Homebrewed Electricity > Other

Has anyone hacked or examined schematics for Inverter/Generator?

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alcul8r:
I have only seen block diagrams for I/G units, but have to ask, are the modules separate enough that you could add batteries, capacitors, and solar or wind in the middle to augment/replace the generator and/or charge batteries with the setup.

I'm asking mostly because they claim pure sine output and it would make an inexpensive Frankenstein unit.

Sorry if it has come up before, but I did the search and did not find anything.

Rex

joestue:
i don't believe its been discussed here yet.

you will need to deal with 200-300 volt dc bus voltage. so if you want to hook it up to a battery bank, you'll need to live dangerously.

Warpspeed:
I have never seen this anywhere else either, but its an excellent idea.

Doing it all at high dc voltage and low current means the efficiency will be very high.

I am doing something similar with a mains transformer rectifier, to generate a high dc voltage that drives an inverter direct to generate a pure sine wave.  That is how it runs at night.

During the day, all the dc power comes from solar panels at a high voltage, and there is no power drawn from the grid.

Its very simple, and there is no requirement to frequency lock the inverter to the grid, so the inverter is simple too.
As its not grid tie, and feeds nothing back,  the power utilities don't know I have this.

It would be pretty easy to add a wind turbine, standby generator,  or hydo to it.
A battery is difficult because of the rather high dc voltages required. But I use the grid as my night time battery.
A 360 volt lithium battery from a Chevy Volt would be one possible way.

If you have grid power available, a battery is really going to be uneconomic, unless you have very high night time loads.
My system supplies around 75% to 80% of consumption in summer.  I have yet to find out how well it will go through winter.  If it falls short, more solar panels should fix it.

OperaHouse:
I've been looking for one of these inverter generators for a while with a defective inverter.  I just imagine they use some hybrid parts that make them uneconomical to repair after they are out of warranty. I would then just use the  DC power and feed it to my inverter to supplement PV.  I have basically a battery less PV system and have to run the generator for high current loads like a washing machine.  I toyed with the idea of using my Onan 400W generator to do this.  It is well made and efficient. But, I think I will just add another 1,000W of panels and be generator and battery free. I can time slice washing to just stop during an occasional wisp of a cloud.

DanG:
Way back I glommed onto a Eu3000 shop manual with the point to point troubleshooting procedures just for the curiosity of  investigating multi-purpose inverter built in/around a Honda inverter generator...

360-400V DC is not something to be casual with; a DC boost module scabbed onto the Eu cover with wire runs insulated in 2000V silicone could accomplish transmission but then there is isolating the Honda alternator & diode sections without any chance of stray/leakage voltage, 400VDC likes to creep & arc, that would be a challenge even with solid-state switching.

Intercepting the overload &  over temp shut-down or current limiting commands, stability/quality of input power signals...  involves monitoring signals requiring conductor/trace access to component parts cast deeply in mil-spec encapsulation... It'd be neat to have jumper plugs to intercept all signals in and out of the Honda modules and some signal pick-ups surgically installed through the encapsulation but that is a lot of trial and error and a LOT of analog/digital sensors, essentially reinventing the wheel!

I'll see if I can find the manual, scan the theory of operation & electrics sections and have a PDF for the curious. No promises though...

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