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4:36 pm
April 18, 2011
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I'm running my 240 volt welders off a diesel generator and they work just fine, but the diesel does not come cheap. Try as I might to "gang" all my welding together there are many times where you are welding-grinding-fitting-scratching your head thinking while the generator is just sitting there burning up fuel. I set up a couple of 120 volt Miller welders, one a wire feed the other a "lunch box" stick/tig and I'm running them through my Outback inverters. These are quality welders and quality inverters but for some reason the welders just don't want to run right, they seem to lack power. I've got a huge battery bank, 11000lbs worth, that came from a telecommunication site. If I can get these to work for tacking parts together and/or welding up thicker stuff it would be great to get my juice from the sun instead of burning diesel. I've used these same 120volt welders on thicker heavy pieces at homeowners homes just by using careful technique. In this application they were slower, but the machines ran just fine, I just had to be careful, a little preheat with torch etc. Anyone have similar issues off grid and can I damage my 120volt welders in this application? These small units are maybe 8 years old, I wonder if new units are more sophisticated and perhaps have the circuitry to handle some sort of power variances that I might be getting from the Outbacks? Steep learning curve setting up off grid shop, up to now I've only ever concentrated on where is the on and off switch on my equipment. makes me wish I had paid more attention when friends tried to explain this stuff to me instead of me saying "sure sure yeah right ok now let me get to work". Bob.
8:01 pm
NWBA Member
Board Member
April 26, 2010
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Begging your pardon, sir, but batteries are typically rated in amp-hours, not pounds. Do you know how many amp-hours you have there?
Also, which Outbacks do you have? (The first two digits in the part number after the FX or VFX indicate continuous VA output rating.)
No matter where you go... there you are.
8:53 pm
April 18, 2011
Offline
Just went into the mechanical room to check. My mistake, the inverters are Xantrex SW Plus 5548 and the two charge controllers are Outback 60's. The batteries are Deka Unigy II's The cells are grouped in series of three across and it looks like each group is rated at 1140AH's and they stand eight levels high. There are two of these 48volt setups so I guess I have 1140AH's X8X2. The power is coming from 30 175 watt panels. The solar guy who hooked it up said I had plenty of capacity. This is all new stuff for me so any advice would be appreciated.Thanks.Bob.
7:25 am
September 7, 2010
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Hi Bob,
I don't profess to be an expert on the off the grid side but for our on site work we use a small(5kw)220V petrol genset and this runs our small invertor welders(tig & stick) including 2 grinders just fine. All our invertor welders 140 to 200amp seem to run on negligable amounts of powerand they don't trip a 220V 5amp breaker even if you weld for extended periods.
Ian
7:56 pm
NWBA Member
Board Member
April 26, 2010
Offline
Bob, based on your description, I'm guessing you have 3AVR9523L's. Each set of 3 is rated for 1140 AH at six volts. Each stack of 8 would therefore be 1140 AH at 48 volts. Two stacks mean 2280 AH at 48 volts. You should be able to pull 5 or 10 kwh per cycle without taxing your batteries. (NICE batteries, by the way!)
Your inverters should be able to source 11 kVA continuous between them, so there's no bottleneck there. They'll regulate better than a lot of residential neighborhoods, too, so no worries about damaging your welding equipment.
The only remaining question is how much of a charge your PV array can put on your batteries in a given amount of time. That will depend on the stats for your PV array and where in the world you are. Do you know the peak watt rating for your array? Do you know the insolation for your area? And of critical importance: are there ANY shadows falling on your array? (At all?)
No matter where you go... there you are.
4:30 am
March 22, 2010
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Heard this story weveral years ago, same compayn now?????
4:46 am
April 18, 2011
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Lee, it sounds like you know your stuff. I know that I have to remove some more trees in the area of the panels, I will give that a try. I just returned from a neighbor up the valley who showed me a monster 400kw water turbine on his ranch. He said sales of power to the utility company has paid for his land many times over since he bought it in 1993. He said lots of regulations with fish and game, forest service etc but he gets a nice check every month.Wants me to help set up a metal working shop. I'll do it just so I can go stare and listen to the turbine spinning, VERY loud and impressive!!!
4:52 am
NWBA Member
Board Member
April 26, 2010
Offline
Yeah, the hydro permits in Washington County Oregon start with getting a letter from the Feds stating one does not fall under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission! Even if one has a dinky 350 Watt generator like the one I'm planning on!
Those shade trees should be a high priority for you. A shadow as big as your fist will shut down the whole row of PV cells. If a third of your array is shaded, you might as well not have an array at all. Shadows BAD!
No matter where you go... there you are.
6:24 pm
September 18, 2010
Offline
I do not know about battery's But I have a Hobart 175 mig and I run it off a 8500 watt generator Have for years with no problems I get 8 to 9 hours of welding on a tank of gas 5 gallons. I just include it in the cost of the job. I also run a thermal dynamics plasma cutter off the generator as well. I have blown one leg of of the 240 V but re set it and up and running again.:stomp:
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