beefy inverter

I still have the one I built. used a 555, some Mosfets, the core of an old torroid variac, and thats about it. Not quite 1KW, maybe 600 watts.

greg

You'd probably find yourself overloading the car's alternator, unless you went to the trouble to put in an auxiliary alternator in there -- and if you're going to do that, why not go find a clapped-out gen set and fix it up?

Eh, let's say it's a beefy alternator. 136A or so, like found on a Dodge Ram.

Michael

The mosfets didn't fry themselves when they saw an inductive load...?

Michael

I used to work for a company that made inverters like that, but they were big and heavy and expensive.

For what you would have to invest in any inverter, whether you build or buy, you'd be better off to just go ahead and get a genset and fix it up, or just buy a new one, for example:

Good Luck! Rich

example:

"This unit can't be shipped to California and is only approved for sale in 47 states".

Love that.

The good things about using an old vehicle are: 1) built in catalytic converter; 2) EGR (exhaust-gas-recirculation) system to reduce NOx;

Oh well.

Thanks,

Michael

example:

On the other hand you're extracting 1kW from an engine that's good for at least 30kW if it's wimpy, to 200kW for a big-normal pickup. So while all the pollution equipment may be good when it's going down the freeway at normal load, I question it's ability to hold the emissions down to what you'd get out of a new California-approved genset.

example:

Ah yes, you're absolutely right. I hadn't considered that.

Likely the EGR won't activate anyway while at idle. (I'd just finished troubleshooting the EGR system on my car recently. What fun that was.)

Thanks,

Michael

Running a car at idle for long periods (especially if you dont take it out for a bit of a work out occasionally) will result in glazed bores. The engine will go downhill quite quickly.

Also as others have mentioned, even a small 4cyl car engine at idle will use more fuel and produce more pollution than a little 2 stroke genset running flat out.

-- Michael

Do you have a schematic available, for those of us who are still learning? ;-)

I don't currently have a.b.s.e. access (posting from work during breaks), but I'll try tonight to see if I can get my DSL to log into it.

Thanks,

Michael

Why on earth bother???

Here in the DK one can buy a noname Chinese petrol powered generator in the 2.5 kW power range for the equivalent of USD 200.

There is no way you can beat that!

....Needs service every 300 hours or so!!!

The early entrepreneurs into bio-gas (methane from pig's s**te) learned that there is a *reason* that engines rated for power plants and ships costs about

The average cheap Chinese genset will probably burn out in about 200 hours or thereabouts also. But 200 hours cleaning the boat with a pressure washer is a loong time.