anyone know about solar power or wind power?

[duke]

hi all with all the developing problems re fuel and lots of talk of inevitable power cuts becoming a thing of the near future i have been thinking about ways to charge our powerchairs,i have a small petrol generator which at a push might keep a small freezer and charger going but that means stockpiling some petrol and im not keen on that idea.
so i am thinking a solar panel or 2 and i can then use a small inverter to power charger,but is there a better way?
i realise this even would be limited in output but without power all our wheelchairs would die in a few weeks so i for one am not going to get caught out and stranded if i can possibly help it,so any input guys is welcome.also decided to add to my small stock of spares ie inner tubes for the still primitive chairs and a set of front wheel bearings for the 2 pumas and stocked up on electrical terminals and solder etc.
a result of the idiots panic buying again is also bigger and longer periods where food is not able to be delivered and so panic buyers drive demand so driving cost and pressure on allready depleted stocks so i think its time to do a lot more growing of food crops,
and to that end i spent an hour today using the mudmonster to do small patch of ploughing which it did quite well with a diy plough made from an old mobility scooter! but after 2 years those cheapo lead bricks i put in held up for an hour ploughing and then a 6 mile dogwalk before you can feel it starting to flag,
anyhow back to the point of post charging using either or solar or windpower is it practical/possible? if not i do not know what will happen if worst scenario unfolds,,,any advise welcome :joint cheers

[Vador]

Ive dabbled with solar over the years and to me it sounds like what you want it for should be perfect.
In my experience the biggest problem is storing enough energy, the more batteries you need the thicker the wires get and the more panels you need to power it
My panel is roughly 2ftx 3ft at a guess and on a cloudy day was putting out around 19v I think so was keeping a 12v battery in the garage charged nicely.
I’m seriously thinking about rigging up a panel and battery for charging things in the house from like phones, vapes, torches, basically anything dc between 5-12v maybe even power some 12v lighting from it.
When you read the labels lots of devices use dc voltage anyway but it’s converted from ac to dc which is not massively efficient, Ive seen TVs that convert 240v ac to 12v dc, you could power that from a battery, not sure how much current it would draw but if you used it in the day when the solar panel is charging should be fine.
With your chairs you could have a bank of spare batteries that charge off of one panel and you just swap them out as you need to?

[duke]

Ive dabbled with solar over the years and to me it sounds like what you want it for should be perfect.
In my experience the biggest problem is storing enough energy, the more batteries you need the thicker the wires get and the more panels you need to power it
My panel is roughly 2ftx 3ft at a guess and on a cloudy day was putting out around 19v I think so was keeping a 12v battery in the garage charged nicely.
I’m seriously thinking about rigging up a panel and battery for charging things in the house from like phones, vapes, torches, basically anything dc between 5-12v maybe even power some 12v lighting from it.
When you read the labels lots of devices use dc voltage anyway but it’s converted from ac to dc which is not massively efficient, Ive seen TVs that convert 240v ac to 12v dc, you could power that from a battery, not sure how much current it would draw but if you used it in the day when the solar panel is charging should be fine.
With your chairs you could have a bank of spare batteries that charge off of one panel and you just swap them out as you need to?

vador thanks for reply,
it is not going to be practical as lifting and changing out huge 86ah lead bricks is beyond me other than when one dies!
so i need to make around 28.9v to charge a powerchair and around 8amp if its possible?
as any lower takes to long to charge if they are depleted they get damaged everytime and damage is cumulative so either wind or solar as i have masses of usable lead bricks salvaged from tinas chair as normal use is careful charge every single time its been used and regularly charged even when in as spare chair,now have 5 powerchairs all with good lead bricks,maybe i can power the house from one with a 24-240v inverter and have solar to charge the chairs,maybe 2x 12v panels and a wind power added using a 100amp ex volvo alternator and bits,idk it needs to be done i reckon as we are both fecked without the chairs,they are our legs now!

[RB1]

I don't think what you asking is out the question. Spent a fair bit of time researching DIY off grid setups for the future. ill be looking to run a fridge freezer, Laptop, small stereo, 12v pump/lights and charge an ebike. To be 100% off grid, It would cost 2k in battery's and panels. Your not asking for off grid though.

You could go simple and just get a 150w panel and a charger controller, then charge the battery's directly. With a few spare battery's you could get a cycle going. If you wanted something as a home back up as well and able to charge the scooters from stored energy then your going need at least 4x 200ah golf cart battery's, 800w of solar and an ac converter for your normal charger. with all the bits new £800 to £1000. should last 10/12 years more if stored indoors.

Maybe start small and build something up, for just charging scooter battery's you wont need much solar, 300w Max. wouldn't bother with wind unless your on the coast, but there value doesn't really match solar for the DIY imo.

[Vador]

Im no expert in the matter so take it with a pinch of salt but if dabbled with it a couple of times with good results, never needed the power you do so not going to advise you on something i would need to research myself.
What I do know is that you can wire the batteries up in series or in parallel so one way round 2 x 12v batteries becomes 24v and the other way round they remain 12v but the capacity doubles so you get more amps, again I can’t remember the exact way round it goes to get the desired result without looking it up.
You could do the same with 4 batteries though so 2 x 12v and 2 x 12v giving you 2 x 24v banks, you can then rig them up together to give you one 24v power source with 2x capacity.
What you’d need to do is work out how many amps you draw a day on average and then build a system that can cope with that, I mean if your charging your chairs in the day when the suns out your golden but if it’s dark you need enough power in your battery banks to charge your chairs without discharging it too far.
Also I think the batteries are meant to be quite heavy duty for solar, more like leisure batteries, I use a car battery and it’s gotten me by for what I need but really should have been using heavy duty batteries that can handle it

[duke]

hi all slightly but along the same path is a post i copied from a friend on another forum but it makes sense about the reasons for the so called fuel crisis and how inept our so called leader is,,shocking anyhow have a read,opinions all welcome!
The reason we are struggling to make enough power for the grid is simple. Boris and all the green nonsense.

For 30 years the electricity and gas supply has been taxed to death so we pay 2 and now 3 or 4 times as much as say the US do for power.
Likewise we pay 59P on every litre in direct taxation. And then we pay another 20% VAT on top of that (yes we tax the tax) which ends up as around 79% tax on petrol. Again this is supposed to cover subsidies to the "green" nonsense.

We used to have all the gas we needed in the north sea for the next 60 years. This is not green, So it has been ignored and shut down. And instead of sending out all the teams to identify new oil and gas areas in the north sea, they shut it all down. So now we are dependent on:

Coal. To generate electricity. But we shut down all our cheap coal supplies, and DESTROYED 85% of the power station and blew up the cooling towers live on TV while the retards celebrated. So now we have zero cheap coal electricity either.

Gas. We have gas generating stations. It typically supplies 30 to 55% of our electricity. Only we now have very little of our own gas. Because boris says its not green. So we are now dependent on buying electricity, from 6 different countries at extreme cost. Buying gas at a now rediculus 250% increased price in 1 year.

We converted 2 big power stations that were col, to burn super expensive wood pellets instead. Because obviously chopping down vast forrests in the USA and turning it to pellets and shipping it to the UK makes loads of sense! How the hell is that green?

We have 7 nuclear power stations. Of these 4 are about to be decommishions. So 2/3rds of the nuclear power will be offline soon.

Meaning we are totally reliant of 6 or 7 other outside countries for massively overpriced electricity generating fuel. And direct electricity from many "interconnects" (think extension leads to other countries.

And if that isnt bad enough this country uses gas directly to heat almost all of its homes... So now we are forced to pay 250% ore in just 12 months. And its still climbing. While the sea than is 3 miles from me has enough natural methane to power the country for 60 years that we ALREADY know about. But are not using...

Then boris banned al new gas heating boilers in 2025. We all have to fit super crappy unreliable heat pumps that only put out 60degrees C water. And we have no power to run these! Same with cars, vans, trucks, etc.
And boris insists that no new petrol or deisel cars in 2030. So no means of generating power to power these... The grid already cant cope.

All this green nonsense means that all this thousands of square miles of windmills was "invested" in. Those work and supply up to half the UKs power. ONLY WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. Unfortunately we had 3 months where it didnt. Those massively expensive windmills made just 2% of our needs for THREE MONTHS recently. Its all rediculous. It will banjrupt the country and business. And it wont fix anything.


https://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Live mix of fuels for electricity.

[MrNice]

Brother duke you must have heard of a gasifier engine

being a grease monkey in yr day

[duke]

Brother duke you must have heard of a gasifier engine

being a grease monkey in yr day

hi mr nice,no not one im aware of,any ideas i find i do try to investigate if they can be diyed,preferably from my scrap pile! seriously so far ive 3/4 of the bit to build a wind turbine and have been noting windspeeds for a few weeks and worked out the perfect spot in my garden out the back and out of sight from all but direct neighbours who are both nice friendly people and do not mind my mad projects,except early sunday mornings then they do frown a bit if i been grinding or cutting
i spoke to a clever chap about this and got a shopping list of the bits and pricing it up to see if i can afford it,but if i can it will solve charging the wheelchairs =our legs so priority a diy wind turbine and solar combo for under £100 or less if i can salvage parts and im good at that!
even have a plan for a solar water system for hot water if i finish the first project
anyway no not heard of that and shall investigate,cheers

[MrNice]

@duke

[MrNice]