions, but as you said that your power cuts are mostly in winter then very few of them will be while you have optimal conditions for solar, and you're going to have to research how to make it work, it won't just be a case of connecting it up and away you go, you're going to need to use voltage and current regulators to make sure it doesn't fry your charger by giving it an input that it can't handle, and that's the best case scenario for getting it wrong, lithium polymer batteries are dangerous and if they get the wrong voltage they can explode, and I mean really explode, they burn like a flare, that's a big battery and it'll make a Big Bang.

This company make nice portable wood stoves https://www.anevaystoves.com they come with various flue options so you might be able to figure something out.
I still think a gas cooker like you'd have in a caravan that runs off a large gas bottle, (not the little cartridges) would be the best option though.
You get a lot more heat from the same weight of fuel with gas than you do with solid fuel like wood, and wood needs processing, unless you're going to buy the nets of split logs from a petrol station or hardware shop, and with the cost of those once you've cooked a meal it would have been cheaper to eat out or have a takeaway delivered.

You are going to be pretty stuck when it comes to transport without a generator to charge your mobility devices unless you seek out one of the old petrol invalid carriages or get a wheelchair adapted car, I don't know about your own disabilities but an old friend of mine had very serious birth defects due to thalidomide and he could drive quite happily in an adapted vehicle, he had an old mini clubman when I met him and then he got an adapted Mercedes van.
Huge amounts of money but that's the way it goes I'm afraid, if you need something adapted from the market standard then it needs specialists to do it, and there's no real production run so you don't get to benefit from the cost savings that come with volume, if your requirements are fairly common, (you just need hand controls and a ramp for example) then you can find adapted vehicles second hand, but they're few and far between and expensive as people tend to hold on to them for a long time, they cost a lot of money so it only makes sense to sell it when it's knackered.

[pseudonym]

Does anyone watch 'Life below Zero' on ch42 at night? The people live in different regions of the arctic circle so are pretty much 'off grid' one guy had some solar panels which gave me that idea. Another item that's come up a few times is a small portable wood stove in a kind of oblong tin they fit loads of pipes to it so the stove can be inside a tent to keep them warm and cook on but the pipes take the smoke outside the top of the tent/building.

I wondered if anything similar could be bought online. In my spare room the back window is large and opens really wide so pipes could be made to go out of that window whilst the stove was just under the window to cook food/boil water for hot water bottles etc without me having to sit outside in the freezing cold (most powercuts happen in winter from high winds or snow) Also means can shut that room door to keep cold from the rest of the house while there's still ventilation for the wood stove without me having to sit outside (which would be difficult if snow was the reason no power with my mobility)

I like to set myself these little scenario's to see if I could work out a way to survive as a disabled person on their own! ...being dependent on electric to charge scooters/trikes to get anywhere is my biggest problem.

I have one of these:

http://www.titaniumgoat.com/stove-WiFi.html

Expensive, but light and portable.

You could make your own:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showth ... t=Ammo+box

HTH

[katilea]

Does anyone watch 'Life below Zero' on ch42 at night? The people live in different regions of the arctic circle so are pretty much 'off grid' one guy had some solar panels which gave me that idea. Another item that's come up a few times is a small portable wood stove in a kind of oblong tin they fit loads of pipes to it so the stove can be inside a tent to keep them warm and cook on but the pipes take the smoke outside the top of the tent/building.

I wondered if anything similar could be bought online. In my spare room the back window is large and opens really wide so pipes could be made to go out of that window whilst the stove was just under the window to cook food/boil water for hot water bottles etc without me having to sit outside in the freezing cold (most powercuts happen in winter from high winds or snow) Also means can shut that room door to keep cold from the rest of the house while there's still ventilation for the wood stove without me having to sit outside (which would be difficult if snow was the reason no power with my mobility)

I like to set myself these little scenario's to see if I could work out a way to survive as a disabled person on their own! ...being dependent on electric to charge scooters/trikes to get anywhere is my biggest problem.

I have one of these:

http://www.titaniumgoat.com/stove-WiFi.html

Expensive, but light and portable.

You could make your own:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showth ... t=Ammo+box

HTH

Your stove has WiFi??? I wouldn't be able to make one myself.

[katilea]

A USB output on the trike wouldn't be able to be used as an input, but even if it could, think about how much power you need to move a person, and compare it to how much power you'd need to charge a phone, that's what the little Biolite stoves are made to charge, you could scale the technology up but it would have to be huge, and USB is designed to take 5 volts, more than that it wouldn't be suitable.

Looking at one of the trike attachment things, the charger they supply puts out 36 volts at 2 amps, so that's 72 watts, so you could conceivably charge that from a solar panel in optimal conditions, but as you said that your power cuts are mostly in winter then very few of them will be while you have optimal conditions for solar, and you're going to have to research how to make it work, it won't just be a case of connecting it up and away you go, you're going to need to use voltage and current regulators to make sure it doesn't fry your charger by giving it an input that it can't handle, and that's the best case scenario for getting it wrong, lithium polymer batteries are dangerous and if they get the wrong voltage they can explode, and I mean really explode, they burn like a flare, that's a big battery and it'll make a Big Bang.

This company make nice portable wood stoves https://www.anevaystoves.com they come with various flue options so you might be able to figure something out.
I still think a gas cooker like you'd have in a caravan that runs off a large gas bottle, (not the little cartridges) would be the best option though.
You get a lot more heat from the same weight of fuel with gas than you do with solid fuel like wood, and wood needs processing, unless you're going to buy the nets of split logs from a petrol station or hardware shop, and with the cost of those once you've cooked a meal it would have been cheaper to eat out or have a takeaway delivered.

You are going to be pretty stuck when it comes to transport without a generator to charge your mobility devices unless you seek out one of the old petrol invalid carriages or get a wheelchair adapted car, I don't know about your own disabilities but an old friend of mine had very serious birth defects due to thalidomide and he could drive quite happily in an adapted vehicle, he had an old mini clubman when I met him and then he got an adapted Mercedes van.
Huge amounts of money but that's the way it goes I'm afraid, if you need something adapted from the market standard then it needs specialists to do it, and there's no real production run so you don't get to benefit from the cost savings that come with volume, if your requirements are fairly common, (you just need hand controls and a ramp for example) then you can find adapted vehicles second hand, but they're few and far between and expensive as people tend to hold on to them for a long time, they cost a lot of money so it only makes sense to sell it when it's knackered.

I like the Frontier stove on that site,not too expensive and easy to store just for occasional emergency use but the tubes/pipes are all straight and make a tall chimney. Can't find where they have parts or maybe corners etc


I can't drive a car so the scooter is my only option really. I was hoping if got hybrid trike I can reduce how much battery I use as I'd be able to manage the pedalling (using arms) more as I built up strength. I didn't think they would use something so dangerous in a product designed for disabled people!

I do have some big hills to get up though which there's no way I'd get up in a manual only model. It would still be an improvement in amount of time needed to charge, assuming at some point we'd get power back on,even for a few hours at peak times (when most of country would be needing to get ready for school/work etc) if the cuts were govt controlled due to shortages. I'd at least have more chance of being able to get it charged up if I only needed electric to be on 4 hrs without interruption rather than 12!

I did think of takeaways but was assuming electric would be cut in the entire area too so takeaways wouldn't have any electric either! Also my router would be off so I'd have no internet to order online and my minicom (phone for deaf) only works plugged into the mains. It's easier to just make sure I've got enough food in, including things that could be eaten cold. I'm thinking getting some of those flameless ration packs to heat up food would be a good idea for emergency use.

[Jamesey1981]

It's not that lithium batteries are always dangerous, just that they can be, there are reasons why they'll pop, if you bend, pierce or heat them, and if you overcharge or overdischarge them. Decent batteries from reputable suppliers have protection built into them and so do the chargers, it's just that if you're going to connect the charger to a non standard power supply then you risk defeating the protection built into if you don't know 100% what you're doing, that's when you can have problems and there's the potential for an explosion.

I'm not saying don't buy the thing with a lithium battery, as long as you treat it right it'll be fine, I'm only pointing out that if you want to try charging it off solar then get someone that really knows what they're doing to look over your plans before you connect it all up, that wouldn't include me personally, I know enough to know there's a risk, but I don't know enough to be 100% sure of avoiding it.

[greyman]

Katilea try a penny stove using meths in your Kelly kettle,works a treat and can be used in doors.



I was thinking about a wood burner (gas bottle burner)inside the house if you haven't got a chimney.
This is my idea so any thoughts would be welcome.
Remove the glass from a double glazed window and replace with a double skinned aluminium plate made to replicate the glass,( thin batons round the edges and maybe filled with fibreglass insulation?)
Cut a hole in the middle,an inch or two bigger than your flue(i was thinking galvanised spiral ducting,i know its nasty stuff untill the it burns off only it's cheap and there are all sort of different angled parts you can get to join the pipe together )
Use a larger pipe for the outside of the hole and put your flue through the middle,it should be far enough away from your plastic frames to not melt it.

I hope this makes sense?

[katilea]

Katilea try a penny stove using meths in your Kelly kettle,works a treat and can be used in doors.



I was thinking about a wood burner (gas bottle burner)inside the house if you haven't got a chimney.
This is my idea so any thoughts would be welcome.
Remove the glass from a double glazed window and replace with a double skinned aluminium plate made to replicate the glass,( thin batons round the edges and maybe filled with fibreglass insulation?)
Cut a hole in the middle,an inch or two bigger than your flue(i was thinking galvanised spiral ducting,i know its nasty stuff untill the it burns off only it's cheap and there are all sort of different angled parts you can get to join the pipe together )
Use a larger pipe for the outside of the hole and put your flue through the middle,it should be far enough away from your plastic frames to not melt it.

I hope this makes sense?

I live in rented there's no way I could do that. ..but what did you mean by ' try a penny stove using meths in your Kelly Kettle'????

[greyman]

@katilea a penny stove is just a cheap and easy methylated spirits burner/stove. Been mentioned a few times on here.
I tried one in my storm kettle and it worked a treat,boils as quick as the sticks.would be handy for you for the times you can't get out for sticks/wood, plus it's indoor safe.