Recharchable system for 115V, 6.3 amps...

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-30 10:57am

Just wondering, . . . if I wanted to power an electric motor set to run at 115 volts and 6.3 amps, and do so for about an hour per charge, . . .

1. Is it possible?
2. Ballpark cost?
3. Weight?

Any advise or information you would care to leave would be appreciated, or if more clarification is needed, feel free to reply.

Thanks!

nickolay1 · Post by **nickolay1** » 2006-05-30 11:23am

That's approximately 725 watts. You shouldn't have much trouble finding a DC-AC inverter for such a rating. Most use a car battery, though I did not find the current draw for that power rating after a brief look.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-05-30 03:56pm

115V at 6.3 amps for an hour works out to about 725 Amp-Hours. The average car battery has a capacity of roughly 100 Amp-Hours, and that's when you discharge them over 10 hours or so. Discharge them in an hour and you'll only get about 60-70% of that, so you'll need at least 10 car batteries to run that motor for an hour. Which is to say possible, about $800-$1200, and about 500 pounds.

In other words, you're better off buying a generator to run the motor.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-05-30 07:36pm

Car batteries would not work as well for this sort of application; the appropriate battery to use here would be a deep-cycle battery.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-31 09:32am

Uraniun235 wrote:Car batteries would not work as well for this sort of application; the appropriate battery to use here would be a deep-cycle battery.

Please, . . . . . continue!

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-05-31 01:08pm

Deep-cycle batteries are basically what run boat motors, golf carts, forklifts, that sort of thing.

I'm afraid that's all I know... I picked it up when I read a thread at Something Awful by a guy who, instead of shelling out for a huge UPS for his rack of computer equipment, got a smaller (yet still fairly heavy-duty) UPS off of eBay sans standard battery, and wired in a few deep-cycle batteries, giving him a huge battery lifetime (he tested it out, and stopped testing after it had all run for more than four hours on battery power).

The reason I know about it is because he said that car batteries didn't work well for this sort of application, that deep-cycle batteries were more suited to it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but hopefully that can point you in the right direction to look.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-31 02:47pm

Thanks, Uranium 235. I had forgotten about the mechanism of Golf Carts.

Here's the thing, . . . I have an OLD electric lawn mower (probably near 40 years old) that my family has had for a long time. I got it down from my dad's attic over the weekend and plugged it into the outside outlet and mowed my lawn with it. It still works great! However, the fact of the danger involved, the possibility of accidently running over the chord makes me want to find a way to do some sort of a retrofitting on it.

It's probably just wishful thinking, but it would be great to mow my lawn with electric rechargable power.

General Trelane (Retired) · Post by **General Trelane (Retired)** » 2006-05-31 03:00pm

I'd suggest you simply buy a rechargeable electric lawn mower. It'll be safer than anything you jury-rig and will probably be cheaper too.

This is what Rona's website has to say:

The rechargeable mower is silent and presents no risk of electric shock or toxic fumes. It is designed for areas of 5000 square feet or less, as its electrical charge is limited. Its price, between $500 and $600, and maintenance, mainly batteries, are high, which explains its lack of popularity.

(The dollar figures would be Canadian)

Obviously, limited charge is the big draw back, but I doubt you'll be able to get better performance from a home retrofit. For one thing, by using the old electric motor, you're forced to use the DC-AC converter (adds weight and cost), whereas battery-operated devices normally use DC as is (cheaper and lighter).

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-31 04:06pm

General Trelane (Retired) wrote:I'd suggest you simply buy a rechargeable electric lawn mower. It'll be safer than anything you jury-rig and will probably be cheaper too.

This is what Rona's website has to say:

The rechargeable mower is silent and presents no risk of electric shock or toxic fumes. It is designed for areas of 5000 square feet or less, as its electrical charge is limited. Its price, between $500 and $600, and maintenance, mainly batteries, are high, which explains its lack of popularity.
(The dollar figures would be Canadian)

Obviously, limited charge is the big draw back, but I doubt you'll be able to get better performance from a home retrofit. For one thing, by using the old electric motor, you're forced to use the DC-AC converter (adds weight and cost), whereas battery-operated devices normally use DC as is (cheaper and lighter).

Hmmmm. . . I see. Thanks for the replies!