Power/Electric question - semi bike related

[benVFR]

I have my bike in a storage unit.. it's like 100m from my apartment, and fairly cheap, so it's been working OK.

Unfortunately the catch is I have no electrical power. I knew this would become an issue with maintenance eventually.. just that I've managed to avoid it for the past 4-5 months since I moved here.

Now I need power to work on the bike and I'm trying to figure out my options.

1) My dad said I could borrow his generator.. massive, massive overkill and I worry I'll attract attention. It's also going to be a PITA to move.

2) Get an inverter for the car and use that for short term stuff. This is fairly cheap.. I need to figure out how safe it is for the car though and what capacity.. my tools seem to be about 2A. (Grinder, Drill, soldering iron, etc..)

3) Home Depot has some "power box" job site products which look like they are some kind of large battery + inverter setup. More expensive then an inverter but perhaps a better investment and no need to run the car. Anyone ever use these? I could also run a floodlight with this kind of thing so I could work at night... I'm not going to use an inverter and leave my car idling for hours.

[ChR1s]

Inverter FAQ

[stoinkythepig]

Inverter seems like a perfect solution to me, at least you have option of starting the car to re-charge it and you can use the car to lug tools. They will run a small load (2 amps as you stated) for a couple of hours with the engine off.

[SSearchVT]

If the load is low (2 Amp-ish) from a few work lights and maybe a radio. Have you looked at linking a few heavy gauge extension cords together, or making your own? Not the best solution for long term or high amp requirements, but it might get you over this hump.

Or - is there a neighbors house that is closer that would let you plug into them if you slipped them a few bucks?

Of course there is this:
ThinkGeek :: Wireless Extension Cords

[benVFR]

No-Go on the extension cords...

I'd have to cross a road/driveway. Plus I bet it's just too far I think.

Thanks for the inverter FAQ.

Not sure I would want to cycle the battery in the car.. ISTR they are not designed to be discharged much at all...

Thanks guys.. I think my brother might actually have an inverter now that I think about it.. maybe not big enough though.

[ZX-12R]

Ever consider the honda mini generators? They are not cheap when brand new but they are extremely useful. You can occasionally find deals on them on-line.

Honda Mini Power Generators - Gas-Powered, Quiet, Portable Backup

Also, their output is close to a true sine. The picture they show of the output has very small steps in the curve but it is far better than the modified sine you get from most generators and inverters.

[benVFR]

Think I'll have to go with an inverter.

Those Honda generators look pretty darn nice but they're 10x what an inverter costs.

The "power box" type doo-hickeys that I had looked at don't do what I thought.. they just provide a ground fault interrupt when they're plugged into an AC power outlet.. there is no actual inverter involved, all they can do is power 12V corded tools off the big battery packs that cordless tools use.

[sandman]

Think I'll have to go with an inverter.

Those Honda generators look pretty darn nice but they're 10x what an inverter costs.

The "power box" type doo-hickeys that I had looked at don't do what I thought.. they just provide a ground fault interrupt when they're plugged into an AC power outlet.. there is no actual inverter involved, all they can do is power 12V corded tools off the big battery packs that cordless tools use.

they're 10x what a piece of shit modified sine wave inverter costs.

it would more than likely run your lights fine but fry anything with a motor that you wanted to run.

your best bet would be to get a small honda gen, maybe used.

a 2a @ 110v load will draw around 20a @12v dc from your battery.

so if you hooked it up to a 8d battery (200ah) going with a max discharge of 50% you could run that load for around 5hrs a 20% discharge would be better for the battery and allow you to run the load for 2 hrs.

then all you'd need a good three stage battery charger to recharge the battery.

btw:a good inverter can cost over 3k

[benVFR]

None of the FAQs seem to indicate my tools will be sensitive to a poor sine wave... they all seem to indicate you need really high quality for running stuff like computers. The only indication would be to maybe oversize the inverter, which is pretty affordable.

Even if I shorten the life of my tools it's still not worth it to spend $750-1000 on a generator. I could replace all my electric tools 3x for that price.

I guess I should look into renting a small generator though.

[sandman]

None of the FAQs seem to indicate my tools will be sensitive to a poor sine wave... they all seem to indicate you need really high quality for running stuff like computers. The only indication would be to maybe oversize the inverter, which is pretty affordable.

Even if I shorten the life of my tools it's still not worth it to spend $750-1000 on a generator. I could replace all my electric tools 3x for that price.

I guess I should look into renting a small generator though.

or several 100' 10 ga cords.

if you want to find out more about inverters look to solar sites.

[mikeb]

ride it to your dads house and do it there? did you lay it down or something to prevent that? seems like a pain in the ass unless you plan on working on it quite frequently at your storage spot.

[benVFR]

Yah.. I had crashed it at the track.

I got it apart tonight.. so I won't be needing to power up any tools.

Managed to get it apart from the other side...

Holy cow.. worst rearset design ever. I swear I could take the rearsets apart on my SV in like 10 minutes. Took me an hour to get this one off.

I think I'm permanently removing the heat shield on the bike there and getting some different bolts to attach the rear master cylinder.

What is the point of a heat shield if you run bolts through it that can funnel all that heat right into the master cylinder?

Now the bike is ready for parts.. to bad my bank account is not ready to order them.