How can you make an electric generator?
I own 5 acres of property. Other then my gas generator, I don’t have electricity on it. I have a travel trailer on it with an electric fridge and I love camping there. In Home Depot, I have seen a converter that you hook up to your car battery and I have also seen what appears to be an electric generator. I asked someone at Home Depot how long the "electric generator" would run a small fridge. He told me it wouldn’t be a long time, but suggested using a marine battery with a converer. I am thinking I could purchase several batteries, a converter and a battery charger. Does that sound like somethink that might work?
I do have a 5000 watt gas generator on my property. I just don’t want to have to run it all the time if I am camping for several days or a week at a time. We all know the prices of gas these days.
Filed under: Wind Power
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Sure that will work. With two marine batteries and lights you will have to recharge them about every 2-7 days. You will need to use a gas generator to recharge the batteries. Or you can buy something like a 100 watt solar panel to recharge them.
Most rv’s work like this. If you drive with your camper a lot you might look into running some lines from you main truck battery to your marines so you can charge them all at the same time. But remember to put in a switch to turn it off so you can’t drain all of them and get stuck somewhere.
The ‘electric generator’ you are describing is just a battery. A true electric generator converts motion (kinetic energy) into electricity. The converter probably changes the electricity from DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current).
You can actually buy a gasoline powered generator large enough to run a home. People use them as back-up generators.
What you are describing is a pack of D/C batteries that use an INVERTER to change your power to A/C. The problem you will experience is the capacity you would need to accomplish an economical return. You would have to spend far more on batteries to get the necessary capacity to run your appliances than a traditional generator. I have designed systems that are strictly D/C for similar applications. However this was only used for lighting and fans. About the only other option you may want to consider is wind generation. Its cost effective with the results you would be looking for.
Gasoline power generator will be noisy, expensive and need a high maintenance while batteries and inverters are heavy, dirty, expensive, dangerous and also need a high maintenance.
If you are just asking for an advice on how to power your refrigerator. I think the best solution is to buy a new refrigerator that run continuously on gas.