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Re: (ET) How the E20 saved Christmas...
Chris, this is a great story. Beats mine from a power outage here a few
years ago. Fortunately, it was in the cold-weather shoulder season, so
we just avoided going to Level 2 measures, but had figured out what they
would be to run the gas furnace and water heater.
For Level 1, we pulled the E12 into the garage, which was fully charged
because that's the deal here with the plug-in and forget chargers I use.
We have a 1500-watt 12-volts DC in, mounted in our garage with wiring
into the basement to support a couple of 120-volt outlets. These
support 2 freezers and a refrigerator. Those, along with the
refrigerator/freezer on the main floor are our priority electrical
devices in the event of outages - typically a lot of food inventory in
those. One of the outlets also supports a power bar, which allows
plugging in up to 12 small chargers, mostly for portable lights and a radio.
Tapped the tractor pack for 12-volts to run the inverter, and all worked
fine. After 12 hours, changed the tap point. After 24 hours, changed
the tap point again. Power returned between 24 and 36 hours.
Once power was restored and local authority said the system was out of
critical condition, recharged the tractor. Pack voltage was still above
36 volts when we started the recharge.
Today, we have a second ET in the fleet, so I reckon we could go days
this way if necessary. I'll take the E12 with plow blade out this
afternoon and once again recover a chunk of our street from the snow
dumping we got and the city plows furrows which are about 4-5 feet from
the actual edge of the road. At the other end of our street as we came
in last night, there are now points where two trucks can't pass between
the banks. And winter has barely begun here.
I really like my ETs, despite the fact that I abuse them.
Darryl
On 12/25/2022 1:54 PM, Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:
So..... On the 23rd the power went off here at about 11am. This sucked
as the winds were at 60mph and temps were at 35 and dropping by the
minute towards zero. No clue as to when the power would come back so it
was going to be a race against time to keep the radiant heat pipes from
freezing during the night....
Ran extension cords from tractor to house and got ready. Brought some
100ah batteries and 17ah batteries from the Robomower in for inverter
power for my fireplace insert. With that in place I fired up the insert,
ran it hot, and used the batteries to run the fans to keep the house warm.
Nightfall came and I decided to try firing up the heat system. I have
hot water radiant fired by gas, but the system needs power for the 3
Taco circulation pumps and they're pretty good sized. About 200 watts to
keep them running but a large current to get them going....
And of course my 1500/3000 watt inverter exploded when I plugged it in
earlier today. These things happen, so I was down to a 1000 watt backup
inverter.
First I tried to start the pump motors with the 1000 watt inverter. No
dice, it could not start them. So I plugged in the 900 watt rotary
inverter to the E20 and sure enough the motors came up one by one. Heat
had returned!
Ran it for about two hours to heat the whole house, then stopped to
check status: The tractor was fine, wires were cool, and the batteries
were getting low, but still worked even in the 0 degree F cold and 60
mph winds. Thus the kids and I played monopoly with lights on downstairs
(battery inverters) until 10pm when I went out, turned off the inverter,
let things quiet down.
So.... The E20's rotary inverter is good to have. Even though it's only
900 or so watts it has the torque to start the big motors and keep them
going. Glad to have it!
Chris
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--
Darryl McMahon
Freelance Project Manager (sustainable systems)
Do not mistake patience for weakness, nor action for strategy.