zx9ral Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I would like electric in my garage. The problem is, my garage is too far away from my house, & situated the other side of a busy road. My neighbors cant/ wont help (long story) I need enough power to run a trickle charger & have a single strip light, & perhaps a couple of sockets. Anyone had this problem ? Has it been on here before ? Would solar panels help ? Thanks. Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Von Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Solar panels can be used to trickle charge a battery direct, but they are still very expensive technology for anything of a considerable output. Solar panels You can buy rechargeable strip lights also from machine mart recharagable strip light As power supply is a problem, you would have to be looking at a generator, the Honda silent ones are exceelent, but come at a premium unfortunately honda suitcase generator the only other (illegal alternative, is to do what our traveller friends do, and that is to smash the front off a lamp post and get free leccy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zx9ral Posted February 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Phew ! Plenty of options there. Lots to think about. Thanks for your help Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmarque Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Know what you mean.. my garage is over a lane from the house - extension lead works but not on a busy road. Maplins do a 12v trickle charger for about a tenner could be useful? something with more power - screwfix do a 4-stroke 900W generator for £120 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeyJim Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I share your pain. my garage is not at my house & there's no mains supply or any way to get one - the lamp posts are too far away! I've got an old BMW car battery to power a 12v inspection lamp, which is hung from the ceiling. Every once in a blue moon it runs out of juice so I take it home & connect it to an optimate. have to say I'm tempted by the thought of a generator! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark/Foggy Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Tescos had a solar trickle charger at big stores a while back. I was gonna but one for my mototrhome, plugs into the cigarette lighter, easy enough to rig for a bike. From memory about £40, then if you need to do any work, genny it is. I'll go into my local Tescos tonight & see if they've still got one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastendpete Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 check gumtree for a cheap honda engined tranny, failing that ask around local building sites, someones always got one for sale... alternatively, any lamp posts nearby? *pbelectrics in no way endorses stealing electricity, especially from the highways agency, i was just curious* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rc30sp1 Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 what about a big battery from say a lorry and an inverter to change voltage to 240v ac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Von Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Inverters are good too, i bought our engineers some for their vans last year, they are the 1500watt versions and are big enough to run their 4" angle grinders and drills, but you will need a decent battery to supply the charge to last long enough, as with all thing proportionate, the more you drag out the quicker it'll go flat, so not really good enough for heavy use. But, what you could do if you could be arsed, is to do a Heath Robinson! Get an 12Volt 50 amp alternator from a van/car, affix a radiator fan to the shaft of the alternator, make a tail (piece of ally) as a tail rudder for the rear of the alternator, put on a pole and mount a sealed bearing to the bottom of the alternator, this is a cheap wind powered generator, connect the wires from the alternator and connect direct to the battery with a fuse in line, it doesn't matter how fast the alternator turns as you only need a DC current to charge the battery, the alternators regulator will see the 13 - 14 volts it generates charging the battery, to which you can connect the inverter to the battery to produce 240AC, the good thing about this is you can leave the home made wind generator runing and it will charge the battery up when windy ready for when you need to use it next. A good way to spend a Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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