TheEngineer
Formerly icecool2
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2011
- Messages
- 7,296
- Reaction score
- 7,696
- Location
- PA
- What state or country do you live in
- Pennsylvania
Go make them, sell them and send me one for giving you the idea
The New Duracell Battery Backup at CES
- Thread starter saltyfilmfolks
- Start date
- Tagged users None
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
That would cost.... a fortune lol depending on the cells you chose anyway, just bought 4 18650 3.6 Amp batteries for my headlamp at $25 a pop. Could only imagine the cost of filling a 24"x 24" area with them
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2017
- Messages
- 250
- Reaction score
- 218
- Location
- Montreal
- What state or country do you live in
- Canada
Nothing like a 50amp 12v deep-cycle car battery and an inverter rated for 15amp 120v (continuous). (new this is maybe 250$ for both)
That setup is for running the propage-gas fireplace, not the tank. Fully manual. But there's an extension cord handy.
Have a hybrid? An alternative:
I used to have a Prius. That car is basically mobile generator. The motor is self-lubricating (planetary gear system) so a full tank (11 gal of petrol) can last multiple days.
And getting more is easy.
I know an engineer that uses his Prius (a gen-2) in his garage, and uses the tubing for the exhaust to the outside. Runs his whole house for weeks in VT USA, he is up in the mountains, and has multiple multi-day power outages in the winter.
** I used mine to run the servers and some workstations at my office one year. Two inverters for 30 amps. Then 50 foot extension cords (12 gauge / heavy duty).
*** No, this is not easy. You cannot tap the 12v power bus, but the 220DCV bus. Thus you need transformers and heavy-duty diodes to protect. IOW, you know electricity. BUT DOABLE !!
(see http://www.priups.com/ for one way of doing it)
Car batteries & inverters are so cheap, I have yet to bother investing in something better, other than the "always on" computer-designed UPS that is rated for 1500w/hr @120v, lasts long enough to bring the battery back manually online. Even the "charger" systems for car batteries are cheap.
That setup is for running the propage-gas fireplace, not the tank. Fully manual. But there's an extension cord handy.
Have a hybrid? An alternative:
I used to have a Prius. That car is basically mobile generator. The motor is self-lubricating (planetary gear system) so a full tank (11 gal of petrol) can last multiple days.
And getting more is easy.
I know an engineer that uses his Prius (a gen-2) in his garage, and uses the tubing for the exhaust to the outside. Runs his whole house for weeks in VT USA, he is up in the mountains, and has multiple multi-day power outages in the winter.
** I used mine to run the servers and some workstations at my office one year. Two inverters for 30 amps. Then 50 foot extension cords (12 gauge / heavy duty).
*** No, this is not easy. You cannot tap the 12v power bus, but the 220DCV bus. Thus you need transformers and heavy-duty diodes to protect. IOW, you know electricity. BUT DOABLE !!
(see http://www.priups.com/ for one way of doing it)
Car batteries & inverters are so cheap, I have yet to bother investing in something better, other than the "always on" computer-designed UPS that is rated for 1500w/hr @120v, lasts long enough to bring the battery back manually online. Even the "charger" systems for car batteries are cheap.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2017
- Messages
- 250
- Reaction score
- 218
- Location
- Montreal
- What state or country do you live in
- Canada
I posted before seeing your reply. This, IMHO, is the very best system. I got a 2000w inverter on sale at Canadian Tire (129$ I think, down from 200$), it can supply 15a constant. Electric toaster, hairdryer, while camping. Not for long though lol.
What's cool with car batteries, is that your "old" one is still great at room temperature, and you can daisy-chain them (in parallel) for more amps. Chargers are cheap.
pickupman66
5000 Club Member
I use a pair of them at Bonnaroo each year. Run a fan all night, LED lights at campsite and charge my phone and portable charger each night. Plus enough power for my camp neighbors
TheEngineer
Formerly icecool2
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2011
- Messages
- 7,296
- Reaction score
- 7,696
- Location
- PA
- What state or country do you live in
- Pennsylvania
What do each of those AA cells in the Tesla cost?
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
I don't wanna know, someone was telling me after looking into getting a tesla it was in the neighborhood of $5000 (CDN) to replace all the cells but I've never looked into it myself. Although they have the ability to get cells at wholesale which most of us can't which is why a homemade power bank in that particular size would be $$$
TheEngineer
Formerly icecool2
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2011
- Messages
- 7,296
- Reaction score
- 7,696
- Location
- PA
- What state or country do you live in
- Pennsylvania
They're paying something like $140 per kWh on the 2170 cells. All we need to do is figure out how to buy at that pricing and we are golden! 
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
That's only heresay without looking into it further it might actually be cheaper. I know there is a company that will do custom cell layouts. Had them do one for me and it was reasonably priced although MUCH smaller than a 4 sqft size lol I don't really have a use for it but now the wheels are turning...
TheEngineer
Formerly icecool2
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2011
- Messages
- 7,296
- Reaction score
- 7,696
- Location
- PA
- What state or country do you live in
- Pennsylvania
Aren't they like $9K? Granted they are designed to run a whole house.
I think about 6k installed but I’ve got about that much in equipment no problem and much more than that in livestock. Granted I don’t have a powerwall but each of my pumps has its own battery backup (eco tech) and I have a generator but the generator is noisy, requires extension cords and doesn’t provide the cleanest in power which can damage equipment so I’m told do with all that factored in depending on the tank size I could see a powerwall being a sound investment.
DAPG8GT
Active Member
What 18650's cost $25 each? I'm actually pretty hip to lipo and have built many a power pack from them, diy chargers etc. And am actually working on a DIY UPS with a double throw relay right now.. . Curiosity has me needing to ask you what you got cause even my top tier Sony vtc 6 or LG cells don't even cost half that.. Shoot I don't think the tesla 18650's cost that.. Curious to know what brand / mah / constant amp draw etc.. you bought for that price..
And For reference I pay about Avg $3 - $8 per cell in singles or pairs and can buy lots of brand name Samsung, Sony, LG for about $3-5 for 100+ct from battery bro. C-o-m-and plenty of other reputable sites.
Curiosity has me on these so sorry to put you on blast I just wonder if I'm not aware of a way better option or some new tech..
GoVols
Cobb / Webb - 1989
Reef Squad Leader
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
MTRCMember
Article Contributor
Hospitality Award
R2R Research
My Tank Thread
Radman73
Valuable Member
I'm considering it in lieu of a whole house generator. Pretty sure we'd need 3 to power the whole house lol! I'd look to start with 1-2 and power the essentials. We just put in a 20.1kW solar system, waiting on the utility company to put in the two way meter.
Scorpius
2500 Club Member
Buy this. It's what I use. Approximately 8hrs run time per gal. Digital inverter. Quiet as can be. Problem solved .
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-2...-Digital-Inverter-Generator-RYI2200/203617901
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-2...-Digital-Inverter-Generator-RYI2200/203617901
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
No worries at all. I'm just going off what I paid for my flashlight batteries (Olight (protected) 3.6v 3600mah which are really rebranded Sanyo or Samsung I believe). I never bothered shopping around for better deals on them which I'm sure exsist. And that's $24 Canadian, everything's so much more money here lol. Your $3-8 cells would cost me $5-12 each
