Using battery-powered items to complement solar

[Lilburner]

Kind of a theory I'm developing.

I've told y'all about the tool outlet between home and BOL that's more or less a Ryobi and Rigid outlet. I stop there all the time to see what they have - almost a Big Lots effect on some of the really good deals - they might just have a few of something, but then a lot of their main deals are good, too.

I'm slowly investing in the Ryobi 18v ONE+ system. So far I have a drill, a fan, a grinder, a blower (only suitable for decks and hard surfaces... I may or may not have used it indoors ), a weedeater (just to go around the house proper without having to go retrieve one out of a shed), and a tire inflator.

One of their big Memorial day sales was a cordless Hoover vacuum cleaner, so I bit off on that and it's kind of amazing. At first I was a little disappointed that it wasn't leaving good "tracks", but then how much it had picked up in my effectively new carpet shocked me.

Anyway, to get to the point...

What I've been thinking a lot lately is that a decent investment in cordless/battery stuff would be a great complement to solar, because powering it and using it wouldn't always have to coincide. You can charge the batteries when everything else is at 100% and then say, run a fan at night or vacuum during a week of rain - that kind of thing.

I'm really super enamored of the fans, incidentally. I'm thinking of collecting up several and incorporating one of them into one of these homemade air conditioning units



Just a thought I'm working on.

Also - not for the BOL, but I even got Ryobi garage door openers that take the batteries from the system and then the garage door works when the power's out - neat.

[wiseguy]

I have a lot of the 18 volt Ryobi one batteries for my various cordless tools and I have given some thought to hooking them up to power my ham radio gear.  It would make sense to find the things you need and see if you can power them off a single source of power.  One set of chargers to worry about and such.  I will have to keep my eyes open for a DC charging station for my batteries.  I don't want to convert the solar DC power to AC power to charge DC batteries.  You end up wasting power that way. 

[nj_m715]

18v tools can run right from 12v. I gutted an old dewalt battery and added an extension cord with alligator clamps. they run a little slower with less power, but they run. vehicles run about 14 and a half volts so it's not really a big jump to 18.

[Lilburner]

I have a lot of the 18 volt Ryobi one batteries for my various cordless tools and I have given some thought to hooking them up to power my ham radio gear.  It would make sense to find the things you need and see if you can power them off a single source of power.  One set of chargers to worry about and such.  I will have to keep my eyes open for a DC charging station for my batteries.  I don't want to convert the solar DC power to AC power to charge DC batteries.  You end up wasting power that way.

I'm working on both of these things as we speak.

To get the exact DC voltage you want, use a "buck converter" - all over eBay and whatnot - just specify the amps you need and then dial in your DC input and output.

I asked at the Ryobi outlet on Friday about a "car charger" for 18V ONE+ and they said they never had them or heard of them. They exist, though, and are actually pretty common. On sale for $40-something at Home Depot, but I got these for $20 - a couple of them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RYOBI-ONE-P131-VEHICLE-CAR-18-VOLT-DUAL-CHEMISTRY-BATTERY-CHARGER-18V-LITHIUM-/201829487966?hash=item2efdf9955e:g:r80AAOSw2gxYrg1S

I built a little "vertical shed" on my BOL back deck for my generator. I had a nothing little solar kit I wasn't using - 60W, so I decided to hook it to the shed and keep the generator battery charged. Then I decided to make it more or less an "energy shed" and keep some other batteries in there charging, and keep my Ryobi batteries in there.

[joebob]

If you are going to keep batteries in the same area with your generator make sure you have good ventilation so you don't have a problem with hydrogen build up from the batteries charging.

[Lilburner]

It's a nice enough shed for watertightness, but definitely not airtight enough to cause problems with trickle charging.

At this time, I'm not planning on running the generator in the shed and venting it for that. I'm going to open the doors to 90 degrees, pull the gen out onto the wood deck, and drape a tarp over the doors, leaving probably 18" or so at the bottom.

[RWS]

I use a ryobi weed eater and chain saw.  They both use the same battery. 
Question.  What does a man buy that has plenty of electricity?

Answer.  An electric car.