Solar charging power tools

[Rocdenindy]

Does anyone know where to start to look at solar charging for power tools? The property I bought has power at the street but not on the property so I am looking into ways to recharge power tools that I use during building. Any suggestions? And while I am at it, anyone have any ballpark estimates what it actually cost to have power hooked up to a pole so I can use it? Thanks.

 

[snorko]

I'm in for interest. I don't have power in my garage and, while it is close to the house and would be easy to run, I have a prepper fantasy of installing a couple solar panels on the roof and installing a small battery bank, some low voltage LED lighting and a charging station for the trimmer batteries and possibly future elec. mower batteries.

 

[singlestacksig]

you would need a HUGE solar panel to get enough amps to do a quick job.. you might want to get a good deep cycle battery & inverter and charge your tools off it.. you can have a 10 or 5 watt panel to keep the battery from going totally dead.. as to getting power , you would need to build a temporary weather head & a weather proof distro box.. then they will just hook it up..

 

[churchmouse]

Generator.........That is all.

 

[Icarry2]

For the money, a small inverter generator would be best in my opinion.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200585434_200585434

Or look into a small solar charger battery inverter kit.

Strongway Solar Power Package — 1800 Watts | Solar Wind Systems| Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[indyjoe]

You best bet is to base everything off of a 12V grid. So your solar system will take all available sunlight and charge a 12V system. Then from this you would use car chargers for various power tools.

I am the Engineer (yes, we unfortunately only have one) on a project making rugged tablets for 3rd World Countries and I have 12V as the charging input, because it is prevalent in those societies. They often take an auto battery that no longer has cranking power, but still has storage power. Then they either use a solar system or pay to have them charged. Then base everything off of this.

It would be possible to charge power tools directly from solar, as TI and others make some good Solar charge controller chips. However, unless you are there to swap out batteries when they are full, you are wasting sunlight. I would think that the loss in efficiency of a solar to 12V then to tool charging would be made up for by capturing full sunlight power. It also has that added benefit of being possible without custom designing a charging circuit.

Solar to 12V charge controller is common. 12V to Power Tool battery is common.

 

[bwframe]

Shop for this stuff at your solar powered car dealer?

 

[indyjoe]

https://www.solar-electric.com/solar-charge-controller-basics.html/

 

[Rocdenindy]

I think for now I will do the generator route. I think it will be easiest and most cost effective. Now the question is, can I get by on a small one like 900 Peak/700 Running Watts, 2 HP (63cc) 2 Cycle Gas Generator EPA/CARB or will I need to go bigger? I would be charging 2 dewalt 20 volt batteries but one at a time.

 

[churchmouse]

I think for now I will do the generator route. I think it will be easiest and most cost effective. Now the question is, can I get by on a small one like 900 Peak/700 Running Watts, 2 HP (63cc) 2 Cycle Gas Generator EPA/CARB or will I need to go bigger? I would be charging 2 dewalt 20 volt batteries but one at a time.

You can do more work than just charging but not a lot.
I have 4 genny's and each has a specific task for the loads it will be handling.
If it were me (not but just saying) I would have something that would pull a table saw or other equipment.
Then it would fill more roles.
Again, just me.

 

[bocefus78]

You can do more work than just charging but not a lot.
I have 4 genny's and each has a specific task for the loads it will be handling.
If it were me (not but just saying) I would have something that would pull a table saw or other equipment.
Then it would fill more roles.
Again, just me.

x2

That little 62cc 2 stroke will use more fuel than you think it will. Go 4 stroke and go bigger.

I'd get at minimum a 4000 watt set. That will be able to charge your batteries and run a refrigerator, window AC, box fan, space heater, or freezer (Only 1 of these at a time in addition to your battery charger). Basically, anything that you can run off a normal household 15amp circuit, this gen set will run. Add in a small led lamp, cell charger, wireless router, blower motor for a wood stove, etc and you will be wishing you had 8000 watts haha.

Gennys are more efficient on fuel the farther from peak load you get from my research.

 

[Icarry2]

Gennys are more efficient on fuel the farther from peak load you get from my research.

From half load up they lose efficiency, but running them at less than half load can cause premature failure from my experience.

I would suggest the same thing again. A small 4 stroke for the work being done now.
Add a second larger one when you get things going to power the other features one would expect.

Also,. those little two stroke ones are loud as hell..

My Honda EU2000i is quiet.

 

[churchmouse]

From half load up they lose efficiency, but running them at less than half load can cause premature failure from my experience.

I would suggest the same thing again. A small 4 stroke for the work being done now.
Add a second larger one when you get things going to power the other features one would expect.

Also,. those little two stroke ones are loud as hell..

My Honda EU2000i is quiet.

I had a Honda. It was sweet. Had the quite mode feature.

They are also insanely spendy...

 

[HK Guy]

Solar

My barn is too far from the road for grid power. I have a gen for big jobs such as welding and compressing air. I also have a 12 volt system for lighting and an inverter for small power tools. I've got a 245 watt panel, charge controller, D/C breakers and a deep cycle battery all mounted on a hand cart (except for the panel). It's pretty slick. Should we loose grid power for any length of time I can wheel it up to the house and charge computers and iPads for the family without running the big gen. I knew that it was best to just run stuff off of 12 volts but I didn't know how important. I went through about half the 220 amp hour battery running the inverter to charge the kid's iPad. That won't happen again as I now have 12 volt chargers for pretty much all my electronics so I don't need the inverter. Live and learn.

 

[Vilage.Idiot]

You mentioned using desalt power tools.
I am pretty sure they make a charger that is plugged into a cigarette lighter I your car/truck

 

[Small's]

I was in Bloomington a while back sitting in my truck eating lunch and i seen an old chevy g van pull into the parking lot with 3 solar panels on top. He was kind of a hiptser looking kid so i went over and talked to him. He does construction work out of his van. He had renogy solar panels on the roof and a couple marine batteries in the back. I forget what kind of inverter etc he had but he said he can run circular saws and about whatever power tool he needs off of this setup. He also charged his rechargeable drill batteries off of it. Renogy sales a bunch of their stuff on amazon including kits.

 

[churchmouse]

My barn is too far from the road for grid power. I have a gen for big jobs such as welding and compressing air. I also have a 12 volt system for lighting and an inverter for small power tools. I've got a 245 watt panel, charge controller, D/C breakers and a deep cycle battery all mounted on a hand cart (except for the panel). It's pretty slick. Should we loose grid power for any length of time I can wheel it up to the house and charge computers and iPads for the family without running the big gen. I knew that it was best to just run stuff off of 12 volts but I didn't know how important. I went through about half the 220 amp hour battery running the inverter to charge the kid's iPad. That won't happen again as I now have 12 volt chargers for pretty much all my electronics so I don't need the inverter. Live and learn.

That sounds like a very cool rig.

 

[CountryBoy19]

First and foremost, IMHO, check the power input requirements on your battery chargers. I don't have Dewalt tools, but chargers are basically rectifying AC power to DC power. Reason tells us that they very well could have made them to accept AC or DC input power. If so, the solution to your problem is very simple, provide DC power that is within the requirements of the chargers. That could be as simple as connecting 3 or 4 panels together in series and wiring them directly to the chargers (if the voltage requirements are wide enough), but could mean charge-controllers, battery-banks, etc are needed as well. Depends on what the power requirements of the charger are.