Putting Power Into A Garage In A Block?
Discussion
I'm moving into my new flat soon, which comes with a garage within a block to the side of the building (old house converted into 6 flats). There's no lights or power in the garage at the moment, and there's no way of running a cable out to it etc, so what's the best method? It's quite a quiet place so a generator may be too noisy, unless I could maybe build a sound deadened box for it at the back of the garage with a vent running to the outside for the exhaust? Im not sure that'd be quiet enough though. I was wondering if there was anything like a big powerpack that would power some lights and maybe some light tools (drill etc) for a couple of hours, and either recharge off the mains in the flat or via a solar panel on the garage roof. Never heard of anything like that though! Any ideas?!
Cheers,
Dom
Cheers,
Dom
We have a very similar situation with our garage being on the other side of a courtyard from our house, and I've been struggling with the same thing for the past few years.
Best solution for lighting that I've found is to have a couple of things very similar to these on the garage walls - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rechargeable-Emergency-Lan... - which give enough light to use when putting the car away, finding stuff etc, but wouldn't really be much cop for any great length of time or anything really detailed. Battery life is pretty good between charges - and when they do run down I just un-hook them form the wall, bring into the house and re-charge. Added bonus is that if we have a power cut I can always go get them and bring into the house....
As to power for a drill or similar, let me know if you do find a solution!
Best solution for lighting that I've found is to have a couple of things very similar to these on the garage walls - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rechargeable-Emergency-Lan... - which give enough light to use when putting the car away, finding stuff etc, but wouldn't really be much cop for any great length of time or anything really detailed. Battery life is pretty good between charges - and when they do run down I just un-hook them form the wall, bring into the house and re-charge. Added bonus is that if we have a power cut I can always go get them and bring into the house....
As to power for a drill or similar, let me know if you do find a solution!
I've been struggling with the same problem for the past five years. I've tried the jump start boxes - they last about 10-15 recharges before the battery in them dies.
I tried rechargable lights, small generators etc. all crap, all thrown out again. Only thing that reliably works is a 12v inspection lamp, run off the car battery. Means I can do little jobs in the dark evenings, but there's still no heating or enough light to do servicing etc. That has to wait until summer.
In end I've decided to give up, and we're moving next month to a house with a garage attached. Plenty of power sockets, and even a radiator in there, should I choose to turn it on.
I tried rechargable lights, small generators etc. all crap, all thrown out again. Only thing that reliably works is a 12v inspection lamp, run off the car battery. Means I can do little jobs in the dark evenings, but there's still no heating or enough light to do servicing etc. That has to wait until summer.
In end I've decided to give up, and we're moving next month to a house with a garage attached. Plenty of power sockets, and even a radiator in there, should I choose to turn it on.
I'm amazed that your jump pack started dying after such a small number of charges. Mine has been going for about 3 years now and is charged every 3 months or so, and will turn over the Chim all day long.
The best kind of lamp for energy consumption will be a fluorescent tube, either a 12v one connected directly to the battery pack or a normal one plugged into the inverter. I guess the 12v one will last longer as there's no loss via the inverter.
Anyway, this was my solution to no power in the garage:
The best kind of lamp for energy consumption will be a fluorescent tube, either a 12v one connected directly to the battery pack or a normal one plugged into the inverter. I guess the 12v one will last longer as there's no loss via the inverter.
Anyway, this was my solution to no power in the garage:
miniman said:
I'm amazed that your jump pack started dying after such a small number of charges. Mine has been going for about 3 years now and is charged every 3 months or so, and will turn over the Chim all day long.
I've had 3 of them now, all different brands, all are actually the same piece of chinese tat in an ever so slightly different case.Forgot to say - replaced the bulb in the 12v inspection lamp with a 12v fluorescent.
Zeemax_Mini said:
The trouble is my flat is on the 2nd floor, on the other side of the building! I was thinking of something like that, do they just recharge off the mains? How long do you think they could power some lights for?
Cheers!
Dom
Where's your electric meter? If in the basement there may be an easier cable route by branching from the main isolator. A sparky should have a look & give you a quote, but from my experience running cables through communal flat blocks is a nightmare, there's always one Cheers!
Dom
who's mission in life is to whine as much as possible and stop their neighbours doing anything.Problem with an inverter is a couple of fluorescent battens, say two 5' twins, will draw around 20 amps off a 12v battery. So a 40Ah battery will last two hours without the drill, which if 500w will draw 40A off the battery. You can go LED but for a decent amount of light it gets pricey real quick. Personally I'd just drop a long extension lead out the window, and a make sure you use an RCD plug if there's not one at the mains.
Cheers for all the replies - sounds like the jump start packs aren't great! There definitely isn't anyway of running a cable from the flat itself (hard to describe), the thought of running it from the meter is possible as I believe that is on the ground floor, but I think the other flat owners (including the freeholder who lives in the groundfloor flat)! may be against it! The idea of running an inverter in the car is possible, though if I'm going to be running the car engine I may be able to get a dedicated generator that's as quiet - any ideas how much a generator would cost that'd be quiet enough?!
Cheers!
Dom
Cheers!
Dom
I'm surprised you're struggling with generators. They have come down greatly in price in recent years and the technology is such that many are whisper quiet. No louder than a car - some even quieter !
Inverters and battery based solutions seem a bit of heath robinson solution. If nothing else batteries powerful enough to do any damage are going to be very heavy, especially when it comes to carting them back home for re-charge.
Go to a good genny specialist, take their advice, see some running (and hear them) then sort yourself.
Henry
Inverters and battery based solutions seem a bit of heath robinson solution. If nothing else batteries powerful enough to do any damage are going to be very heavy, especially when it comes to carting them back home for re-charge.
Go to a good genny specialist, take their advice, see some running (and hear them) then sort yourself.
Henry
Henry - You may be right and this is what I'm hoping is the solution, any recomendations of a decent quiet genny and how much it might cost? I've got a "silent" one which I take to Le-Mans, but as soon its put under load it starts revving and thats when it gets noisy!
The problem with running a cable is that not only am I on the second floor, but my flats on the other side of the building. It's a lovely old converted house, and I'm just not sure the other residents would love a cable strewn across the front of it and down across the carpark!
Cheers! Dom
The problem with running a cable is that not only am I on the second floor, but my flats on the other side of the building. It's a lovely old converted house, and I'm just not sure the other residents would love a cable strewn across the front of it and down across the carpark!
Cheers! Dom
HereBeMonsters said:
I've been struggling with the same problem for the past five years. I've tried the jump start boxes - they last about 10-15 recharges before the battery in them dies.
Car batteries are designed to give massive power for a very short time; they don't like low power for a long time - that's why the camping/caravanning industry has 'leisure batteries' instead. Zeemax_Mini said:
Henry - You may be right and this is what I'm hoping is the solution, any recomendations of a decent quiet genny and how much it might cost? I've got a "silent" one which I take to Le-Mans, but as soon its put under load it starts revving and thats when it gets noisy!
The problem with running a cable is that not only am I on the second floor, but my flats on the other side of the building. It's a lovely old converted house, and I'm just not sure the other residents would love a cable strewn across the front of it and down across the carpark!
Cheers! Dom
You need a good spark to take a look and see if there's a route that won't impinge aesthetically, which could involve many things you may not have considered such as building voids and underground etc. Unfortunately many sparks aren't like me and will just point out the easiest/most direct route. I did a job recently that involved running a cable under a massive house (mansion) converted into flats- the labyrinth under the house was 18' high, had a million obstacles and NOT for the claustrophobic, but the result was many happy people. Submit a couple of alternative proposals to the residents committee/whatever. If they decide to be funny, pick a nice day and hire a noisy as poss old genny for the weekend. You might find they then become accepting to the idea of a cableThe problem with running a cable is that not only am I on the second floor, but my flats on the other side of the building. It's a lovely old converted house, and I'm just not sure the other residents would love a cable strewn across the front of it and down across the carpark!
Cheers! Dom
Simpo Two said:
HereBeMonsters said:
I've been struggling with the same problem for the past five years. I've tried the jump start boxes - they last about 10-15 recharges before the battery in them dies.
Car batteries are designed to give massive power for a very short time; they don't like low power for a long time - that's why the camping/caravanning industry has 'leisure batteries' instead. You could go to Halfords and invest in a car battery and run 12 volt LED lights off that for days before it goes flat. There are apparently some very good 12 volt lights about nowadays.
Or even 12 volt conventional bulbs, spotlights off Ebay, mounted on a wall, a stand, whatever.
See how strong you feel, buy the biggest battery you think you could safely carry down to the garage, then carry it to your flat and recharge it after every use.
All your tools can be cordless, drill, angle grinder, whatever you need.
King Herald said:
Jump start boxes don't have car batteries in. Cars have car batteries in.
Sorry; as they are designed to start cars I thought the same fact would apply. If they are not designed to start cars, they do so remarkably well.It's the chemistry that's important, not the name of the machine they happen to be in.
Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 16th February 17:09
Simpo Two said:
King Herald said:
Jump start boxes don't have car batteries in. Cars have car batteries in.
Sorry; as they are designed to start cars I thought the same fact would apply. If they are not designed to start cars, they do so remarkably well.It's the chemistry that's important, not the name of the machine they happen to be in.
King Herald said:
Wasn't meant to sound flippant, but a jump start box will have a far smaller and lighter battery in, designed to give a couple of emergency starts to a car. A car battery will give dozens of starts and provide power for ages, probably due to its bigger size.
Of course - I have one for emergencies and it's patently obvious it's not a replacement for a 900 Amp/hour Jaguar battery Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff