Power on wheels

Ever needed an electrical outlet only to realize that it was all the way across the room, or behind the couch, or already being used? I think all of us had run into this situation at least once or a million times. Well, here is a solution to that problem; an outlet (actually 2) on wheels. This is a DC battery powered 1000 Watt, 8.5 amp inverter on wheels. Need an outlet, wheel over the power station and you have it instantly; no need for extension cords.

You may be asking why we designed and built such a device. Well the answer is simple; we needed a backup power supply if the electricity goes out, and a battery and an inverter system provide that very simply. This one power unit should be able to run our fridge for about 7 hours before needing to be recharged. And because we already have a couple solar panels from the solar pump project, we simply can plug this battery into the panels and let them recharge (for free!!!). Now, I haven’t run the fridge on the power station yet to see how long it will run on the battery, nor do I know how long it will take to recharge the battery once it is drained, but I’ll be sure to post those numbers once I have them.

An added benefit to the portable power station is that not only does it fulfill the need of a backup power source; it also has a practical everyday use of providing free power where ever we need it. For instance, instead of running the crock pot all day off an electric outlet attached to the grid, we can now run it off the portable power station and not pull any power from the grid. For those of us who are counting every watt we are buying from the grid, this really helps.

So, why not build yourself a little portable power station, save a little grid power while making it easy on you to find an outlet. Here are the components of the portable power station that I designed and built:

1 1000 Watt Vector Inverter
1 75 Amp Hour Universal Deep Cycle Battery
2 3 foot #2 AWG cables with battery connectors and inverter adaptors
1 6 inch #2 AWG cable to run from the battery to the fuse
1 200 Amp ANL fuse and holder
1 15 Volt, analog voltmeter
1 DC switch to toggle the voltmeter on/off
Small amount of wire to wire up voltmeter and switch
Particle Board for the box (mine was 12 X 14 X 12)
4 heavy-duty wheels (must support a weight of over 50 pounds); 1 wheel should lock.
Hinge for lid

If you need more details on the design, just send me an email, and I’ll be sure to get you more specifics.

Once again, this is life according to Troy