PV Gap

Marlene Said:

A good portable generator..?

We Answered:

It sounds like he is a pretty handy guy so you might think about buying a welder rather than a generator only. Lincoln makes several sizes of welder/generators that would work. You would just have to make sure it was large enough to provide 2.5 times the current draw of the largest tool (or largest group of tools that would need to run at any one time).

Danny Said:

if you were the last person on earth how would you power things?

We Answered:

If i were the last person on earth , i cannot use up all the available power that is existing, I would just get a portable generator or a solar power kit with complete accessories, I dont mind which kind i use because i can use it all with the easiest to assemble as my guide.
Baby, i dont have to bother myself with which to use because as you said i am the last one and i have everything available to choose.
Dont think big because you are the only user baby.

Elaine Said:

Running multiple computers off of a generator or battery bank?

We Answered:

Design for the actual power used, the 400 watt is a max usage rating.
so you need 16 x 100 = 1600 watts, plus a margin, say 2000 watts or 2kW. I could make a better calculation if I knew your actual readings. Also you have to consider future upgrades and allow extra power for those.

Yes, you could use a small gas driven generator to power them, or you can use a UPS, which is a battery, charger, inverter combination.

You keep jumping back and forth between batteries, motor-driven-generator, solar arrays... confusing... which do you want?

"few hours" is kind of vague. I'll take that as 4. A big marine lead-acid battery ($300 or so) is good for 100 amp-hours, which translates to 1000 watt-hours. You want 2000 watts for 4 hours, or 8000 watt-hours, so you need 8 of these batteries. If you switch to 2 hours and 1600 watts, that's 3 batteries.

You need an inverter rated at 2000 watts. Look carefully at the specs, and ignore the VA rating, and look for the watt or kW rating.

Now you need a charger for the batteries. It's called a "charge-controller" and you need one made for lead-acid batteries, and a motor-driven-generator, probably rated at 4000 watts, so it can charge the batteries while they are being used.

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