Build your own portable power station: An ARFcom tutorial (very pic heavy)
These little power stations have evolved a bit since that ice storm in 2008. Here is one of the first boxes I put together. I'm including it in this
thread to make you aware of it's limitations and drawbacks:
Back when that particular box was built my staff and I were scrambling to put together as many stations as we could as quickly as possible.
We were pretty limited due to parts availability-we scoured dozens of local stores for inverters, batteries, wire, fuses...you name it. The primary
drawback to the box pictured above was that we were running out of heavy 6 or 8 gauge primary wire. We were forced to use 10 gauge wire
for some boxes, which downgraded the maximum potential output of the inverter. The recipients of those boxes were advised that they could
power their laptops, modems, cell phones, and the portable compact fluorescent lamps that we provided...and nothing more. Here are the 14w
CFL fixtures I supplied with each box-it cost very little to put them together:
Fortunately, whatever inverter you buy for your project should come with an appropriate wiring harness to allow max output from the inverter.
That wiring harness will be cannibalized for your station. We were forced to buy display models, store returns, and open box units that
frequently didn't have all of the parts.
As pictured in the other thread, here is an example of the newer generation box with more capability:
PARTS LIST:
-Inverter of your choice: The 750w Black and Decker unit pictured above was chosen because of it's good reviews, value, and USB charging
capability. The inverter you buy should come with a suitable wiring harness that we will modify as needed. Here is a link to the Black and
Decker inverter pictured above LINK
-Deep cycle battery: Obviously, the bigger the better. Since these boxes are typically used indoors, I would strongly suggest an absorbed
glass mat (AGM) or equivalent type of sealed battery. I don't know how dangerous a traditional flooded battery can be when venting-and I
don't want to find out. If one of you knows more about these types of hazards please educate me.
The Optima Yellow Top deep cycle that I used in many of my boxes are rated for 55Ah. That would conservatively power a 200 watt load on a
Duralast inverter for around three hours. While it was capable of going longer I didn't want to beat the crap out of the batteries.
-Battery box: The Optima Yellow Top batteries I used are group size 24, your battery might be bigger. Here is a box that will fit batteries
from group size 24 to 31 LINK
-Circuit breaker (or a fuse block) for primary power feed, and inline fuse holder and 30A fuses for charging pigtail.
-Marine battery terminals: Second item down LINK
-Crimp on battery cable lugs: You will need two 1/4" and two 3/8" crimp on copper lugs. Autozone part #LCS8082 and #LCS8072
-10 gauge ring terminals: To connect your charging pigtail to your battery terminals.
-10 gauge red and black wire: To construct your charging pigtail. A couple of feet will be plenty.
-Anderson Powerpole connectors: You can substitute whatever connector you prefer if you don't want to use Powerpoles. In ham radio
Anderson Powerpole connectors are the de facto standard, which is how I became aquainted with them. More info HERE
-Battery charger/maintainer: I have one of each, pictured here:
-Alternative charging: Obviously, you can't use your battery charger when grid power is out. I put together a cigarette lighter plug and an
alligator clip connector to go with each box, allowing the user to charge them up with their vehicles. Another alternative would be a solar panel
and charge controller.
You could also install a cigarette lighter socket, if you wanted to run a D/C cell phone charger directly for example. I did this on a couple of
boxes:
-Nuts, bolts, and washers: Needed to secure the inverter and circuit breaker (or fuse block) to the lid of the battery box.
-Assorted heat shrink tubing
-Two 10 gauge buttsplices: To attach inline fuse holder to charging pigtail.
ASSEMBLY:
Start off by marking and drilling the holes for the inverter and circuit breaker/fuse block in the lid of your battery enclosure. Depending on the
model of inverter you purchased, you may need to slightly widen the holes in it's base to get the mounting bolts through it. Once the holes are
drilled bolt everything in for a trial fit. You will need to figure out where to drill the holes for the wiring to pass through the lid as well. Allow
sufficient slack in the wiring so it doesn't chafe or make sharp bends.
Pass one end of the primary power feeds through the lid, before you slide on the heat shrink tubing and crimp on the connectors. Use the
following pic as a guide when constructing the wiring harness:
The stock wiring harness that came with your inverter should have ring connectors installed on one end, and probably alligator clips on the
other. Keep those ring connectors intact and use them. Snip off the alligator clips, but if possible leave enough wire on them so you can reuse
them.
Once the cable lugs are crimped on, slide the heat shrink tubing over the crimped ends to prevent chafing and possible short circuiting.
Using modestly sized 55Ah batteries the top power box will provide about 200 watts of power for around three hours. It will actually go longer
than that, but when I issued them to our employees I advised them not to run the batteries down excessively. Using that three hour/200 watt
baseline translates into about 43 hours of CFL run time at 14 watts. That jives fairly closely with what we observed during the storm. The first
two boxes were used by me temporarily, so I could have light to work by-and build more boxes and get the office back up. One of those little
14w CFLs was lit nonstop for at least a day and a half without stopping to recharge.
I stopped using the toggle switch when I began installing a circuit breaker on the main power feed instead of a fuse. Now I simply use the
breaker as a switch-it simplified the overall configuration
