i have an idea and just wanted someone elses thoughts on it to see if its even worth making it

the idea

to take
1) power inverter 12 volt to 120volt
2) a weed eater motor (runs forever on little gas)
3) and a car alterantor

the idea is to anker the alternator where all that turns in the coil inside it then hook the motor to the alternator so it turns in the correct durection so it makes the proper 12 to 18 volts hook the invertor to the alternator so the 12 volts is inverted to 120 volts

would this work

congradulations you just made a fucked up generator

yes a fucked up genorator that uses less gas then a normal genorator you buy at the store

[This message has been edited by clickergod (edited 01-06-2003).]

Inverters are fairly inefficient.
Alternators are fairly inefficient.

You'd have a generator that was really inefficient and would only put out a small amount of power. Most alternators put out under 100 amps and wear out really quick when they are forced to do it constantly.

It would work, but not as well as a real generator. It would use less gas than a regular generator, but you would have a fraction of the power.

Generators have current regulators so when they are subject to current load then the load is removed thier output voltage remains as constant as possible.

With your setup the inverter input voltage would change because your motor speed would be constant and not be relative to the load applied to the inverter output.

Fluctuating inverter input would possible shut it down or blow it completley.

I would suggest using a car battery inline before the inverter to keep things constant.

But yes it would be inefficent and the cost of the petrol would probably be higher than just running the item off mains power.

It cost me an average of $2 per day to run my house. It would cost more than that in petrol to run the motor for 24 hours and the motor would not power everything in my house.

[This message has been edited by bangbangbooty (edited 01-06-2003).]

i actually rethought this idea with a dry cell battery instead of an acid battery and on another page i found a small kit to alter the motor to run off of natural gas

COuld you post a link to that site? I'm interested to know how you'd make a 2 cycle engine run off of natural gas. How would you make it so that the engine still got oil?

physics lesson:

power = voltage x current

P = VI

if you start with 120W
with 12 v

P = VI
120W = 12V x 10A

you convert your 12V to 120V

P=VI

120W = 120V x 1A

NOTE: you stepped up the voltage but
the current decreases
the overall power is same...

not mentioning power loss due to heat
and other thingys...