Battery/inverter help needed

[Kaelynm]

Hi there, I’m new to this forum so hopefully this is in the right place. I am converting a 1987 Ford Econoline van and have a question about some electrical stuff. I live in an apartment and don’t have a great place to work on my van (power tools are too loud for the parking lot). I have a 12v deep cycle battery and 1000w power converter that I’m trying to set up so I can have power remotely and work in HD/Lowe’s parking lots. However, I have no electrical knowledge and would really like to avoid electrocuting myself. Here are my questions-
- where in the van can I ground the converter? Can it be any unpainted metal (wall, floor, window frame)?
- do I need to ground the battery itself as well as the converter?
- since I will be using an angle grinder (ie sparks) how do I protect the battery, and should I worry about fumes?

Much thanks for any help!!

 

[tx2sturgis]

Will you be charging the battery after your work sessions? In your apartment I assume?

If your inverter has battery clamps, you will just clip those on the battery terminals and don't ground anything. 

Your angle grinder might not run properly on a 1000 watt inverter...or it might, depending on a few factors.

Keep the lead acid battery and inverter outside the van (if possible) and run a heavy gauge extension cord inside to reach your angle grinder and any other tools you will be using.

And just for info, when you take that battery inside at night you are going to need a decent sized charger to get it back to full charge by morning. A 25 amp smart charger would probably get the job done.

Good luck...keep us posted.

 

[highdesertranger]

do you have an inverter or a converter? highdesertranger

 

[MrAlvinDude]

Like tx2sturgis says, the safest place is to place battery and inverter outside the van,  and use an extension cord to run the tools.

If that is however too impractical, then you can use any type of cover, to keep sparks and dust away from the battery and inverter.

So long as the cover is about one foot away from the grinder, and the material is not highly flammable, then you should be just fine.



At 1-2 feet distance, the sparks might create small spots in the cover, but the sparks carry so little energy, that it is very difficult to make anything catch fire.

Only if the cover is very close, to where you grind (like only 1-3 inches away) so hundreds of sparks are aimed, and land, in the same spot, do the sum of the many sparks carry enough energy to make flammable materials start to glow.


If you, for practical reasons need to keep the battery and inverter inside the van, then they do create small blankets of fiber-glas.  Any welding section are likely to have such blankets.

Some of the rough canvas tarps/blankets, will also be very, very slow to catch any level of fire. And many of such materials are treated/impregnated with fire retardant substances, so even if the start to glow, they will quickly extinguish by them selves.

Welders work with "sparks" that are much much larger than an angle grinder, so there are lots of welding gear/blankets that could be used as a simple cover for anything you want to protect from sparks.


Once you become familier with  how little energy, sparks from an angle grinder has, then you can simply use cardboard to protect stuff (like seats and more), from being covered with angle grinder dust.


Either way, just have a small fire extinguisher handy. and close by. Or even a water spray bottle.  And you will be able to quickly deal with anything an angle grinder might, worst case scenario, be able to cause.

 

[Kaelynm]

tx2sturgis-
Thanks for the response! Yes, I will be charging it in the apt. Is it safe to not have it grounded?

Highdesertranger-
My bad, I thought they were the same thing. It’s a dc to ac inverter.

 

[Kaelynm]

MrAlvinDude-
Thanks! That’s all helpful to know.

 

[MrAlvinDude]

It is safe to charge the battery in the apartment without any grounding. 
12V poses no electrical danger. At 12V it is simply not possible to get electrocuted.  So no danger there.

The challenge about batteries is, that if anything metal shorts the battery, then that metal will very quickly get very hot, and might cause stuff to catch fire.

So try to avoid shorting out the battery, and you will be just fine.


The battery charger connects to 110V, but a modern battery charger is so well protected (it will typically be design to a safety standard called: with double protection) so it will not pose any electrocution danger.
Especially since what comes out of a battery charger is 12V.  And 12V can not electrocute anyone. 

Electrocution dangers needs voltages higher than 36V.

At 12V, and shorted wires, or when connecting wires to the battery, then sparks may fly, and sparks are hot, and might burn skin, but no electrocution danger at 12V .

 

[tx2sturgis]

I want to add this:

If that deep cycle battery is a flooded type, (you know, caps with liquid battery acid inside) and I assume it has a handle, you really need to fully re-charge it in an area of your apartment with good ventilation, and preferable outside on a porch or balcony, and also preferably in a plastic battery case or sitting in a plastic tub or tray. 

It's rare that they would cause any problems, but it will release some fumes and could possibly leak a bit of acid out the cap vents and over the sides if it was filled to the top and the charger caused some bubbling. And, please, no smoking around the battery when it is charging!

Just a heads up.

 

[Qxxx]

Kaelynm, if you have $1500-2000 to spend, you could get one of the larger solar Portable Power Generators, which have large enough inverters that you can run power tools. Also, since everything is built in, there is lower risk of electrocuting yourself.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Or for around $500 (more or less) you can buy an inverter generator that will operate most power tools...but not ALL power tools.

Of course a large expensive generator that can operate ALL power tools would be too big and heavy to tote in and out of a van and then in and out of an apartment, especially if stairs are involved.