Four post ramp in garage with no power

[Jakg]

GreenV8S said:

You'd need to estimate the number of Watt-hours need to lift the vehicle and average frequency of lifting it, calculate the panel area needed to produce that amount in the environment where it will be used, and size the battery to suit the maximum number of times you need to lift without recharging.

Based on some numbers I found online:

16A motor, 45 seconds to lift
=
3.9KW peak load, 48WH per lift.

Peak is a bit high but overall load is low.

[Fessia fancier]

Thanks. The the lift as it comes from the supplier has a 3 horse power / 2.2KW motor which has an initial draw of about 20 – 25 amps.

In terms of usage I doubt it will be used more than once a month. I can put a small solar panel somewhere discreet, I can't plaster the roof with lots as it is a conservation area and there are trees above. But if it gets a little light I suppose it can trickle charge.

Just to add the car won't be more than 1500kg. The ramp i have at home is a single phase one that works without tripping the electrics.

Some interesting ideas, thanks everyone for the input to date!

[Caddyshack]

Penelope Stopit said:

Here in Greece, there is no hot water produced by the solar panel on a cloudy day

Isn’t that an evacuated tube as opposed to Pv panel though?

[dhutch]

Caddyshack said:

Isn’t that an evacuated tube as opposed to Pv panel though?

In hot climates, a lot of the thermal solar isn't even evacuated tube, very primitive because you can get away with it as it's often hot, especially if it's a holiday resort.

But yes, totally different to PV panel.

[dhutch]

Jakg said:

GreenV8S said:

You'd need to estimate the number of Watt-hours need to lift the vehicle and average frequency of lifting it, calculate the panel area needed to produce that amount in the environment where it will be used, and size the battery to suit the maximum number of times you need to lift without recharging.

Based on some numbers I found online:

16A motor, 45 seconds to lift
=
3.9KW peak load, 48WH per lift.

Peak is a bit high but overall load is low.

All in all, quite a manageable (tiny) amount of power. You could easily get 20 lifts out of a pair of 110Ah 12v batteries, and at a lift a week, you wouldn't need much sun or solar panel to top the batteries back to. More than a A4 size battery conditioner but nothing like a whole roof full!

Daniel

[Penelope Stopit]

Caddyshack said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Here in Greece, there is no hot water produced by the solar panel on a cloudy day

Isn’t that an evacuated tube as opposed to Pv panel though?

All I know is that the panel had something special about it several years ago when it was purchased, think that there was something mentioned about the silicon but could be well wrong, wasn't interested much in solar back then

Have the Brochure somewhere and will attempt to post the info later

Will also attempt to get monthly figures from someone who sells electric to the grid

[Fessia fancier]

Well I have now completed the garage and decided to try the ramp powering solutions at home
I had the battery below already which was almost new and bought the inverter below which might not be man enough as the ramp was cutting out even when I lowered it.
I am a bit dim at electric stuff so would appreciate any feedback
Thanks

[Fessia fancier]

[Fessia fancier]

[catfishdb]

Can't help with the battery/inverter tripping.

A brighter bulb than me about electrics will stumble along shortly. Although my first instinct would be the battery not being fully charged (potentially) cannot quite deliver the needed amps or there is enough of a voltage drop to not make it agreeable.

But.....why I'm here......back to my earlier thoughts.......why not a generator as an option? I am just curious? I have stood beside generators that you can barely hear running. Granted you would need one appropriate to run the motor/pump for the lift but that is the easy maths bit. They have wheels or a wheel kit so wheeling it in/out is straight forward (assuming there is a spot for it) the Honda's never fail to start, it has the ability to run other items if necessary since your estate appears to be in the 1000's of acres being the garage is miles from home. : )

It could even be used to charge/help out with the batteries and inverter you already purchased to lend a helping hand and reliably lift the vehicle if you have not used or visited the garage in a month or more.

And in the end the jenny could be sold off quite easily because it would not be directly tied to the garage infrastructure.

I know...I went backwards on that one from the battery/inverter idea. Just really quite curious.

Arthur

[GreenV8S]

Fessia fancier said:

Well I have now completed the garage and decided to try the ramp powering solutions at home
I had the battery below already which was almost new and bought the inverter below which might not be man enough as the ramp was cutting out even when I lowered it.
I am a bit dim at electric stuff so would appreciate any feedback
Thanks

Sounds as if the inverter is not able to maintain the supply voltage under load. If you monitor the battery voltage under load that might indicate whether either the battery or the inverter are the biggest limiting factor.

[Fessia fancier]

Thanks for both replies.

I was attracted to the inverter as I had a new Bosch battery which I bought for my car about six months ago and didn't use so I think it should also be in a good state. But at present it seems to be unable to run the lift just coming down from a fully raised position let alone laden and I have not yet asked it to raise a car...

So I might have to get a generator but I suppose having got this far it may be a beefier inverter would suffice.

To save scrolling, the lift has a 3 horse power / 2.2KW motor which has an initial draw of about 20 – 25 amps, I am told.

Of course, I could always sell the thousands of acres and get a house with better garaging!

[hidetheelephants]

Penelope Stopit said:

northwestrecovery said:

Get a hydraulic ramp and covert it 12v and run it off a couple of batteries , seen it done a few times at farms .

The solution has been posted

Inverter isn't mentioned once

As above, use a 12 or 24 volt hydraulic pump and batteries

Pumps can sometimes be found cheap at commercial vehicle breakers, they are sometimes fitted to the chassis of trailers or tankers that tip

So many cars have electric power steering pumps now converting to 12V shouldn't cost much.

[AW10]

hidetheelephants said:

So many cars have electric power steering pumps now converting to 12V shouldn't cost much.

They don’t have electric power steering pumps that replaced the engine belt driven ones; they have electric motors integrated into the steering system. No pump and no fluid being moved around.

[hidetheelephants]

AW10 said:

hidetheelephants said:

So many cars have electric power steering pumps now converting to 12V shouldn't cost much.

They don’t have electric power steering pumps that replaced the engine belt driven ones; they have electric motors integrated into the steering system. No pump and no fluid being moved around.

[AW10]

Every day’s a school day!

But that’s an absolute tiddler of a pump.

Edited by AW10 on Monday 14th March 04:36

[hidetheelephants]

AW10 said:

Every day’s a school day!

But that’s an absolute tiddler of a pump.

Edited by AW10 on Monday 14th March 04:36

That's a 1hp motor.

[dave_s13]

Don't you need a leisure battery for this rather than a car battery?

The former is designed for a short surge of peak power that quicky drops off. The latter give you a sustained output for longer periods of time?

This is similar to the requirement of our caravan quad motor movers. They are powered with a 130ah leisure battery and kept topped up with 140w of solar power.

[dhutch]

dave_s13 said:

Don't you need a leisure battery for this rather than a car battery?

The difference is typically fairly academic these days.

Plus an inverter will pull a reasonable current, for a short time, running a lift motor.

[Chris32345]

If possible check voltage at the inverter while running the ramp could be pulling too much at once

Could also just be that a bit too much for the inverter a 4500w would probably have been better as a little more margin