Garage power pack?

Joined
3 Sep 2015
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Country
United Kingdom
Im looking to put a power supply into my garage, however it is in a block of garages and not practical to run a cable from my house to the garage. Is it possible to run a lighting circuit and maybe a few light duty power tools from a remote power source eg a couple of car batteries or something similar?
 
Sponsored Links
Some low voltage lights should be possible especially using LED bulbs for low power consumption, Can you use cordless tools ? Is this garage for working in or just a bit of background lighting? What will you do when the car batteries go flat? Take them indoors to recharge?
 
It will be mainly for simple DIY work but nothing to serious so LED could def be a good option. Most of my tools are cordless with just a couple that arnt so just wanted the option if needed. Yeah was planning on taking anything that needed charging into the house as and when it needed charging.
 
Lead acid batteries should always be recharged after use. Alkaline batteries can be left flat. So first you have to consider will you take the battery back to house to charge after each use. This determines which type of battery to use. Lead acid are easy to charge but often alkaline need special chargers. It does not matter is NiCad, NiIron, or NiMh all do not need keeping fully charged but the Lead Acid does again does not matter if open cells or valve regulated.

As I am sure you realise lead is heavy so the largest battery you can consider carrying is around 110 amp hour these are made as leisure batteries and leisure batteries are designed to be cycled i.e. 50% discharged the recharged again on regular basis. The car battery would have a very short live before lead falls off the plates. Because of carrying the valve regulated battery is likely better they come in two types gel and absorbed glass mat but for you it does not really matter which. Even a 7 Ah will cost £19 so these are not cheap.

Using LED lights is not a problem even a small inverter I used a 150W inverter to run the lap top but as the inverter size increases so does the battery size. You should not really aim at less than an hours use so 7 Ah will give around 5 amp for an hour yes I know 7 Ah but that's over 20 hours. So 5 x 12 = 60 so 60W is your limit. You may be able to run 150W with odd burst but not for long and inverter would soon trip out with under voltage.

7 Ah is a common size so cheap at £19 but jump to 12 Ah and more expensive mobility scooter batteries are about the best bet here are some examples with prices unlike the cheaper caravan battery they don't leak. But first you need to consider size of power tool. A 750W drill would likely work with a 26 Ah battery at £47 for the odd hole but would not really last that long. You will also require a charger and inverter some inverters also charge.

Inverters come in basic two flavours. Simulated sine wave and true sine wave. My laptop works great with simulated sine wave which are cheaper, a standard electric drill will likely also work OK but with a speed control in trigger likely it will need true sine wave. True sine wave tend to be better made small inverters 150W or so with simulated sine wave there is no problem but larger ones I found from bitter experience tend to have a short life the FET's which work them need to power share and that seems to be the problem. The true sine wave are better made and seem to work far better.

However as the cost goes up one quickly reaches a stage where a generator will do a better job and is cheaper. These also come in two flavours those with inverters and those without. Without an inverter the motor runs at a set speed all the time and noise is a problem. With inverters they can tick over at light load and only rev up when being used. Some inverter models can also be paralleled up but this is near impossible with non inverter models.

Using a small lead acid for lights great but really power tools it's generator which is required. With small solar panel you can leave a battery at garage which will re-charge for lighting only. Size of solar panel required to re-charge with power tools becomes silly.

I would look at caravans and boats to see what can be done with battery power. Visit a caravan or boat place and see what there is.
 
Sponsored Links
When using batteries as the power source run your lighting directly from the battery to avoid the losses that an invertor will introduce. For good quality 12 and 24 volt lighting look at http://www.labcraft.co.uk/ ( no connection other than I worked there in 1965 ).

The weight of the batteries has to be considered when moving them to and from the house for charging. A trolley may seem an expensive luxury but after a few trips carrying heavy batteries it may seem essential.

When charging lead acid batteries allow for the production of the explosive mixture of oxgen and hydrogen. I blew two cells of a battery apart by being careless. Over charging and then not switching off the charger before removing the croc clip from the battery terminal.
 
When charging lead acid batteries allow for the production of the explosive mixture of oxgen and hydrogen. I blew two cells of a battery apart by being careless.
I knew someone once who had a glass eye because of such carelessness.
 
Is it just me thinking a genny might make more sense? With the garage door open, obviously, and the genny that end
 
Wow thanks for the advice guys, and the detail of it all too. Think I'll def look into the marine/mobility scooter battery option with the possibility of a solar panel to recharge. Just hope the local kids don't find it! A genny would make more sense but i often get home late and the noise would be an issue. Thanks again.
 
LED 12 volt bulbs are often just 12 volt using a battery can damage them as often over 12 volt there are specials designed for caravans see this example which allow for varying voltage.

As to noise the more expensive inverter generator is much less noise and also cost less to run caravan users seem to like them.
 
FWIW, my garage is too far from the house to supply it with mains voltage. I have therefore installed a 12V 20W solar panel and LED 12V lights, using a battery pack (obtainable from many retail outlets from about £30). I even managed to get hold of a 12V 10W floodlight with PIR, but it did take 4 weeks to come from China! So far, the battery has been able to maintain its charge, but on the one occasion I tried to use a 500W drill (through a 1000W inverter) the battery ran down pretty quickly, and needed two (summer) days to recharge fully.

All in all, a couple of 10W lights, and a 40W (at 12V) soldering iron, plus charging through USB socket and it's a go-er. More than that, then either larger solar panels and battery/batteries will be needed, or an additional means of recharging.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top