Does anyone have, or been around a Coleman Powermate Pulse 1850 or Powermate 1850 generator (Honda ECU lookalike)? How loud are they, how well do they hold up?
I have a Powermate 8550. I've had it for 2 years now, it runs my 26' toyhauler with ease. Noise wise---- it's louder than the honda generators.
When I'm at MAM, it runs for 5 days- 4 nights. Go through about 40 gallons of fuel. Not to bad for running nonstop.
Cheez :biggrin:
I had a John Deere branded generator that was made by colman. 2500 watts. Was a good generator for the money. Wasn't the loudest, certainly wasn't the quietest.
i have the pulse 1850 . it will run a set of warmers with no problem. small, light and somewhat quiet... but not like a honda. quieter than most though
I have one of these generators. It is imho too small to be of much use and I will be selling mine this spring. If you are ONLY planning to run ONE set of warmers it works fine but I soon discovered the joys of electricity at the track and it is not getting the job done anymore.
Why not go SOLAR??? They may seem pricy, but consider it will pay for itself with the money you don't have to spend on gas to power it, or worry about an electrical hookup. :biggrin:
http://www.solar-components.com/powergen.htm
http://www.solar4power.com/solar-power-devices.html
The number of those that you'd need to develop enough wattage would pay for the trailer, the gas, and a really nice quiet generator.
Would be cool if it could work, Suzy.
I have one and it does the job. Its not too loud, I would say medium loudness, with honda being quiet. I have run two sets of warmers off it, we use tirebakers warmers and I think they are pretty low wattage. Some might argue the warmers won't get up to full temp, but I don't think I'm fast enough to notice. Some of the Chinese generators are quieter, but if they break, where do you get parts. I would buy a honda if you can afford it, but my next choice was the powermate 1850.
We have a generator that we sell for $350 that runs two sets easy. One of the engineers from the company races vintage with us. He put together a package that was quiet and affordable so he wouldn't have to hear any loud generators near him at the track.
e-mail if anybody wants details.
I have the 1800 and is loud and runs only on set of warmers
Quote from: Super Dave on February 24, 2007, 12:44:02 PM
The number of those that you'd need to develop enough wattage would pay for the trailer, the gas, and a really nice quiet generator.
Would be cool if it could work, Suzy.
Well golly gee Dave, how many watts do you need :lmao:, let's see if I can find more....
here's 300 watts??? :err:
http://www.cetsolar.com/solarpak.htm
1500 Watts????? :biggrin:
http://www.cetsolar.com/xpower1500.htm
Well, that would supply 1500 watts of output, which might supply some warmers power for ten minutes or so. You'd need a lot more and bigger solar panels to come close.
These produce 50 watts. http://www.cetsolar.com/ge50w.htm at almost $500 a piece. You either need large amounts of battery storage or lots more panels to develop 1200 to 2200 watts of energy an hour to run warmers alone.
You can add propane to most gasoline generators.
They are sold as kits. I looked at it a few years ago. Really, it's just an inlet needle pushed into the boot. Can't remember if it was on the air box side or the intake side or what. You should be able to use Google and come up with options. I don't rmember them being more than $250. Might have been $150.
As for running for 24 hours? Really depends upon the generator's efficiency and how much load they are running on, just like gasoline.
Ok, I spent most of the night researching solar power stuff and found this too....
http://www.solarelectricsupply.com/systems/rv/rv-solar-inverter-kit.html#snowbird
this runs an RV ALL WEEKEND!! I would think you can mount these on the side of your trailers. :biggrin:
The inverter still only puts out 1500 watts. That won't power some warmers.
160 watts of solar isn't going to replenish the power fast enough when it's going out at 1200 to 2200 watts.
Batteries, lots and lots of batteries.
Let's see if I can remember all this...
Let's say we need our tire warmers for four hours. Let's assume that our warmers need 1500 watts of energy. So, we'll need a total of 6000 watts of energy.
Forget about charging it, how many batteries are going to be necessary to have power for that period of time...
Running 1500 watts of energy off a 12v system is going to need 125 amps. The inverter will make that 1500 watts into 110v at a lower voltage that won't destroy the AC wiring...a little more than 13v.
Batteries are rated in amp hours. A 200 amp hour battery can sustain a 10 amp draw for 20 hours, everything being perfect. As the amperage increases, the batteries capacity decreases, though. Take a 200 amp hour battery to 50 amps of draw, it isn't four hours of power, it goes down to around to 2.5 hours. The deeper a battery is discharged, the shorter its life and then it won't charge to the same level. Most manufacturers don't recommend discharging more than 50%...So, now we're down to 1.25 hours with only 50 amp load, and we need 125 amps...
The cost on batteries...it's a lot.
You're gonna need a big solar array to charge it all. It isn't going to charge over night. The alternatives are to have even more batteries. Might as well have another trailer just for the batteries.
Is there a misunderstanding here about how solar power is generated and stored by me or you??? These are two small tire warmers, not a house??? If you charge the tire warmers for average 10 minutes before the race (do you leave them on all day?), once you disconnect it's already recharging itself for the next use and at the same time storing energy to a battery for nite use.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/de/solar_electric.html
I'm not sure you understand how tire warmers are used. I've got my warmers on usually 30 to 50 minutes long before each time I go out.
Two morning sessions, maybe three, and then all the races. If I have races really close together, I might have the set on the bike running, and a separate rear cooking too (more wattage) so that it will be warm for the next race.
We're talking 1200 to 2200 watts to run it, not the small wattages that run TV's, etc. Basically, you're running a pretty good power microwave oven for a few hours each day. Hours not minutes.
:biggrin:
My point with this is if there was any way to conserve some gas usage, wouldn't that make sense.
What are you using now? How much gas in one day do you use to do this? Let's also include the gas you would use (if you do) any appliances and stuff at night in your RV, etc., then add in the gas you use to go back and forth to the track too in your truck, etc.. Really, do you have any figures, I'm curious? :err:
I wonder if gas prices would ever go down again, does anyone think they will? Would be great, and I'm not defeating the purpose of having gas for racing. Cutting back someway does you and your pocket book good as well as what commodity we have left to help conserve it. Even just to conserve the gas you use for everything else except race gas and car gas (exception if you already own a hybrid car). I sure hear alot of generators at night when camping out including RV's, that's alot of gas.
But then I see what could be of the future, possibly using all this energy saving stuff, if we were puchasing less oil from the countries that supply us, prices could then go even higher too. It's not easy to figure which way is better, but I'm sticking with whatever saves on gas so you guys have race gas, I found a solar car that goes 60mph (yes that's funny), and will go 8 hours on one charge. For practical purposes, I just think it would be really neat to drive and not spend a penny on gas. :biggrin:
The cost of a good solar car is $200,000. It's all nice, but not very attainable. For that kind of money, you could buy a decent, comfortable car and drive it for about a million and a half miles.
How much gas in a day? Depends on your use and on your generator. OHV engines are more efficient than flat head engines.
The cost of reliable, portable power is about two to four gallons a day or so. More tire warmers, more gas. Fewer races, less power.
The cost of an ambulance ride is $450 to $700. A helicopter ride is something like $4000 to $7000. Bike costs are involved too.
http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=386
You can buy a seperate solar unit to supply the recharge, this car is all electric for $8000.00, then you get a government rebate on top of that. I like it. :biggrin:
I'll be back, I found more but forgot where I put the link?? :err:
That's an electric car, not a solar car.
And it says this...
QuoteEstimated Retail Price: $49k
Ok, I should have expanded my response to electric too, what I meant about the solar part is you can carry your own SOLAR RECHARGER with you and recharge anywhere, you still don't need to rely on the earth or any electrical from your home, etc.. That's how I should have worded it. :err:
http://www.evworld.com/evguide.cfm?evtype=production
Yes, some are pricy, depending on how fast you wanna go!! :biggrin:
You really need to do more research into solar. It takes 5 hours for a full charge on that car with a regular outlet. 110v x 20 amps = 2200 watts per hour. You're gonna have a huge solar array that you'll need a trailer to carry.
Are you using anything solar now?
For practical purposes, it will recharge overnight while your sleeping. For travel, yes, you may have to depend on an electrical hookup (but I'm sure there is something out there that would work as far as solar), but still NO GAS INVOLVED. ::)
Have to go to work now, I'll research some more, and come back to disagree with you later. :biggrin:
Quote from: Super Dave on March 09, 2007, 09:47:38 AM
Are you using anything solar now?
No, but I plan to. You still didn't answer my question about how much gas you use in one day for your travel, etc. silly. :spank:
Pulling a trailer with a solar array or no? :biggrin:
Dave is right, solar really isn't feasible for our application. For small electronics it works perfect. Even if you could get enough solar panels and batteries to make it work, what are you going to do on a cloudy day? Then you're back where you started. Plus the additional gas used for hauling all that junk, and the disposal of old batteries when they are worn out, would probably negate the positives using solar would produce
And I did answer the amount of gas per day.
Yes, Alexa they do, not saying I would want to tow this thing behind the car, there are smaller versions that will do their purpose too.
http://mobilesolarpower.net/
:biggrin:
Quote from: bigreid on March 09, 2007, 09:59:22 AM
Dave is right, solar really isn't feasible for our application. For small electronics it works perfect. Even if you could get enough solar panels and batteries to make it work, what are you going to do on a cloudy day? Then you're back where you started. Plus the additional gas used for hauling all that junk, and the disposal of old batteries when they are worn out, would probably negate the positives using solar would produce
They still are picking up energy on a cloudy day, example, I worked a corner, forgot to bring my sunscreen ON A CLOUDY DAY, and still got sunburned. ::)
Solar and wind BOTH are practical for home and small business applications, but are very unrealistic for our use in the race industry. That may change in the future, but for now, it's reality.
Quote from: Suzy on March 09, 2007, 10:02:31 AM
Yes, Alexa they do, not saying I would want to tow this thing behind the car, there are smaller versions that will do their purpose too.
http://mobilesolarpower.net/
:biggrin:
No, these would be minimal for what you're trying to do, charge that electric car.
Quote from: spyderchick on March 09, 2007, 10:10:24 AM
Solar and wind BOTH are practical for home and small business applications, but are very unrealistic for our use in the race industry. That may change in the future, but for now, it's reality.
Where's Dawn? She's got wind power at home. At least you can make wind power at night. I don't know if she's independent or still hooked to the grid.
Well, I just wonder what the next generation looks forward too as far as gas, and what would you guys do if we DID NOT have any more gas for racing (it would suck but what if)?? ::) :biggrin:
http://mobilesolarpower.net/flc/loadcalc.html
There's a load calulator. According to their calculations, you'll need to budget 12,100 watts to charge the electric car.
Gas will be around for a long time. Diesel engines will be around longer because they can run on about anything. Vegatable oils, diesel, kerosene, used engine oil. I recycle all my engine oils into my diesel tank.
Quote from: Suzy on March 09, 2007, 10:04:43 AM
They still are picking up energy on a cloudy day, example, I worked a corner, forgot to bring my sunscreen ON A CLOUDY DAY, and still got sunburned. ::)
But not a full capacity, if you needed 1kw and you had a system that was rated for 1.2kw it might be only putting out 900w and you'd be out of luck.
Just like putting in two gallons of gas when you need three.
:pop: :pop: :pop:
Ok, :lmao: I just say don't knock it until you've tried it, and all the mechnically inclinded people here, you can configure something just to run your camping stuff on to save some gas and noise, I think it is cool in the first place to have these options.
This whole thing just proves how dependent we are on it, and won't give any thought to alternatives. It can't be all that bad, the technology is out there and it seems to work for alot of people already. Predictions may not go far, but the US Dept. of Energy is predicting that oil could no longer be an option by the year 2050, that's not too far off. :biggrin:
Define alot? 30%?
Dave, I'm not researching that, c'mon, you get the idea, there out there. :err: :biggrin: :lmao:
I'm all for solar. I've looked at it for a few years. I've drawn up ideas for making it work in my bus, but the number of panels that would be required, alone with battery cost, space, and replacement...
I'm not sure if you've actually looked at it. I have a pretty good working idea of what I need to implement it. I'm looking at $20k to take my house off grid. For good solar panel and a really good charge controler, I'm going to be around $500 to $700 for the bus. Very little return, really. Would do it's best in only keeping my current "house" batteries from getting killed so fast when I have to leave the bus away from shore power and leave my little cooler running.
As for a lot of people? Who do you know that's on solar? How about an electric car? Diesel is very economical, and there are options. The same US government that you quote about gasoline issues also restricted diesel engines in the US so many US name plates don't import their diesel cars to the US market.
Solar is out there. Yeah. But it's still a tiny little thing. Costs may come down slightly, but it's probably at a point where it's not going to get much lower. The only thing that might make it more attractive, is the continued increase in costs of grid power. As more come off grid, that will reduce the demand and load on the grid and potentially reduce it's cost.
I am looking at implementing solar power into my patio project through a low voltage lighting system. Again, the reality is that I'm looking at thousands of dollars. And my kids need braces.
That would be neat for your house, if I understand it correctly too about solar or wind power, doesn't the electric company pay you someway for generating it? Here start reading, this is people and companies who are already using solar powered stuff. 8)
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/27/technology/techinvestor/lamonica/index.htm
http://www.ask.com/web?q=Entire+city+that+run+on+alternative+power&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir
http://www.ask.com/web?q=People+using+alternative+power&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir
:biggrin:
Alternative sources of energy will become more abundant when they become readily available and cheaper than the systems people are using currently. If we were to scrap every single system run with fossil fuels systematically, we would need more landfills, or people would just chuck stuff inappropriately at a huge cost to clean up. As I've said before, I read a variety of publications, both scientific and eco-friendly, and they all agree it will be a process, as the demand rises, the cost will come down. We need to think this through, not just do a knee jerk reaction.
That is why the Toyota Prius and Camry hybrids are such hot cars. Problem is, I have a non-hybrid, 14 yr old, 6 cylinder that's gets 30 MPG on the highway. I'm looking for a viable replacement (must be able to tow, get good mileage, look sporty and have some trunk capacity) in a modest price range, and it's not to be had. I don't want to spend, nor can I afford a $30K car.
I'm all for protecting the environment, however, I think it's a silly argument to say racers should use solar to run a set of tire warmers. Yes, think globally, act locally, but that should be in your everyday practice. Recycle daily, buy organic when possible, (I belong to a local co-op and had farm share in the past) buy things with as little packaging as possible. Walk to work or use public transit. (I will be walking my 7 miles in the morning when the temps are decent). Reduce your footprint on this earth, period.
I've been a 'hippy' pretty much all my life, and I'm well aware of the science and economics of the issues as they've evolved. Racing has been a breeding ground for much innovation, but I don't think that solar and motorsports are the right fit at this time.
And Suzy, you can Google all you want, but the real stuff is to be found in scientific journals and publications, not on the internet.
Only if you're on grid, and you're able to sell your excess power back to the power company. That means no batteries, and you'll be on the power companies stuff over night. Might cut the solar cost down to $11k for me.
I think alternative energy like solar will only become less expensive based on the lowering of the production costs. Then, as they become more marketable, or the cost of "power house" energy becomes even higher, the cost of those things might continue to increase in cost.
Supply and demand. If demand goes up, the price will too.
Biodiesel has been a good lesson in that. It's not reallly any less expensive than regular diesel. It hasn't necessarily proven to be reliable either, necessarily in wide ranging climates, etc. The supply has went up as it is actually available.
My used engine oil is still already paid for. :biggrin:
Veggie is usable and is pretty well interchangable with used motor oil as a fuel. Problem with both is that the higher percentage you run, the more problems you run into. Even B100 (straight bio-diesel) has its issues with gell temps and going through alot of filters especially in winter time. In my opinion, the best option for anything alternative at this point is veg-oil. Its available more places than ever. As long as they keep making bigger pants here is the states, I dont see fried food going anywhere!!!!!!
Starting and stopping on VO can be a problem. Heat is necessary for VO, and for WVO.
You racing again this year?
Quote from: Super Dave on March 09, 2007, 04:16:41 PM
Starting and stopping on VO can be a problem. Heat is necessary for VO, and for WVO.
You racing again this year?
Quote from: Super Dave on March 09, 2007, 11:31:19 AM
I'm all for solar. I've looked at it for a few years. I've drawn up ideas for making it work in my bus, but the number of panels that would be required, alone with battery cost, space, and replacement...
I'm not sure if you've actually looked at it. I have a pretty good working idea of what I need to implement it. I'm looking at $20k to take my house off grid. For good solar panel and a really good charge controler, I'm going to be around $500 to $700 for the bus. Very little return, really. Would do it's best in only keeping my current "house" batteries from getting killed so fast when I have to leave the bus away from shore power and leave my little cooler running.
As for a lot of people? Who do you know that's on solar? How about an electric car? Diesel is very economical, and there are options. The same US government that you quote about gasoline issues also restricted diesel engines in the US so many US name plates don't import their diesel cars to the US market.
Solar is out there. Yeah. But it's still a tiny little thing. Costs may come down slightly, but it's probably at a point where it's not going to get much lower. The only thing that might make it more attractive, is the continued increase in costs of grid power. As more come off grid, that will reduce the demand and load on the grid and potentially reduce it's cost.
I am looking at implementing solar power into my patio project through a low voltage lighting system. Again, the reality is that I'm looking at thousands of dollars. And my kids need braces.
One solar array for you!
http://www.sustenerg.org/electricity/wp-content/kjc.jpg
I think that would power my front warmer.
:biggrin: :cheers: :lmao:
Hey Dave-
I'll be around some. I am thinkin at this point it will probably be Blackhawk only, but I dont have any concrete plans yet. You got an advanced class early in the year again this year? I want to concentrate on honing my skills as much as possible. And I want to concentrate on Blackhawk since we run so many races there.
Any updates on #106 ? I saw he made the show for SS, but no news on the 200.
I've got the VRU program on May 7th...Monday before the first Blackhawk.
I know that Scotty's in the show, but that's about all. His first time there, and I think he'd like to do better. Everyone feels that way though too. I think he's doing well. Today's a day off, and I think it might give him time to clear his head.