Power Generation General

[God's drunkest driver]

Does anyone know what happened to these types of inverter generators that could run off of 1 lb / 20 lb propane tanks?
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I used one once along time ago while car camping, the Baja 900 watt pictured above before they were bought by Ryobi. They seem to be non-existent these days. I want something that can just run off a Coleman propane tanks or 20 lb propane tanks and not have to fuck around with gasoline.

Is there any reason why these aren't for sale in the US anymore?

There was also another company called ALP that made something similar, but before I could buy one it looks like they went out of business

This seriously has me pissed, gasoline generators fucking suck. And all the duel fuel generators fucking suck too, 900 watts was the perfect range and these were very lightweight.

I've never seen one of those before. It doesn't look much smaller than portable generators I've seen with 2x+ the power output, and the endurance at any significant output was probably pretty poor on the 1lb tanks. If you get 30% thermodynamic efficiency out of the little engine you'll be under 2kWh per 1lb propane cylinder, after inverter efficiency it's probably down to 1.75kWh or worse. I could see it being useful for niche, low demand applications, but it was probably discontinued due to poor sales because people could get more power and endurance for not much more money. Propane is convenient for storage, especially long term, but it's a lot more expensive per kWh.

 

[Particle Bored]

 

[teriyakiburns]

I was about to post a thread until I saw this one. There go my imaginary internet points again.

Has anyone else looked into whole-house UPS-style systems or cost time-shifting using batteries? My brother, my dad, and myself are looking into home battery storage for time-shift, but also to deal with the shortages that are inevitably coming in the next few years as the government continues to fuck with the grid. The idea is to be able to store enough energy for a bit over day of normal operation, which can probably be stretched to two or three days with rationing.

We're starting with a test rig at my dad's place, since he has both the time and the money to actually work on it. The initial plan is to start with time-shifting, then upgrade to some form of real-time rate management if possible (using a home assistant integration because home assistant is awesome), and then finally add solar for that fully off-grid lifestyle. We don't want to do some shitty all-in-one contractor installation, or use some tightly integrated system like Powerwall. Instead we're going start with a system that can be expanded over time. To that end, we're investigating the Victron EasySolar II inverter/charger, which has a wide range of compatible batteries and can have its capacity expanded with parallel units. If it works, we're going to pool money to upgrade our homes with the same system. I won't be having solar though. No suitable roof for it. All things being equal, we're probably setting it up within the next month.

One-year (and a bit) update. We installed a 15 kWh battery with a Victron Multiplus II 48/5000 GX, which has most of the gubbins built in. Solar was ruled out for the initial installation, but it's an option for later and can easily be retrofitted. It's been running off an overnight discounted tariff that's intended for EVs, but the electricity company doesn't currently check and seems not to actually care. It charges up shortly after midnight and usually makes it through a normal day with about 20% of the battery left. Net result is dad's electricity costs have plummeted. We're planning a solar install some time later in the year as a supplementary, either a 50/50 split AC and DC, or all on the DC side, and maybe to expand the storage capacity if the costs look ok.

I've just commissioned a similar system at my place, with room to expand for solar afterwards. Same inverter, but 30 kWh rather than 15, as I am using a lot more energy. I'm going to test a fully off-grid situation later in the week. I technically can't use the microwave and kettle at the same time when off-grid, as it draws more power than the nominal rated maximum (though it can peak up to 9kw if it needs to), but for normal use it's more than enough. 30kWh should see me through about 48 hours with my current use patterns. Aside from the solar, I plan on adding a generator to supplement if the grid is down.

With some careful hedging, I could be capable of complete off-grid living by next year. Given my current situation (suburban former village that is on the verge of being swallowed by urban sprawl), it's not a huge boon, but it's nice. And cheap, too.