Another Inversor Question

[donP]

Gimmicky Fridges

Ummmm....yeah....sooooo....
I have no idea, I'll have to get back to you on that!

Never mind, if you have that fridge alreay it's too late anyhow.

{To be quite frank, I do not understand the need to have ice cubes churned out through a refrigerator door. :cross-eye
This gimmick is costly as those fridges consume much electricity (power rating likely well over 200 W) and have electronic circuit boards in the ice maker part which tend to go haywire here.
[ A guy I know threw his luxury 'nevera' out after several costly repairs and have the repair people in SD do more damage to it than good.]

The fridge we bought recently (after our LG elephant developed a problem after 13 years) consumes 108 W, about 150 when defrosting. It does have a water dispenser, but even that, I think, is a gimmick... }


donP

 

[cobraboy]

Owwww, my head hurts.

SHALENA

I'll make it easy: an inverter feeds power to your house from your batteries, converting DC current (batteries) to AC current (what your house needs) when you don't have street power, and charges the batteries when you do have street power, converting street AC to battery DC.

 

[Criss Colon]

A generator in an apartment building is a "Good Thing"!
When your neighbors decide to blast their SPEAKERS at 110% capacity, you just fire up your generator.
It has an advantage over the speakers, they just make NOISE, the generator also produces "Toxic Fumes"!
Dominicans understand THAT!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

 

[dv8]

water heaters made easy:
generally you could have an electric on or one running with gas. now, gas seems like a better idea (price of power vs price of gas) but you would need a big ass bottle for that (your family is pretty big). installation, tubes, filling it up mean more hassle. and did i mention i am not a huge fan of having too much and too complicated gas connections?
so, electric ones. they will generally have a big container/boiler where water is heated up and stored. so you can switch on a heater (manually or have an automatic setup) from 6am to 7am and still have hot water later on that morning. provided it has not been all used up. the water will take minimum 15 minutes to warm up. and i recommend having a heater somewhere close to the bathrooms. ours has piping to the guest bathroom on the inside (it is right next to it) and to our bathroom on the inside and the outside, in the winter water gets colder faster.

and yes, i like hot showers too. our water heater works so well miesposo will not even step into the bathroom when i shower, it gets too hot

 

[SKing]

I'll make it easy: an inverter feeds power to your house from your batteries, converting DC current (batteries) to AC current (what your house needs) when you don't have street power, and charges the batteries when you do have street power, converting street AC to battery DC.

So why would you need to charge the batteries up by other means if the Inversor does it when it is not on??

water heaters made easy:
generally you could have an electric on or one running with gas. now, gas seems like a better idea (price of power vs price of gas) but you would need a big ass bottle for that (your family is pretty big). installation, tubes, filling it up mean more hassle. and did i mention i am not a huge fan of having too much and too complicated gas connections?
so, electric ones. they will generally have a big container/boiler where water is heated up and stored. so you can switch on a heater (manually or have an automatic setup) from 6am to 7am and still have hot water later on that morning. provided it has not been all used up. the water will take minimum 15 minutes to warm up. and i recommend having a heater somewhere close to the bathrooms. ours has piping to the guest bathroom on the inside (it is right next to it) and to our bathroom on the inside and the outside, in the winter water gets colder faster.

and yes, i like hot showers too. our water heater works so well miesposo will not even step into the bathroom when i shower, it gets too hot

I have just learned that the electricity for the house cannot withstand the water heater or it is not enough electricity for it or something like that ....can I mention that Luis (the son) says the house electricity wiring is "Malissimo"?
I don't know who did it but if I find out I will tell the name here for people to beware....this sh*t is ridiculous. Why put a water heater in a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house that the electricity is not wired for???
Oh yeah, to fool the Gringa.

SHALENA

 

[windeguy]

Sounds like they used wire guage too fine to carry the current a hot water heater requires. Hard to upgrade after the fact. Cold showers for you.

 

[donP]

Wall Heater

Sounds like they used wire guage too fine to carry the current a hot water heater requires. Cold showers for you.

Yes, but heated walls... :bunny:
Which is good against humidity and mild dew.
Excellent Dominican planning....


donP

 

[cobraboy]

So why would you need to charge the batteries up by other means if the Inversor does it when it is not on??[/quot]Ultimately the batteries will be drained if the power hasn't come back on.

 

[dv8]

So why would you need to charge the batteries up by other means if the Inversor does it when it is not on?
I have just learned that the electricity for the house cannot withstand the water heater or it is not enough electricity for it or something like that ....can I mention that Luis (the son) says the house electricity wiring is "Malissimo"?
I don't know who did it but if I find out I will tell the name here for people to beware....this sh*t is ridiculous. Why put a water heater in a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house that the electricity is not wired for???
Oh yeah, to fool the Gringa.
SHALENA

electricity in your house is a bit like a car. you have an engine running (street power) and everything works. turn the engine off (se fue la luz) and you can still listen to barry white while boning a cheerleader on the backseat. or have your emergency lights on while you dig under the bonnet. it's because you are using a car battery (inversor). but it is not good to leave your lights on for too long, the battery will die. the same with inversor, it can only store as much power and then it calls quits.
you can charge inversor with street power, this is, in fact, how it charges on a daily basis. but when there is no street power you use a generator, essentially an engine, to power the batteries, just like you'd do with a car. the difference is that personal generator is noisy and quite costly. this is why it is not a viable source of 24/7 power (unless you have lots of money and hold a major grudge against ladronorte). but it is great for areas with bad street power and of course, in case of emergencies.

i suggest when you decide to build/buy you concentrate on A or B circuit areas (least blackouts). based on your area you can chose the inversor and the quantity of batteries. you can also have the house re-wired, if need be, to accommodate your needs.

as far as the water heater goes... dominicans do not like hot water. not even in the winter. miesposo washes in water that is barely warm, cool, even. but i have ruined his macho ego somewhat because on cold days with no power he appreciates our emergency water heating system: a pot on a kitchen stove maybe your heater is half-assed because the owner of the house thought it was good enough? my in laws have a huge house, air con in all rooms, all little luxuries you can think of - but hot water is, at best, tepid.

 

[sayanora]

i've noticed some heaters don't heat up as much as in the states

 

[AlterEgo]

This year we installed a propane on-demand hot water heater - I had to keep lowering the temperature setting, because it was scalding hot.

A couple of D batteries for the spark, no electric to run it. Two months of showers and we didn't use up a small propane tank [small, as in the kind used for gas BBQs]

 

[dv8]

on-demand hot water? i think it would not last in our house, the maid would wash all floors in hot water. all in order to avoid espasmo, of course!

 

[dv8]

or do what i do - store all starchy foods in the fridge. one, you will have it filled and two, you will not have your rice come to life and walk out of the bag
so all flour, pasta, rice, sugar - goes to the fridge.

we have gas dryer too. we have two separate gas bottles in the back, i need to manually open the valve to have the gas power the dryer. a bottle last us a long time and in the winter i dry all our washing like this. two separate bottles mean we always have gas, one bottle empties, we connect the other and take the first one to be filled. there is always some backup.

 

[Wishing you well]

How much does a gas dryer cost in the local economy, did you purchase here or import it ?

 

[dv8]

we had ours shipped from USA. vinicio, from vinicio's shipping has bought it in miami (used) and shipped here. i cannot remember the price, unfortunately, it was a long time ago. but it was cheaper than anything we could buy in DR. works like a treat, washing is bone dry after about 30 minutes inside. and it is huge enough to fit all our washing all at once.

 

[SKing]

I just don't like a whole lotta gas tanks in my house, makes me nervous.

SHALENA

 

[Casino127]

I have a 5500kw inversor with 8 batteries and it is working great in the house. It is producing electricity enought for a regular fridge size, 8 bulbs light, 3 laptops, tv, sounds system, 3 fans when the streets electricity is gone. When the city lights are back, we use the microwave, the washing machine, the hair dryer, the toaster, the mixer, the water pump, AC, ect..everything that use a lot of watts. If i need to use one of the last mention in emergency i use a coleman generator 1750w or a chinese 5000w diesel generator. Luckily i live in a 24hours light zone but even so light goes once s uper the time. Always keep your gas bottles outside in a stock room if you have. Water gas heater are the best for me. They use them all over south America and in Europe as well. It is far less expensive that the electric heater. On the electric there is 2 small cover in front of the element where you can set the desired temperature in F using a flat screwdriver.
Sometime when i do not feel to make noise i toast my bread in a pan and heat the shower water in a caserole, it s part of an exotic life ! It is also important to know the number of watts your goods are using in the mater of your equipment if they can stand the load.

 

[ffritz]

One thing nobody has mentioned is the cost of replacing batteries.

Putting fridges & pumps on invertors crucifies the batteries & shortens their life.

4 Trojan red batteries cost circa RD22,000, & if you abuse them with fridges & pumps they will only last about 2 to 3 years.

In 2 years I'd guess they won't be any cheaper & may cost 24,000, so that's about RD1,000 per month to replace the batteries. If they last 4 years - which is perfectly possible if you don't abuse them - that's only RD500 per month.

My suggestion is to have the fridge off the invertor & only plug it in when needed, e.g. for an hour if the power's been off for over 6 hours.

Our system is a 2.5k Trace invertor, 4 Trojan reds running a villa with 3 fridges. Our batteries are 4 years old & still last over 6 hours without failing.

 

[windeguy]

Technically, I agree with ffritz. BUT, I am not sure how many people would be willing to cycle their refrigerators as ffritz suggests. If you do, please have a good medical plan. As for myself, I will replace the batteries more often.

I just checked the price of Trojan batteries at Luis Hernandez in Moca. They are $5,750RD each with a $RD750 peso credit each if exchanging old batteries.

 

[cobraboy]

One thing nobody has mentioned is the cost of replacing batteries.

Putting fridges & pumps on invertors crucifies the batteries & shortens their life.

Certainly opinions vary.

For instance, my ~purpose~ in having an inverter (3.5kw, now with the equivalent gel capacity of 6 6v batteries) is to almost all electrical appliances still function except for the 220v ones.

My concern is much less about the life of the batteries.