[K3PZN-List] Health Dept Drill 12/1 Battery evaluation

Wed Dec 5 13:21:21 EST 2012

My $0.02 on a generator would be to look around for one in a few months, a lot of people bought them after Sandy and they'll be dumping them by the end of Jan when the holiday credit card statements show up. That's what happened every year in FL after a good storm or near miss. If you don't like dealing with used stuff off CL or the bay before long the inverters should be back in stock at Amazon. I saw some 800W and 1200W knock offs that were under $500 and getting good reviews. A must have accessory in my book is one of the extended run tanks - several different types but most just screw in place of the cap on the internal tank and provide ~8 gal of fuel, enough to run those inverters all day/nite long. 

As for the sump pump I would have thought that a 12V backup pump was cheaper than that large an inverter - buddy of mine has one and it just mounts next to the normal pump with the float trip set a few inches above the AC one, the rest of he setup was a check valve and a few PVC fittings (total of about $10 in PVC parts) and took us about 25 minutes to install. 

I'm thinking about backup power a bit more recently, I'm not sure of the overall solution for my needs but I'm leaning towards having 220V available for the well pump. If I do that I'll hook up a few other circuits as well so I get a bit of lights, the fridge (so the beer stays cold), and the radio room circuit. In FL I just back-fed the panel via the dryer outlet and turned off the main + unneeded breakers, but there I had a sanely labeled panel and the dryer was in the garage with a short run the the generator location. In my current house the panel is a complete mess and not really labeled correctly in the first place so I'm going to have to do it the hard way. 

Andy 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Karras" <ke3fl at yahoo.com> 
To: wo3l at comcast.net 
Cc: "Steve Beckman" <n3sb at qis.net>, k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 12:54:39 PM 
Subject: Re: Health Dept Drill 12/1 Battery evaluation 

Andy, 
Yup, sounds about right. I think the best solution is for us to bring a battery to any site we're sent to so we know we have a good one, or two. I maintain two 75 AHr deep cycle batts for home use which will probably go up to three now that I have a way to run the sump pump if needed via battery to 2.5KW inverter. 

Now, I just need a good 500W generator to recharge the batteries efficiently, or at least more so than via the car alternator! Anyone know of one for ~ $300 or less? 

73 de KE3FL, 
Phil 
AEC Carroll County 
OES, ORS, & VE 
http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl 
http://www.qsl.net/caret 
http://blog.solidsignal.com/content.php - Karras' Corner 

From: "wo3l at comcast.net" <wo3l at comcast.net> 
To: Philip Karras <ke3fl at yahoo.com> 
Cc: Steve Beckman <n3sb at qis.net>; k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 6:27 AM 
Subject: Re: Health Dept Drill 12/1 Battery evaluation 

Thanks Phil, I think everyone noted the battery wasn't going to do much. I'm not sure I'd recommend staging a battery in these kits given that there isn't going to be a way to keep them floated in the long run so they'll just be dead if we went to use them. If we feel strongly that we need to keep batteries on hand I think we'd be better off making a battery charging shelf in the bunker for it so we are at least looking at them from time to time for bulges and other signs of impending failure. I think I'd prefer to not keep them around since they are perishable and hazardous. 

Andy 

From: "Philip Karras" <ke3fl at yahoo.com> 
To: k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net 
Cc: "Andy Leeds" <wo3l at comcast.net>, "Steve Beckman" <n3sb at qis.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 5:15:46 AM 
Subject: Health Dept Drill 12/1 Battery evaluation 

Problems with the Battery supplied: 

1. We found the battery was dead. If this is a lead acid battery it probably won't be much good in an emergency since it will probably be dead at that time & not be able to be brought back to a useable condition. 

2. Even in top condition the battery is too small to do much good if power failed for an extended period of time. 

Suggestion: 
A larger deep-cycle battery, about 20 - 30 AHr size, on float charge would be a better choice. Even on float charge it would need to be checked every year to be sure it was still in usable condition. 

73 de KE3FL, 
Phil 
AEC Carroll County 
OES, ORS, & VE 
http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl 
http://www.qsl.net/caret 
http://blog.solidsignal.com/content.php - Karras' Corner 