Freebies

Electricity is such a major factor of our modern lives that we take it for granted until it's not there. With the nasty heat that most of us dealt with this summer, electrical supplies in a lot of areas were strained; some even broke when the demand exceeded the available supply and utility companies started rationing power through rolling blackouts. Things aren't going to get any better in the foreseeable future, because demand will keep rising with every new generation of electric cars and appliances while supply is struggling to keep up. 

Power generation used to be mostly coal-fired plants with a few areas using hydroelectric dams or nuclear plants added to the mix. Nuclear has a bad reputation and no new construction is underway; several of the older plants have reached their end-of-life date and been shut down. Dams of all sorts are starting to see the same problem, the environmentalists want to see them all torn down. Wind and solar are making up a bigger chunk of our generating capacity, but they are both intermittent sources that don't offer much reliability. "Peaking" generators, which are used to provide a boost to generating capacity for short periods, are mostly run on natural gas, although I know of a few older diesel plants.

Building a power plant takes time and hundreds of millions of dollars, so many utilities have started offering their customers incentives to save electricity. If they can shave off enough demand, they can delay building the generators they'd need to handle new customers. This makes shareholders happy because it increases the profit that they'll get a piece of, while giving the utility more time to pay lawyers fighting for permission to build new plants.

• So-called "Smart meters" give the power company control over how much a customer can use in times of stress on the grid, usually by shutting down the customer's heating/air conditioning for brief periods during peak usage. I'm not a huge fan of giving up control of my environment, so I've steadily refused their offers of a "smart" meter. 
• Incentives and rebates are another carrot they like to dangle in our faces: upgrade to a more efficient furnace or air conditioner and get a discount on your bill for a couple of years, or buy high efficiency laundry equipment and they'll send you a check/gift card for a few hundred dollars. Offers vary; check them out if you're planning to update things anyway.
• My power company has gone one step beyond rebates and they're actually giving away energy-saving items. I saw a banner ad on their website offering a free box of energy efficient household items, so I filled out the form and forgot about it. The box showed up this week.

Inside the box were several fliers and pamphlets (not shown) along with a few useful items;

• An "advanced" power strip. This one has seven outlets; 2 are normal, always on, outlets but the third one is marked "control" and the other 4 are marked "switched". The "switched" outlets are only powered when whatever is plugged into the "control" outlet is drawing power. This is handy for plugging all of the peripheral devices hooked up to a TV or computer, as shutting off the TV kills power to the DVD player, FireStick, game console, or whatever. This eliminates "parasite" draw, the minor amount of electricity used by the power supplies of the add-on devices.
• Two 60 Watt equivalent LED light bulbs. I've switched most of my interior lighting over to LEDs over the last few years; my house has 10' ceilings, and I'm tired of climbing a ladder to change bulbs that don't last. The LEDs that replace a 60 Watt incandescent bulb only draw about 9 Watts and last for decades instead of months. The new bathroom fixtures I installed last week will outlive me, since they're rated for 45 years if used about 3 hours a day.  
• A low-flow shower head. Saving water is a round-about way to save electricity since water treatment and wastewater treatments plants suck up a huge amount of electricity. This one is rated at 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm), and I'm using it in my shower (the wife has her own). It's functional, but it lacks a swivel to move the spray pattern where I need it. The pressure and quantity of water are good enough for a shower. 
• A low-flow aerator for a sink faucet. That's the little silver thing sitting on the power strip package. No markings of flow rating, but most of that brand are either 1.0 or 1.5 gpm. I tend to do dishes in a sink full of hot soapy water with a rinse before they go on the drying rack, so this might save a bit of water on the rinses. With just the two of us in the house, a dishwasher would be a waste of space and money, so I've never really looked into one, and too many years spent in a lab washing glassware has taught me how to do dishes in a sink in an efficient manner.  

Just to see what the box of goodies was worth, I checked the items out on Amazon. 

• The power strip is about $26;
• Two LED bulbs go for about $9.40;
• The shower head was $8.80;
• The faucet aerator was a bit harder to find, but a six pack is $10 , making each one worth about $1.66;

For a total of roughly $45.86. Not bad for a free box of things I can use right now to save money, money I can use to stock up the pantry, buy a few more good knives, or maybe pick up another box of ammunition every year. Money is getting tighter with inflation starting to pick up the pace and retirement (fixed income) looming for some of us, so every little bit helps. 

Check with your local power company to see if they offer anything like this, and let others know about it.

Basic Electrical Math

If you've been following the blog recently, you'll know that Erin got herself a CPAP machine, which got her interested in revisiting my homebrew battery box idea. Our conversation inspired some upgrades that I'll discuss later, as well as a bit of frustration on her end. I've done electrical math so much, and for so long, that I can pretty much do it in my head, and I forget that most folks can't. I promised her a primer on electrical math, and it seems fitting to share it with the whole BCP family, so here goes.

Most electrical math is based on Ohm's Law, which breaks everything into ratios. All of it is contained in a diagram we call Ohm's Wheel.

Watts are Power. Volts are Energy. Ohms are Resistance. Amps are... current.
No, we don't know why "I" was used to represent Current. 

The formulas to find Watts, Amps, Volts, and Ohms are given in the appropriate quadrant of the wheel, assuming you have any two other pieces of the data. The ones I use most are watts, volts, and amps. Amps are equal to watts divided by volts, as the wheel shows, so if I have a 100 watt light bulb on a 120 volt circuit in my house, it will draw 0.83 amps. I know the wattage of the bulb because it's printed on the glass, and I know the voltage in my house because all standard appliance circuits in US homes are 120 volts. Plug that in to the formula, and the result is 0.83! These formulas will work any time you know two of the four elements of the wheel.

The other big math question that arises, especially for preppers, involves amp-hour battery ratings. They are often presented as "How long will this battery run my equipment?" Once you know how many amps your device draws, divide that number by the amp-hour rating of your battery, and you'll know roughly how many hours you can run your item before recharging or changing batteries.

That covers the vast majority of electrical math that most people will encounter in their lives. If you have any other electrical math questions, please feel free to ask in the comments here or in the BCP Facebook or MeWe groups, and I'll happily answer them.

Lokidude

Electrical Definitions

Lokidude

Series, Parallel, and Combo Battery Wiring

For those who aren't clear on the difference between volts and amps, there is a handy guide to electrical terminology here.





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Lokidude

Portable Power

Recent events have gotten me thinking again about emergency and portable power solutions. Storms here and elsewhere have left friends without power for extended periods of time; in addition, medical developments in my life in the past few months have made it almost a necessity that I have daily access to 120v power. No, I'm not dying, at least not any faster than the rest of you; I'm on a CPAP machine to help me breathe while I sleep. My wife says it makes me far more pleasant to be around.

The obvious answer to long term power is a generator. We've discussed them in the past, and the topic may be worth revisiting in the future, but they have some weaknesses. Two of the biggest, and definitely most applicable to me, are portability and the inability to run them at night. Running a genset during the day is all well and good, but I need power at night, and that means batteries. If I'm in my camper or have a vehicle handy, I can use the battery power in those so long as I don't overdo it, but I'd rather have an independent option. Today, we'll look at the theory behind constructing a portable power box, and later we'll actually assemble the device.

Generating 120v power is easy, if you have a 12v source. You simply hook up a device called an inverter, which converts the power through the magic of electrical theory. (Seriously, the theory involved takes up an entire year of electrical school, and it probably still best described as wizardry.) Small inverters can be had very inexpensively, and will provide enough wattage to power small medical apparatus, charge cell phones, and keep other small devices running. Larger inverters can power heavier equipment, but that will murder your battery life.

Our 12v power supply will be batteries. A 12v car battery would be simple, and have plenty of energy to run our inverter for ages, but car batteries are large and heavy. By the time our whole box is done, a car battery could push it to 80 or more pounds, and nobody wants to lug that around. Motorcycle or "powersport" batteries are an option, weighing in at 5-7 pounds, but they aren't sealed, meaning they can leak acid if the power box tips over. They're also designed to start an engine, meaning they discharge best in short, heavy bursts, and not in long, slow loads. Instead, we will use a set of 6v lantern batteries. They're light, fairly inexpensive, and are designed for the kind of draw we're going to put on them. By wiring them in series, we can bump the voltage to 12v, getting us the power we need for our inverter.

Rechargeable 6v batteries have about a 4.5 amp-hour rating. What that means is that they'll give you 4.5 amps for one hour, or one amp for 4.5 hours, or anything in between, based upon your current draw. My CPAP, since it is the device currently in question, draws 0.75 amps, meaning that in a perfect world two lantern batteries would run it for 6 hours. The world isn't perfect, though, so for that device, a more reasonable expectation would be 5-ish hours. We can extend that with a second set of batteries, doubling our available time.

To figure how many amp-hours you need, look at the devices you intend to power. Either the power supply for the device, or the device itself, will list the wattage or amperage draw.

• If it's amps, divide by 4.5 to find out how many hours you have available;
• if it's watts, divide by 120 (the nominal voltage draw) to get the amperage draw. 

Then figure out your available time. If one set of batteries is enough, wonderful. If not, we'll get around to adding a second. I'll cover the specific wiring method during construction, since those are kind of "show-me" items.

Using four of these batteries and this inverter, plus a few bits and bobs, I'll be into the project for about $100 but it will give me all the power I can use in a day. It will also weigh in at a svelte 10 pounds, making it very convenient to grab and go. I could save some money on both the batteries and inverter, but I like the attachment points on these batteries, and the inverter has some nice protection features built in that make it worth a few extra dollars to me.


Do some figuring on small devices you need to keep running when no utility power exists. Once we come back to this, you can figure for yourself how many batteries to stack in to keep your critical items powered.

Lokidude

Electrical Inspections

I've fixed a lot of things in my career, and acquired a few trophies. These are quite educational when demonstrating what to look for when you're checking your home electrical systems.




Lokidude

Diagnostic Procedures

Diagnostic procedures are the methods involved in finding the root of a problem. You drill through a list of tests and potential issues, eliminating them until you find the problem. In my case, the problem is that my truck won't start. Lets get into my methods and see how I find problems.

Knowing what a piece of equipment needs in order to function properly is key to making a diagnosis. In my case, an engine needs 3 things to function: air, fuel, and spark (or compression, in a diesel). My engine will crank, but won't actually start. This means that I'm missing at least one of those critical elements.

Air is fairly straightforward. My filter is in decent shape, my turbo is functioning correctly, so air is getting into the engine.

Compression was my first thought. I didn't have any indicators of a catastrophic mechanical failure, so I look to my electrical system, with the idea that insufficient electrical current won't turn the engine with enough energy to get ignition. With 2 batteries, there may be enough power to turn the engine, but not with the force needed to actually ignite the fuel/air mix. Both batteries have 12.7 volts and test good on the machine at my local parts house. The alternator likewise tests good. Volts are present, so the next step is checking that they're actually getting to the parts that need them.

Using my electrical multimeter, I checked for continuity on all my fuses. I found one that was burned out, but it's unrelated to any of my engine components. (It is for lights on one of my trailer plugs.) I also tested the relays that control my engine functions. The easiest way to do this is to use another relay with the same part number. My fuel pump relay is the same as the relay for my air conditioning, and the relay for my daytime running lights. My ignition and starter relays are the same as the relay for my rear window defroster. Changing out these relays will tell you if a relay is malfunctioning. In my case, swapping relays did nothing.

This virtually eliminates anything in my electrical system as the point of failure. This leads us to fuel as a culprit. Chasing fuel leaks requires special knowledge and tools. If you're not equipped, this is the time when calling a mechanic can save you hours of time and headaches. If you have the tools and skills, I don't have to explain this part of the process to you.

The principle applies to any piece of equipment. The same idea of listing possible causes and eliminating them works for malfunctioning lights, plumbing issues, or any other problem you might face. Notice that I did the quick, easy, and free checks first. The more you can eliminate in short time and for zero cost, the better. It takes a bit of practice to brainstorm possible causes, so don't be afraid to call friends who have experience with whatever you're fixing. I still find myself making that call from time to time.

A bit of logic and some testing helps you find the root of your problems. This saves you time at a mechanic or sometimes that bill itself.

Lokidude

Making a Home-Made Inverter

I'd love to have the money for a large solar array, something that could gather enough electricity and be able to store it so that I could run most of my house off-grid. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to start building that dream, but for now I'll have to be content with puttering around with small-scale solar power.

Not that the small-scale stuff is useless; it's a great way to learn more about the individual parts and get some hands-on experience that may translate into good practices if/when I ever get a larger system set up. I have a 50 Watt panel hooked up to two deep-cycle, 100 Amp-hour, batteries at the cabin we built years ago, which is more than enough to keep our cell phones charged and run a few LED lamps when we spend a few days up there. The inverter my friend installed in the system will put out 120V AC for the few things we have that run on standard household power, but it wasn't cheap and it's a small one. I've been looking for a small system that I can play with at home, something to use as a test-bed for projects that I tinker with when I have the time.

While sorting through my various electronics and electrical toys, I've found a few that run on non-standard voltages and their chargers all use 120V AC:

• Handy-talkies that require an amateur radio license to use legally (I'm studying for one) have a 7.4V battery.
• The cordless tools that I buy use a 20V DC battery pack.
• My laptop computer runs on a 19V DC battery. 
• There are a few others that fall into the same category of “useful but not available in my standard voltages”*, so I've been looking for a way to keep them running. 

The ideal method would be a solar panel hooked up to a battery bank with an inverter to output 120V AC so I can use the chargers that came with each device, but those are expensive if bought new. so it's time to scrounge around and see what I can find or modify.

* Like selecting a caliber of firearm, I try to standardize my electrical toys. I've settled on 4 systems that cover most of my needs:

• 1.5V DC: AA and a few AAA batteries to feed the flashlights and small radios. Common and cheap, with good rechargeable options available.
• 5.0V DC: Standard USB power for charging cell phones and electronics. Easily converted to by using car chargers and “wall warts”. Rechargeable power packs are cheap and easy to find, we've reviewed a few over the years.
• 12V DC: Car battery power as well as the standard output for home solar arrays. Deep-cycle batteries aren't cheap, but will last for years if maintained properly. A deep-cycle marine/RV battery will work longer than a car battery due to differences in the internal construction making them more tolerant of deep discharge, but giving them less surge (starting) capacity.
• 120V AC: Standard household power, not as easy to convert to as the DC choices, but it comes in handy for running the tools and toys that you can find in most stores.

There are other options that I've chosen to avoid, like the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries for some of the higher-priced flashlights (18650- 3.6V) and the higher voltage AC (208/230V AC and 3 phase power) that I have limited need for and can survive without. I like flashlights but I don't need one that can be seen from the International Space Station, so the simple LED lights that I use are just fine. Likewise, the only things in my house that use 230V AC are the air conditioner and the furnace blower motor. I can live without air conditioning and have back-up heat if the furnace is out. I'm looking into a 120V AC blower for the furnace to be able to run it off of my small generator, but that's a project for the future right now.

The computer techs at work recently upgraded several of our networked systems and they brought in a complete change of equipment. The PCs were too outdated to be of much use, but they also replaced the Uninteruptable Power Supplies (UPS) that several of them were hooked up to. I managed to snag one out of the dumpster and took it home to play with.

A simple UPS is a battery charger feeding a battery and an inverter at the same time. As long as 120V AC power is available, the UPS will keep the battery charged and the inverter supplying 120V AC to the outlets. If the main power goes out, the battery will feed the inverter without a pause or interuption. This means we have the basis for a simple home-brew solar power system, just minus the solar panels.

The battery in the UPS I found was dead and while I could easily replace it for less than $50, it is rather small at only 6 Amp-hours. With a few crimp-on connectors and some longer wires, I can hook it up to a standard car battery or marine/RV battery and get closer to 100 Amp-hours as the UPS will “invert” the 12V DC from the battery into 120V AC for the appliance.

Even after buying a new batter, I still got a combination battery charger and inverter for free. This inverter is rated at ~250 Watts, so it's not going to run a microwave oven, but is more than enough to keep a ceiling fan going at high speed (about 100 Watts at most). Charging a laptop or portable DVD player to keep the kids entertained after the sun goes down may be close enough to their version of normal to relieve some of the stress and anxiety in a SHTF situation.

Connecting a solar panel to the battery will charge it, but how fast it charges depends on the size of the panel. There is some electrical balancing involved in adding batteries and panels to a system (stay with all the same size/brand of battery and panel and you'll be fairly safe), but in a pinch I can at least keep some of my odd-ball electronics up and running.

For a better explanation of solar arrays, we posted a thorough article a few years ago. You can also use search for posts with the "solar" tag by clicking on this link, or this use the search box in the upper left corner to find our posts covering basic electricity.

Keep your eyes open for chances to repurpose things. Businesses toss out lots of stuff that is outdated but still works, and your local online sales sites or thrift stores may have used UPS units for sale at much lower prices than buying new.

Electrical Repairs: GFCI

I got a call from a friend the other day because the outlets in his shop had stopped working and he had no idea why. When I got to his shop, my first check was his circuit breakers. Nothing was tripped, but when I put my tester on his outlets, sure enough, he had no power. A little poking around showed the problem to be a tripped GFCI outlet. One quick reset later, his power was restored and he was back to work.

A GFCI is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. It is a safety device designed to shut off electrical power in the event of a ground fault, which is an electrical failure or fault where the energized (or "hot") wire comes into contact with something that provides a path back to the earth. This is a dangerous situation because that path back to the earth very frequently includes a person, and that person will receive a nasty and potentially lethal shock. To prevent this, the GFCI detects minuscule differences in current between the hot and neutral legs of a circuit and cuts power before a damaging shock can be delivered.

Water is the main contributor to electrical ground faults involving humans. The current US National Electrical Code requires GFCI protection for outlets outdoors, in garages, kitchens, bathrooms, and basically any place where there is a chance of water splashing an outlet. This requirement has reduced death by electrical shock by an estimated 50% since it was introduced in the 1970s.

There are two kinds of GFCI devices used in the USA. The newer style is built into a circuit breaker. It makes protecting an entire circuit simple and certain. It requires a bit more work to install, but assures protection for every outlet on the circuit. It is also the more expensive option.

The more common GFCI protection is built into an outlet. This device can be wired to protect all of the outlets down the circuit from it, so that only one outlet is required to protect all of a circuit. It's a bit more complex to set up, but is the more budget-friendly option.

GFCI devices are easily identified. They have buttons on the face that are marked "Test" and "Reset." The Test button is used to manually trip the protection, and these devices should be tested a few times a year. The Reset button resets the protection and restores power to the protected outlets on the circuit. This button is also used to restore power in case an actual ground fault triggers the protection.

Installing GFCI protecting devices is a bit more involved than a simple outlet swap; it involves changing a breaker or doing a fair bit of legwork to identify which outlet in a circuit needs replaced in order to ensure correct protection. If you're the slightest bit unsure of what you're doing, please contact a qualified electrician to handle this task.

Now you know what to check to keep yourself from being in the dark if you lose power to certain outlets but the breaker or fuse looks normal.

Lokidude

Electrical Repairs: Outlets

I've already shown you how to replace a light switch. The other electrical device that commonly needs replacement is the basic electrical wall outlet.




Keep your house in good repair.

Lokidude

Electrical Repairs: Light Switch

One of the simplest electrical repairs is replacing a standard light switch. With basic safety precautions, it is something anyone can do with very basic tools. This video walks through the entire process.



I think my wife is starting to love this series, since she's getting upgrades to all her electrical devices from it.

Lokidude

Electrical Diagnostic Tools

I promised a video demonstrating electrical diagnostic tools, and here it is. I also promise a whole lot more with the multimeter as I fix other things in my house.



Lokidude

Know Your Electrical Panel

We've talked about the basic electrical tools used to diagnose issues; now let's look at your electrical panel, which is what distributes all the electrical power for your home. If you have outbuildings with power, these may have their own sub-panels that distribute power just to that building. Knowing the location of these panels is critically important to being able to safely work on the electrical circuits in your home.

Inside your panel, you'll find either circuit breakers or fuses. Resettable circuit breakers are used in all modern construction projects; fuses are found in much older homes, usually dating to the 1950s or earlier. Some of these buildings have had update and refit work done, however, and if so they will have modern circuit breakers. I discussed the basics of fuses and circuit breakers here and here, and they're worth a quick review.

A residential breaker panel, pictured closed.

Breakers inside a panel.

The pictured panel is the one in my own home. Notice that there are both single and two-handle breakers: the single-space breakers supply 120V power to lights and normal outlets, and the two-space breakers supply 240V power to things like ovens, clothes dryers, and electric HVAC systems. There should be a schematic inside the panel door listing what each circuit powers, but these are sometimes out of date or inaccurate.

Knowing a few things about your panel can help you isolate which circuit you need to disconnect:

• Breakers marked as 15 amps are almost always lighting. 
• 20 amp breakers can be lights or outlets. 
• As mentioned above, two-space breakers (referred to in the trade as two-pole breakers) power high-draw items like ovens and clothes dryers. These breakers are the top two breakers in my panel as pictured. 
• Some panels will also have a breaker marked as "Main." This breaker kills all power to the entire house, and will be labeled with a higher amperage than any of the other breakers, almost always 100 amps or more. If the main breaker isn't in the panel, it will be located near the electrical meter, as noted here.

Find your own panel and take a look inside. Be familiar with your breakers so that when you need to flip one, you've got nothing to be afraid of.

Lokidude

Electrical Troubleshooting: Tools

I have returned from my hiatus. Short answer to expected questions: my family is good and things are getting back to as normal as they ever are. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern about it.

During my absence, questions about basic home electrical maintenance came up among the staff, and I was asked to do a series on the topic since that's how I pay my bills and buy my toys. I'm more than happy to do this, both in the interest of helping folks be more self-sufficient, and also in the hopes that some of our bolder readers will have an eye towards doing this kind of work safely and properly.

Electrical work requires some tools that other tasks do not, and since these tools will help prevent accidents and injuries, this is a very good place to being my series. Basic variants of these tools can be obtained very economically, while fancier versions have almost no ceiling to their cost. For homeowner purposes, those basic devices will work just fine, without the added expense of features that rarely if ever will get used.

Non-Contact Voltage Detector
The non-contact voltage detector is the first line of protection from electrical shock. It detects the presence of voltage in a wire, switch, or outlet without requiring that bare metal be exposed. Every professional electrician I know carries one daily. Shocks hurt, and this is cheap insurance.

Outlet Tester
A huge number of the electrical issues that crop up in a home involve wall outlets. This device plugs into a standard outlet and diagnoses any wiring problems affecting it. It is a very quick way to find trouble points.

Multimeter
The multimeter is the ultimate diagnostic tool. Basic units test for the presence of AC and DC voltage, amperage, and electrical continuity; fancier ones can test electronic components, measure temperature, and a host of other things. An auto-ranging meter is far simpler, but adds a large amount to the cost. If possible, look for a meter that lists a feature of "audible continuity," meaning it will sound a tone when a circuit is electrically continuous. This is useful when trying to identify wires or locate a broken wire.

Amazon has three very affordable kits that have these tools for all your basic electrical diagnostic needs. You could purchase them separately, but with the pricing and quality of these kits, there isn't a reason to unless you're looking for a very specific feature.

All of them are quality brands, carry the same basic features, and cost less than a date to the movies. You could pick from the Klein, Amprobe, or Extech kits based solely on your favorite color (yellow, red, and green respectively) and not make a wrong choice.

Next week, I'll show you how to use these tools to perform a variety of common household electrical tasks.

Lokidude

Bicycle Generators

I slowed down my pedaling as I looked at the charge indicator. My battery was nearly full… and there we go. I dismounted, took the cable for my cell phone, and plugged it into the inverter.

A bicycle generator creates electricity through pedaling. In other words, you are the power source. 

While such a generator will not power your air conditioner (unless you are Lance Armstrong), it will power small electronic devices, such as a cell phone, tablet, or flash light, which can be a literal lifesaver after a major event such as a hurricane or earthquake.

What You Need

• Bicycle (Remember those bikes you scavenged? One of those is perfect for this.)
• Base (I like a bike stand that allows the back wheel to spin freely) 
• Electrical generator (I like to use a car alternator) 
• Board
• Strap
• Car battery
• Inverter like this one
• (optional) an inexpensive multi meter to use as a charge indicator.  

How to Build It

1. Secure the bike to the base. 
2. Connect the alternator to the battery, like you would in a car. 
• If you are worried about this, pull an alternator from a junkyard car and cut off the wiring adapter with about three inches of wire at the end.
• When you get home, look up which wire is which, and splice it in using electrical tape. 
3. Bolt or screw the alternator to the board. 
4. (optional) Hook up a cheap multimeter and use it as a charge indicator.  The voltage on the battery increases as it is charged.
5. Do the same to the bike stand. 
6. Run the strap (often just a couple of old inner tubes stitched together) between the bike and the alternator, around the back wheel.
• There should be some tension on the strap, but not so much that it bends anything. 
7. Bike like it is your only way to watch cat videos. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Bicycle-Generator/

If you'd like pictures, follow this Instructable link. Note that if you use an alternator instead of a motor, you don't need to add the diode.

How to Use It
When you are ready to charge your device, connect the inverter to the battery and plug your device into the inverter. You can keep biking to charge your device directly, or let the energy stored in the battery do that for you.

Emergency Cell Phone Charging

Today's topic is whether or not you can use a USB car charger with anything other than a car's electrical system to charge a cell phone.

One of my friends posted a video of a simple hack that shows how to connect a regular 9V battery to a car charger, and the video was automatically denounced by an electrical engineer as impossible or even dangerous. The ensuing pissing match led me to doing my own research and trying to find the truth.

Just to make it perfectly clear, nobody is telling you to plug your phone into a 9V battery. The video showed them connecting a standard car charger to a 9V battery and then plugging a phone into the charger.

Some Basic Facts

• Watts=Volts*Amps.
• Amperage is the amount of electrical flow.
• Voltage is a measure of the force behind the electrical flow.
• Wattage is the amount of work done by the electrical flow.
• Battery storage is measured by the amount of power they can produce over time, milliamp-hours (mAhr).
• Milli- is a prefix that means “one-one thousandth” or 0.001.
• One milliamp is 0.001 Amp. 
• 2000mA=2A.
• Standards have changed, but USB chargers are rated at 500mA (slow charge) to 2.0A (fast charge).
• Cell phones and other devices that charge through their USB port require about 5VDC (4.4to 5.25 VDC).
• A common smart phone battery is going to be rated for 2000-3000 milli-Amp-hours (mAh) of power. This is why even a fast charger will take a few hours to fully charge your phone.
• Normal car batteries produce about 12VDC (it varies from 11.5 to 13.0 VDC depending on the state of the battery) and amperages that are measured in the hundreds of Amps.
• A common 9V battery, like you'll find in a smoke detector, is rated at 400-500mAh (lithium versions are around 1000-1200mAh).

Now For Some Math
(I heard that groan, Erin)

• A dead cell phone (smart phone) is going to need around 2000mAh at 5VDC. 
• 2000*5=10,000 mWh.
• A common 9V battery can provide around 500mAh at 9VDC. 
• 500*9= 4500 mWh, or about half of a full charge on your phone. That's enough to make a few calls for help. 
• A lithium 9V battery can provide at least 1000mAh at 9VDC.
• 1000*9=9000MWh, or almost a full charge.

There is some inefficiency in the charger and wiring, so you're not going to get absolutely everything out of a battery; as a battery discharges, the voltage drops off (less of a problem than you'd expect) and it will reach a point where there isn't enough voltage (pressure or force) to push the electricity into the phone battery.

That Video
This is the video that got and ripped up by a sanctimonious Electrical Engineer (EE) who didn't think it would work.



A lot of people assumed he knew what he was talking about, because, “Hey, he's an engineer!”. Let me tell you a secret: engineers are like doctors; there are so many specialized fields that no one person is going to know everything. Just in the field of electrical engineering alone there are 299 different journals published by the IEEE. An engineer who designs power plants isn't likely to know any more about semiconductors than I am, and the engineer in question is an “adjunct professor” from Boston who specializes in radar and remote sensing technology (I looked him up). How much he knows about batteries and charging is up in the air.

(For what it's worth, Nye is a Mechanical Engineer and his opinions on anything outside that field should be taken with a grain of salt.)

Being an obstinate old man, I dislike people “in authority” stepping out of their narrow fields of research and handing down pronouncements like some petty gods. I do my research before I stick my foot in my mouth. Here's what I've found.

For something that won't work or can damage your phone, there are dozens of hackers posting videos on YouTube showing how to do it. Here's an example, with almost 3.5 million views. This is not a new hack; people have been building battery-powered phone chargers in Altoids cans for years. Links to similar videos are usually on the right-hand side of the page when you view it.

For those who don't use YouTube, I'll describe the basic wiring.

1. You'll need a car charger (the kind that plugs into a cigarette lighter), a battery, and some way to connect the two electrically. You'll need a USB cable, too, if your charger doesn't have one.
2. Connect the “+” post of the battery to the center post of the car charger
3. Connect the “-” post of the battery to the spring clips on the side of the car charger.
4. Plug your USB cable into the charger and your phone.
5. You're done.

How It Works
Inside the car charger is a circuit that converts one voltage to another. Here's a diagram for those who like to see how things go together.

http://www.electroniccircuitsdesign.com/battery-charger-circuits/usb-car-charger-adapter-circuit-design.html

Most simple chargers like this use a chip to do the work, with a few other pieces to control the chip output and protect it. This diagram uses an LM317L fixed current voltage regulator that puts out 100mA. The input voltage can be anywhere from 3VDC to 40VDC, and the output voltage is set at 5VDC by the resistors marked R1 and R2. Here's the data sheet for any engineer that doubts me. This is a slow charger, it only puts out 100mA and would take a long time to charge a smart phone.

Other common chips are:

• 7805 (78xx series voltage regulator, the xx designates the output voltage), which doesn't require external resistors and has an input range of 5VDC to 18VDC.
• 34063A, which is capable of putting out 5VDC at 1500mA from a supply ranging from 3VDC to 40VDC.
• LTC1174, another 5V, 100mA converter with an input range from 4VDC to 18VDC.

Here's my experiment. I prefer real-world results over some educated fool's pronouncement, so I grabbed a spare car charger, a 9V battery that's been on a shelf for a few years, and about three inches of scrap 12ga solid copper wire from when I moved an outlet.

1. I stuck the wire under the spring clip on the side of the charger and the other end on the "-" post of the battery, with the center post of the charger resting on the "+" post. 
2. I have an old cell phone that isn't worth using any more, so it is the guinea pig. I plugged the phone into a regular charger to make sure it would still take a charge, brought it up to 5%, and then switched it over to the battery/car charger. 
3. In five minutes got it up to 10%; 10 minutes got it to 15%. I let it run for a while, as I wished for a real electronics bench with the proper tools to measure the voltage and amperage while it's running. 
4. At 25 minutes and 15%, the phone booted up. The charger LED started to flicker a bit, but it isn't a very good charger (there's a few reasons it's a back-up). 
5. 40 minutes in, it shows 20%. 
6. I let it run for an hour and it stopped at 25%. Not bad for an old phone with a weak battery and a 9V that had dust on the package! 25% is more than enough to make a few calls to let people know where you are and that you're still alive.

So, no, setting something like this up is not going to make your phone blow up. Yes, you can use a DC-DC converter with a variety of input voltages and still get the same output voltage; that's what they're designed to do in the first place. Four AAA, AA, C, or D cells would give you 6VDC if wired in series (+ to -), which would be enough to power any of the converter chips I was able to track down. Any battery that produces more than 5V but less than 18V would be safe to use. Look for them in emergency lights, toys, etc.

Personally, I'd use one of the low amperage chargers to slow down the draw from the donor battery. Pulling too much out of a small battery too fast can make them heat up, and that reduces their efficiency.

RV Electrical Basics

Because my RV is basically a mobile Bug-out location (BOL), I need to make sure that the electrical systems are good enough for moderate use. I'm not going to be living in it full-time for years, so it doesn't need a generator capable of providing substantial power for decades nor the fuel capacity to keep a generator going that long, but I do want to be able to have lights and running water (I could live without the microwave). Here's what it has and what I'm going to do to improve it.

What's There?

Like most motor homes, mine has three separate electrical systems and they're all interconnected to a certain extent. The main separation is between the engine electrical (known as the “cab”) and the living quarters (the “coach”).

Cab power is 12VDC, provided by the engine's starting battery and alternator.

• The alternator is a heavy-duty version of what is normally found in cars, rated for about twice as many amps as a car alternator. 
• The battery is a large light truck battery.
• Cab power runs all of the things associated with driving the motor home like headlights, turn signals, clearance (marker) lights, engine electronics, and the starter. 
• In order to prevent idiots from getting themselves stranded with a dead starting battery, there is no way to get power from the cab to the coach.

Coach power in my RV is a mix of 12VDC (batteries) and 120VAC (electrical hook-ups).

• There is a storage compartment at the rear of the RV for two deep cycle batteries, like you'd use for a golf cart or trolling motor. 
• These supply all of the lights on the ceiling as well as the water pump, furnace (it has its own miniature propane furnace for winter travels), control circuitry for the refrigerator and water heater, the starter for the on-board generator, and various little fans and exterior lights. 
• These batteries are kept charged by a converter box that uses 120VAC from either the generator or shore power (when you're plugged into an outlet at a campground). 
• There is a “starter boost” switch on the dashboard that will engage a solenoid and briefly add the coach batteries to the cab battery in case you left the headlights on and can't start the engine. 
• I've already switched out all of the 12VDC incandescent bulbs in the coach with cheap LEDs from Amazon. I picked two different styles of LEDs to do a comparison (short ones and long ones), and so far there is very little difference. I can have all 24 lights on at once and only use as much power as 2 of the original bulbs, and they run cooler. The shift in color from the yellowish hue of the incandescent bulbs to the slightly blue of LEDs also makes the RV look more appealing -- it just doesn't look as old and worn under bluer light. Morale is important, especially if I plan on spending a lot of time in the RV.

• The 120VAC system is fed by either the generator that produces ~50 Amps, or the shore power cord which is rated for 30 Amps. 
• The rooftop AC units are 120VAC only and each pulls about 20 Amps, so there is some creative use of switches and wiring to power both of them at the same time, but that's particular to my RV. 
• The refrigerator is a 3-way model, running on 120VAC, propane, or 12VDC. 
• There are a handful of standard household outlets scattered around the coach so you can plug in your laptop, coffee maker, power tools, or cell phone charger. The one in the bathroom is actually a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) model because there is a possibility of it getting wet from the shower. GFCIs react quicker than standard circuit breakers and provide an extra level of safety in wet locations. 
• There are also duplex outlets on the outside of the coach for hooking up anything you want to use outside, and they have rain-proof covers on them.

What's Missing?

I have plans to modify the electrical system quite a bit. There is some redundancy in the existing setup, but I want more; I'm a belt and suspenders type when it comes to simple systems that I plan to use a lot. I don't want to be shut down on the side of the road because of a single fuse (BTDT) or have to cancel plans because of a minor mechanical issue. I like redundancy, it's insurance against Murphy's Law.

• The current coach battery setup is too small. There is currently room for about 200 Amp-hours worth of battery and I'm going to double that at least. I'm investigating where would be best to place at least two more deep-cycle batteries.
• The power converter is 120VAC to 12VDC. I'm going to be adding a large inverter to be able to go the other direction and use the new coach batteries to provide limited 120VAC. The inverter will probably be placed in a space vacated by the old water heater after I replace it with a more efficient on-demand model.
• There will be solar panels on the roof, tied into the 12VDC coach batteries. Mounting them and running power cables is under study right now; it'll be next spring before I'll be able to afford them, so I have time to plan out how many I need and how I want to mount them. I'm trying to figure out what I'll need and how much space I have to mount them on. You also have to remember that they have to stay in place as I'm traveling down the road at 65 mph, so mounting is important.
• Most of the interior 120VAC outlets are going to be replaced with modern versions that have USB 2.0 power ports built into them. Too much of our lives runs on rechargeable batteries these days.
• The outside outlets and the ones in the kitchen area are going to be replaced with GFCI outlets. I like having the extra security/safety, and they're not that expensive.
• I am going to install a master kill switch on the cab battery. It will be hidden from sight, and will completely disconnect the battery from the engine for anti-theft and anti-idiot reasons. I'm trying to decide if I want to use a keyed switch for extra security, but run the risk of losing the key and being shut down.
• All of the outside lights, with the exception of the headlights, need to be switched to LEDs. LED headlights exist, but they don't work well in cold climates. The heat from a halogen bulb will melt ice and snow off of your headlights, but LEDs run cooler and get blinded fast in any kind of winter weather.
• I need to install LED light bars/strings inside the cabinets and put a few along the floor as night lights.
• Each of the exterior storage compartments is going to have an LED light installed inside, along with a switch on the door. I am contemplating wiring the switches to a notification panel in the cab so I'll know if any of the doors are open before I start driving.
• I need to install a separate AM/FM radio for the coach. We like music, and I don't want to use the cab battery for anything once we're parked. One nice thing about having a smaller space than a house is that I won't need very large speakers to fill it with sound.
• Speaking of radios, I am working on a communications station for shortwave and other radios. I'll have a Citizen's Band (CB) up front by the driver's seat, but I want a scanner and a Ham Radio setup as well. I'm still working on getting my Ham license; testing locations are a bit of a drive and they don't test very often.
• The generator is not currently hooked up to either the 120VAC or the 12VDC coach system. I'm not sure if this is because the previous owner (PO) couldn't get it to run or if he just didn't want to mess with it. I will be dropping the generator out of its hiding place and doing a thorough tune-up/minor overhaul on it, which will be covered in a post of its own. 
• The PO has passed away, so I can't ask him questions. I'm finding a lot of electrical issues, so he might not have been able to offer much help anyway. He also didn't leave any of the owner's manuals in the RV, so I'm digging through various internet forums to find what I can.

As I've mentioned before, I bought this RV cheap with the full knowledge that it was going to take a lot of work to get it back into shape. Besides learning the details of how things operate, this work will allow me to customize the RV to fit my personal tastes. So far, I haven't run into anything that I can't do, and if I do find something out of my reach, I have friends who can work on things for me. My worst case scenario would be something major wrong with the engine, but I can get that swapped out in a buddy's shop within a week, although it might cost me a case of beer and $1000 for an engine. Ford made a lot of the 7.5L (460 cubic inch) motors and they're easy to find.

I will soon have access to a paint shop that is large enough to fit the RV, so it may even get a fresh coat of paint this winter. Being a generalist has its advantages, and I've learned how to do a lot of different things over the years.

Next week I'll cover the plumbing, which is almost as complicated as the electrical system.

Multimeter 101

I promised a crash course in multimeters last week. I hope you find this video instructive.

Editor's Note: The loop at the top is an amp clamp, and it opens like a claw by pressing the protrusion on the right side of the device. This allows the user to test the strength of current running through a wire without having to unplug things and stick probes in the ends.




Lokidude

Battery Failure Assessment

Last week, I had a very inconvenient failure of the battery in my truck.  I don't often expect things to fail -- my maintenance routine isn't perfect, but it's fairly solid -- so when they do, it's an unpleasant surprise.

At about 5:40 in the morning, I went out to start my truck and go to work like I do any other weekday. When I turned the key, I was rewarded with the rapid click of a low battery that couldn't spin my starter. I roused my wife and got a ride to work, but I was left scrambling to arrange transportation home and deal with a truck that needed attention.

The immediate fix for a dead battery is either a jump start or time on a battery charger. The way we park our trucks isn't exactly conducive to a jump start, and I didn't have the time for it that morning, so I plugged in the charger and hooked it up when I got home. An hour or so later the truck would start, but I still had a root problem to track down.

A dead battery is usually the result of some kind of a drain. The most common cause is a light or a stereo left on at a drive-in double feature. When I started the truck, nothing appeared to have been left on, so that got ruled out.

Old batteries can develop problems with holding a charge. Lead-acid car batteries average 3-5 years, depending on environmental and usage conditions. I replaced my battery sometime around Labor Day, so I could rule that out as well.

Diagnosing the Problem
That left just a few possible causes. Sorting those out is pretty straightforward, but requires a couple tools:

1. Start with a check of the battery itself (I explained how to do this in an earlier post). As I said before, my battery is new. The posts are clean, the water is full, and the clamps are tight.
2. After making sure everything is physically good, check to make sure that your battery is holding a charge and that your alternator is actually charging the battery. You'll need a multimeter for this; I use this one at work, and an older variant of this one at home. 
• While the Milwaukee is simple and quick, the Amprobe is half the price and will do anything you could want a meter to do. 
• A multimeter is a wonderful tool investment on the whole, as it will help with any number of projects around the house.
• For those of you who are a bit scared or confused using a multimeter, next week I'll go through the basic functions of a meter and how they work. Stick with me on this, you'll do just fine.
3. Following the instructions for your meter, set it to test 12 volt DC power. 
• With the car off, check the voltage stored in your battery by touching one test lead to each post. 
• If your battery is holding a good charge, you should see 12-12.5 volts. 
• Anything below 11 volts indicates a serious problem.
4. Now, start the car, and repeat the voltage test with the engine running. 
• If your alternator is charging properly, you should get a reading of about 14.5 volts. 
• Any reading more than a volt off of that indicates a problem you'll need to have addressed. 
• My battery gave readings of 12.4 and 14.5 volts, so the system is working properly.

If I'd gotten low readings on the battery, I'd have taken it to an auto parts store and had them charge it and test it. If the alternator had given odd readings, I'd have pulled it and had it tested at the parts store, and replaced anything that testing showed as defective.

Why did my truck not start?
With all of my tests coming up negative, the question remains, what happened? The answer is twofold, and one of those folds is entirely my fault.

1. The weather had been brutally cold for several days leading up to this failure. Cold does bad things to battery output, and I hadn't started my truck for a few days to keep it charged. 
2. When I bought that new battery a few months ago, I gambled and bought one that was a bit lighter duty than I normally get, and this is the failure that I have to own. Car batteries are rated by Cold Cranking Amps, with more amps indicating a stronger battery. I normally buy 700-800 CCA batteries for my big trucks, but this time bought one in the mid-500s. 95% of the time I don't even notice, but when combined with the single-digit and sub-zero temperatures, the lighter battery just didn't have the gusto it needed. I learned a valuable lesson in false economy, and may look at buying a larger battery in the not-too distant future and swapping this one into my wife's smaller truck.

Lokidude

Everyday Preps

I was sitting down to eat dinner tonight and the power goes out. This wasn't completely unexpected, since the temperature has been well over 90° F for days and the humidity doesn't drop below 50%. We had a storm roll through early Monday morning that took out the power for about six hours, but tonight's outage was likely caused by too many air conditioners running for too long. How does this prepper react?

1. I reach into my pocket and get out my  EDC flashlight. It provides more than enough light to keep from tripping over things.
2. I grab the battery-operated lantern from the stairway and get some area lighting. Since it has a wide base, I can set it down and have both hands free to go to the next step.
3. I light two oil lamps to provide light on the main floor and upstairs. One has a reflector built in, the other is placed on the hutch near a large mirror. There's no use wasting the light output on a wall, so I use reflectors to get it out into the room. I turn off the battery-operated lantern to save the batteries; Lamp oil is a lot cheaper than D-cell batteries. There's still time to finish eating dinner before it gets cold. 
4. It's been 20 minutes and the power is still out. This indicates that it will likely be out for several hours. Minor outages around here are resolved through automated resets, but this is lasting longer than normal for a minor outage. I open the windows upstairs to get airflow through the house; I hate to let the humidity in, but there is a breeze and the house is warming up anyway. I also open a couple on the main floor to get the hot air to rise and exit through the upstairs windows.
5. Our power company has a smart phone app, so I check for updates on the outage. Of course they're not updating the information in anything close to real-time. I pull up the webpage and see that the whole town is out, as is the next town north of here; looks like a transformer blew. My phone battery is getting low from a full day's use, so I get the USB battery supply out of the computer bag and charge the cell phone. I may have to take it our to the pickup to get a full charge.
6. I check on the neighbors that I care about. Everybody is doing OK; a few have left for anywhere that has lights (many people can't handle being in the dark, yet make no preparations for it). I let a few neighbors know that I have extra candles and such if they need them, but those are folks I have known  for many years. The newer neighbors are the ones I don't trust for a variety of reasons -- they can sit in the dark.
7. I have a blog post due tomorrow, and since there are fewer distractions with the power out,  I get started writing. My laptop battery is good for at least 4 hours, so I shouldn't have any problem getting this post together. If I have to, I can save it to a thumb drive and switch to the other laptop, which also has a 4 hour battery. I always write in a word processor program and upload the finished post to the blog, so the loss of the Internet isn't going to slow me down. I use the same word processor (Open Office) on both machines, so there will be no issue of compatibility. If the power is not back on by the time I'm done, I'll use my phone as an Internet hotspot to upload the article.  This sucks up my limited data plan, but it works. I would normally have hyperlinks to a few things, but don't want to kill my data plan. I may update this post when the power comes back.
8. I leave the fridge and freezer alone. As long as the doors stay closed, they will stay cold for at least 24 hours. I'm sweating just sitting here and a cool drink will help with that. I have instant tea and a couple of different sugary drink mixes in the kitchen and down in the pantry, so I make myself a tea. There's no ice for it, but the water from the tap is cool enough. I check the weather app -- it's still 84°F outside, at a quarter to eleven at night.
9. If the power stays out overnight, it will be a challenge to sleep. It's hard to sleep when you're sweating profusely, so I clear a few things off the couch in the basement in case I need to sleep down there tonight. It's cooler and quieter, but darker with not much natural light; I have a habit of oversleeping in the basement because it's hard for me to wake up without daylight.There's enough of a breeze that I should be able to sleep upstairs tonight, but I have options.
10. I dig out the wind-up alarm clock, wind it up, and set it to the correct time. My normal alarm clock will come back when the power does, but it will need to be reset. My phone has an alarm app for a backup. I'll make it to work tomorrow, but if the power is out there I'll probably end up coming back home.

All of this is normal life to me. There's no use getting upset about losing power for a while, as that won't make it come back on any sooner. I had things in place to replace the essentials. Dinner could have been eaten cold if the power had gone out earlier, or I could have gotten into the camping gear and got out the pack stove. Candles are still an option for lighting, but I don't mind the odor of oil lamps so I use them when I need to.

P.S.: No, I will not make it easy for our editrix by adding a Step 10. No “10 Step Program” jokes will be made that easily. (Editrix's note: You gave me a second paragraph in Step 9. Nice try, but you need to be craftier than that.)