Garage Power

[Guest Chutney]

I'm moving house soon- happy days! the new house has a garage on block, which is excellent as I can move the car in and hopefully make some good progress in the evenings.

However, no power and it would be impossible to hard wire a supply. So the obvious solution is to sun extension leads to it( not ideal)

So ( and work with me on this) what about a solar powered garage?

Does anyone know of a cheap off the shelf kit or what about a double of big lesure batteries and an inverter coupled with a little solar top up panel? Any thoughts?

[maccavvy]

the cost of solar panels and an invertor would be silly money.

Ive just got a garage with no power,so bought a small genny .60 quid and will run drill,lights and grinder.

If you bought 2nd hand even better power for ther money.

 

I know you have to cost fuel into it. But for the small amount of work ill be doing this is more cost effective.

 

If you need lighting then id get a leisure battery and some caravan lighting ,and charge the battery at home over night.Or some gennys come with battery charge facilities too

[Guest Chutney]

I've got a generator and I bloody hate it. I also can't see the neighbours appreciating it whiring at 9:30pm. I seem to remember seeing little solar powered boat top ups.

[maccavvy]

http://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/khxc/gbu0-catshow/Semi-Flexible.html?gclid=CJCn842F16wCFYEhtAoddGmTBQ

 

You can get boat ones but they only charge 12v. so if you want to run power tools its a no.

 

Unless yo use that for the lights and only fire genny up when needed.

[Jez Morton]

I had a quick look at this and the power available using this method may be a bit disappointing.

Take a standard inverter say 1000 watts enough to run a drill, if you where to use the drill for 1 hour you would need two large batteries approx 50amphour each. The solar panels required to supply enough energy to recharge the batteries would need to be 600 watt in winter which is 4 large panels, this would be assuming 2 hours of good sunlight per day. And the best bit the solar panels give 40volts DC at a combined rate of around 40 amphour and need an inverter to produce 230 volts AC which you plug your battery charger into, then you need a 12volt inverter to supply 230volts from the batteries. If you doubled the solar panels you could run the drill direct but not charge the batteries.

I wait to be corrected this was just a quick google.

 

Jez

[Guest Chutney]

That's what I was after. I'm not gonna go all Heath Robinson if it's a waste of time.

 

Generator or 100m extension lead it is.

 

Cheers guys.

[fry61]

If going wander lead route buy the heaviest cable you can afford, 2.5mm or 4.0mm csa 3 core in artic grade will keep your volt-drop down. Don't use a welder or heater unless soil warming is a by-product you require, & don't ever use the lead when coiled up - melted cable ensues rapidly.

[Guest Chutney]

All taken on board. It's just a shame, cos it's a lovely garage-good size, nice tiled roof, only 8yrs old.

I guess the days of your average "executive home" (scoff) owner actually doing work in their garage is gone.

I am a stickler for a tidy/well stocked workshop. The thought of a generator or extension leads upsets me.

I'll count my blessings, I know some of you work under a tarp.

[Guest carl leonard]

I'd be tempted to use LED lighting (Good light /low power) using a couple of Leisure batteries. Dial Dave uses this method in France with good results and keeps them topped up using solar panels from maplins.

 

For power tools I'd go for Makita drill and grinder 18V, which you can charge each time you go home ready for the next part of the build.

 

I'm considering going to 12V in the garage using LEDs due to the cost of electricity!

 

 

carl

[owlman2222]

i was in the same boat as you, no power in the garrage, but was lucky enought to gain quite a few industral deep cycle batterys (1,000ah worth ) and a 7kv UPS from work and got lucky on ebay and got a 120w solar panel for cheep. i bought some 12v low power LED lights. and away i went .Now i only realy use the UPS to charge the batteys for my cordless tools and occasionally the kettle if lacking beer.

i did run corded power tools off it and had now power probles due to only using them at the weekend due to work, so the rest of the week the panel charged the battiers back up to full and most cases it was dumping power due to too much

On the solar panel you would be surprised how much power it gives off on an over cast day, they dont need direct sunlight to work. tho they give there max power in direct sunlight.

[Guest Chutney]

Ooo, now that sounds better.

[owlman2222]

i also have put power up our horse field with a 50w panel and a 300w wind turbine that runs 10 LED lights, 2000w inverter,MSM gate and fence alarm and a portable 12v fridge (only on when they are up there to keep milk cold)

 

the inverter runs a kettle, horse clippers and anyting else they want to run off of it.

 

forgot to mention some cheep modifed sign wave inverters dont like powering kettles,and motors ie power drills, these perfure pure sign wave which are more expencive

[Al Milton]

Looked at options for our summer house, (wifes idea!).

With solar and turbines there is always the planning regs to do battle with.

 

Extension leads are a chaeper option, but as Florin mentioned there is always the voltage drop to consider, plus the additional risk of overloading your power circuit indoors.

 

The option we chose in the end was permanent cable wired directly from the main Consumer unit to a second smaller consumer unit in the cabin. The cable used is 6mm armoured cable, clipped to the wall, (tried burying the cable, but less than 1 spade depth we hit solid chalk!). We have mini breakers and 2 RCD's protecting the electrics, installed by a certified (17th edition) sparky. Cable run approximately 80 meters.

 

Bit of overkill for a fancy shed, maybe, but with electrics would you like to take the risk?

[Guest Chutney]

Ooo, now that sounds better.