As always, thanks for looking

In response to this thread I have put together a tutorial for anyone interested in building their own self-contained portable power station. This guide is a work in progress, so please don't be shy about suggesting improvements, providing feedback, making corrections, and sharing your own portable power ideas and projects.

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.

Anywho, I'm going to sign off for now. I'll update and expand this post after I get some sleep. If you've come this far, thanks for reading!

I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback. Please let me know if anything is muddy or needs further explanation.

Very cool thread

Thanks for the write up. I was going to build mine today anyway, now I will build it better!

Same here.

Thanks CJan_NH.

556man

Nicely done!

What sort of runtimes did you get especially with the CFL setup you used?

Also, I noticed your updated box drops the power toggle switch from your original box.  Any particular design reason for doing that?

in for future blatant piracy....

thanks

Great Information, Thanks

I admire your honesty


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



As far as using one of these to jump start a car, I actually made one set up to do that. The Optima batteries we use have GM style side terminals as well as top posts. I connected two 4 gauge leads to the side terminals, and connected those leads to one of THESE, which is a 350A Anderson Powerpole on steroids. I removed the alligator clamps from one end of a set of jumper cables, and replaced them with another one of those 350A connectors. The result was a really slick, high-powered Booster Pack that could jump start just about anything. The only downside, of course, is that these power boxes weigh a helluva lot more than a conventional Booster Pack.

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Just took a shot at pricing out all the components including the battery maintainer.  Around $260.00 sound about right?



Black & Decker PI750AB 750 Watt Power Inverter $73.00

Optima YellowTop Dual Purpose Battery $140.00

Battery Maintainer $30.00

Noco Group 24-31 Snap-Top Battery Box      $12.95

MISC:  $40.00

That looks pretty close MateFrio. Here is the specific battery that we use LINK

Thanks for posting!

Outstanding thread!

Ops

Great write up and pics


Thanks



GM

Great write up.  I remember seeing something similar before here.

You are right Pyro-I did a smaller thread a while back along the same lines

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I really need to do this. Thanks for the info.

Awesome idea!  Thanks for posting.  I'm going to start building a few of these ASAP.  



I just need to figure out how to trickle charge the batteries from solar.

Basic solar charge controllers start around $30, like this one. The price goes up from there, as the controllers get larger and more capable

Im pretty sure that ACE hardware had that inverter for 40 bucks. just to say...
i bought one for my brother's boat.

Very nice set up and I'm thinking of building one myself.  Now with that said, I probably don't need to say this, but I'm going to anyway.  If you plan on charging this battery using your vehicle, make sure the motor is running, otherwise you just end up with another dead battery.  Just sayin'.

What do you think of going with something like a Batter Tender Plus instead of a separate charger/maintainer for those of us who won't need a fast turnaround on charge times. The BT Plus only charges at about 1.25A but given enough time, would that be sufficient?

Could you also go into some more detail about your circuit breaker setups?

Thanks for the info. This will be on the project list when my solar set up gets here.
RLTW

Stupid question. Why would you run a 750w inverter if the battery will only power 200W @ 4hrs? Or can you power more watts for less time? (Sorry, I know jack squat about electronics.

Not to hijack this thread by posting a link to another similiar item, BUT you said to post comments so here goes.
I truly appreciate the time and effort you put, not only into the making of this power center itself, but also the time, effort, and energy to put the tutorial together. A small suggestion would be to make it more portable like in this setup. This would make it easier to move around (batteries are heavy!) especially if you built this for older / weaker persons. I don't know if this box is still available, but I am sure something similiar is, or you could just go down to Wally World, Lowes, HD, or Harbor Freight and get a set of cheap handtrucks or even a little red wagon. Thanks for your input, your vast knowledge on these matters is greatly appreciated.

ETA: Page 2 ownage

That's a really cool idea! Thank you very much for posting it-this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. I'd love to incorporate some portability into future versions. My biggest gripe with these is that they are still fairly awkward to move around-particularly for my wife and daughter. The built-in handles in the battery enclosure do help, but I'd still like to have a better way.


You are correct! You can power higher wattage appliances for a shorter period of time

I used 200 watts as a baseline for testing because that was right around the average combined load of a multimedia laptop, modem, cell phone, and compact florescent light fixture all running together. Not only that, I had a 200w light bulb on-hand, which made for very easy testing.

Let me help you out. Head over to the HAM RADIO subforum and look for the sticky titled HAM RADIO 101. You want the section "Notes On Operating From Batteries During SHTF." The guide will explain the concepts that you need to know to arrive at your own conclusion.





CJAN is being very, very conservative when he advises his employees not to run more than 200w for more than four hours. The battery could perform at that load for much longer, or it is able to provide more amperage if neeed. But for the sake of maintenance on the kit, I imagine that the advice was given as such. Batteries last longer when they aren't often run down to full discharge voltage.





 

Thanks for the post.  

I've been thinking of building one of these since I saw your previous post about them.  Now I don't have to think when I build it, just copy yours.

LED christmas lights are really low draw and might give you functional light for a much longer runtime

if your going to use this for lighting as well i would suggest some form of 12v lighting even 12v LEDS so there is no inverter loss for the lights. you can get 12vLED's that draw very little amps(around 1amp or less depending on the LED's) that would give you DAYS worth of light. of course that number will go down with the other items your running off the inverter but 12v lighting would be a much better option even over the CFL's. the LED's will cost a little more but for the extended run time they would still be a better option. you could even find clear auto LED bulbs and just make light fixtures that have the correct connectors to use them. the fittings are available at any auto parts store and the LED auto bulbs can be found cheaper on the internet. you could even get red bulbs if you want something to maintain your night vision if you want to keep it on the stealth side. run as much as you can straight off the 12v to save as much power as you can.

Even something like this would be a pretty neat addition to the setup.

That light strip looks pretty rugged (or at least flexible and waterproof) and isn't all that expensive. They've got several other colors and sizes on the site.

Cool thread!

I know people love the Optimas, but they are darn pricey. Walmart has marine batteries for about $50. I was looking at putting an Optima in my jeep (I have a winch, so I need a good battery) and I ended up getting TWO marine starting batteries, plus the dual battery kit for less than I'd have spent on one optima.

You could do two of these with walmart batteries for a little more than one with an optima, or if you didn't need much portability do a dual battery version.

If you do want an optima, costco had the best prices I could find.

You are right, you pay a lot - no, a crapload - for Optimas, for what you get in capacity and longevity.

If you are looking for longevity, ability to discharge repeatedly, etc., then it all comes down to plate thickness.  The thicker the plates, the more sulfation has to occur before the battery is useless.

However, making plates thicker means that the battery has to be larger and heavier, if you want the same amp-hour capacity.

In terms of plate thickness, marine batteries are probably a little superior to Optimas, but golf cart batteries are far superior to either of them - and Sam's club has good prices on them.  Forklift batteries are even far superior to golf cart batteries, but in order to lift them... you'd need a forklift.

However, there is one other factor to consider, which is probably why the OP went with the Optima:  This is a portable setup.  Having a sealed, completely leak-proof battery is a big, BIG safety win.

tag.   Nice looking power pac.

VERY interesting.  I'd like to see more of this in the thread.  What could I use this box for and in what ways?  I'm in the "hurricane ally" and power goes out all the time during them.  I like this idea alot.  Is possible to run a large appliance off this?  Also, can I recharge this by hooking it up to my car and how long would it take?  If so, how dangerous would it be "drive around" with it attached while it charged?





Thanks

I bought some invertors when they were on sale, if you have to build it now you pay today's prices.  If you keep projects in mind you can watch for parts that will get the job done and wait to fine stuff on sale.  So yeah the price is up there if you have to pay full price for stuff, but if you shop around you might do a whole lot better.



The mention of the marine battery at wally world vs the optima basically does come back to the comments in the original post about sealed batteries vs. batteries that need to be able to vent.



I decided earlier today my first version will be with a sealed battery, I plan to check with napa and see if they still have their sealed batteries available.  Mine looked a lot like an optima and had numbers like an optima but it was black and said napa and was cheaper in cost with plenty of warranty.  For something to carry around and use inside I want a sealed battery.  And the napa battery I had also had top and side posts and that is probably the best way to go about multiple big power uses like a 750watt invertor and also some big alligator clips for jump starting stuff.



I will probably make something more specifically for my jeep and use a replacement battery for my jeep with it, but it will mostly live in the jeep and be for car camping uses.



As far as tool boxes and dollies and what not, look around and see what you can find.  Depending on your wants and needs they may make a lot of sense and they might not.



In a previous thread we discussed this pretty heavily and even covered building your own box for the battery out of wood and possably adding wheels to that.



For a camper or trailer something on wheels might make sense.  For my suv it varies somewhat since a lot of this stuff won't fit without taking the dolley off the battery box.



Lowes and home depot have some of the rolling tool boxes to look at and depending on what you have sitting around you might be able to skip buying a battery box and save those bucks for other stuff.



And I agree this is a very heavy jump start pack but I find myself rarely needing a jump start pack but when I do the battery is usually close to dead.  So while I have a 20ft pair of jumper cables that can generally reach from one vehicle to another I think this most certainly has some uses and I think I will probably go with the plug in for the jumper cables instead of having the aligator clips hot all the time.



If someone wants a smaller setup I can understand not wanting to deal with the weight and size this setup brings to the table.



But when considering use for several hours over a few days I think it makes sense because you won't have to be recharging the smaller stuff as much.



I had been thinking about wiring an invertor into my jeep permanently but I can't really decide where I want it and I hate popping the hood to connect the larger invertors to the battery.  So having this setup in the back will run all my stuff like little air compressor and what not, and everything is portable if I need to take another vehicle.

I don't think you will do well running a large appliance for very long if at all.  This setup is for keeping rechargable stuff or little ac stuff working in my opinion.  I am very happy to let the experts crunch the numbers and say it will run X blender for smoothies but not a microwave or fridge.



The original use of these was mostly for cell phones, laptops, and other stuff people needed to keep charged and using while grid power was down.



As far as safety while driving around, this is where the vented vs non vented is coming into play.  A sealed battery won't vent gases while charging so it is no biggy to put it in your vehicle and secure it so it can't bounce around on you and let it charge while driving around.  How long it takes to charge will depend on how much power you are trying to stuff back in it during x amount of time, along with how low you let the battery get.



Now vented batteries are not really going to just blow up on everyone, but some reading on the gases they can give off while charging is a good thing to do and you can decide for yourself how it will work.  For a vehicle with a trunk I would not be real worried about a vented battery since I would set it up like drag racers set up a battery they move from the engine bay to thier trunk.



For my suv I am thinking about possable venting and I will be looking for options to give it a bit of fresh air in and old air out of the vehicle.  But this is down the road and is more likely to live in my toy hauler/camper toy I am getting ready to get serious about assembling this spring.



You can run some general searches on invertors and see what they say they can run, I have a 400 watt I think and a 750 watt as well.  Might have some duplicates around as well knowing me.



I want mine for laptop and cell phone charging and possable vehicle jump starting.  It also runs my air compressor using the invertor that I keep in my vehicle after punching a decent hole in a tire recently.  Lighting is an option that will come and I will stick to 12 volt stuff so the invertor is not in use and causing extra power draw.

This is what we are all in it for.




 

CJan you are a champion.  Nice work.

I'd like to build one of these things and then incorporate some type of solar panel recharger into it.

Well played.

well thin ive got a new project for the weekend. thanks for the post!

I am building a similar but smaller setup. For my net book and cell phone.

12 watt sunlinq panel

2 battery's 12v 7Ah $11.88 at Academy

120W power inverter with usb

.5A AC powered charger/maintainer $9.99 at Academy

old 6pack sized cooler (plastic insert soft side)



And it all fits inside the cooler



Academy had a clearance sale on the deer feeder stuff.

solar is a pain to spec

if you want to run a dc device like a phone or a laptop,

Don't yet have a dc to dc converter for netbook.



Asus Eee pc don't use much any way, the power supply is 40W max.



Later will change battery tech to save weight. This will be used in field later.
 

DC-DC converter can be bought at walmart depending on the amp draw. they are in the electronics section or the automotive section depending on you local WM.

I was recently at Lowes and compared the Stanly model against the Kobalt portable box. There is night and day difference in the thickness and rigidness of the 2 boxes, with Kobalt have thicker more rigid material. I like the more open and usable area of the Kobalt. The Kobalt box seemed to be less complicated and not as clumsy as the Stanly box. For right at $70.00 I don't think  you can beat the Kobalt box.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_17018-84396-17181110_4294857661+4294965883_4294937087?productId=1042205&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Kobalt_4294857661%204294965883_4294937087_#prod-tabs




My plans call for a much larger group 27 battery with 100 A/Hr capacity. I also need a box where everything was inside the enclosure. No plans as of yet for making use of the top box except maybe for interconnecting cables, if not room in bottom box. Wanting to make a total portable (luggable) power solution including inverter, solar, and ac charger. The main use of my portable power solution is for a HF/VHF/UHF EComm box.



 

Here is the DC power adapter for the Asus Netbooks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998923
 

Yes I have seen that will probably buy it. But since I work for a school, am paid by the hr, and had Christmas break, my pay check was 1/2 normal.

And snow days hurt my pay also.