[Goldfinger]

Anyone know what size/kind to get, to run a battery charger for my cordless drill, etc when I'm down at my plot?
Thought it would be a handy tool, instead of a whole generator for a battery charger. :blink:

[Gwiz]

Ah, that all depends on how many watts you charger uses

Go, on give us a clue.....

[Goldfinger]

Just checked charger, it says, 'input, 240v AC 50Hz 40 watts'

So that must be 40 watts then??

But what if I needed to run something a bit bigger?? Is there an 'ideal/all round size'??

[Gwiz]

Definitely! the bigger the better!
Small inverters are reasonably cheap, 100 to 250 watts can be picked up for under £50 on flea-bay But for bigger power usage, you are going to be paying considerably more.
It depends on watt (forgive the pun) you want to do.
Boiling a kettle through an inverter is unforgivably expensive. For that sort of money, you could buy a kettle, small stove, several gas canister, a huge bag of teabags, gallons of milk and bags of sugar, with enough left over for a pretty decent evening for two at a cozy little resturant.

[8doubles]

Why not buy an extra battery for the drill and charge it at home ?

[Goldfinger]

It came with two batteries, but you know what'll happen.... use one, use other and still have work to do!!!!  :blink: :blink:
Really don't want to take that chance, I'm not going down the 'brace and bit' route! Might even take laptop....

[Slowgrind]

I don't know if an inverter is dearer than a 24 volt HILTI drill but you can do a lot of drilling with a HILTI. Atlas make some good tools with long life batteries.

[smud6ie]

Definitely! the bigger the better!

Boiling a kettle through an inverter is unforgivably expensive. For that sort of money, you could buy a kettle, small stove, several gas canister, a huge bag of teabags, gallons of milk and bags of sugar, with enough left over for a pretty decent evening for two at a cozy little resturant.

And you would need forklift truck to shift the battery!!
smud6ie

[digalotty]

what battery drill do you have , im wondering as to weather you may be better just getting another battery , i wouldn't want to leave anything of value in the shed , we havent had any breakins but i think if people start leaving things of value then it will happen sooner or later .
my panasonic has 3 batterys and will run all day on one 

[pairofacres]

I've thought about putting a small wind or solar generator on my shed, with an inverter to power stuff from. A few things to be aware of:

1) Cheap inverters are pretty unreliable.
2) Take the rating shown and triple it, ie. if you're running 100w, buy a 300w inverter, as far eastern manufacturers almost invariably inflate the ratings.
3) Ring and Maypole branded inverters seem to be some of the best for cost vs reliability.
4) They draw serious current, so don't expect the average leisure battery to run a decent sized inverter for long.

Truck batteries are usually fitted in banks and often the whole lot are changed when one fails. Scavenging from haulage companies may turn up decent usable big batteries for sensible money, assuming downsizers in your area haven't got there first!

[Brushcutter]

I like gererators!
New batteries for cordless drills are really quite expensive. I have a Makita with 3 batteries which are now really knackered dont hold charge for any length of time, its not worth me replacing the batteries, might as well get a new drill when i feel a bit richer.
I have a cheapo wolf power 2 stroke generator which despite its shortcomings (smokey, a pain to start) is really usefull, you can pick up a new little 4 stroke genny quite cheap.

[Goldfinger]

what battery drill do you have , im wondering as to weather you may be better just getting another battery , i wouldn't want to leave anything of value in the shed , we havent had any breakins but i think if people start leaving things of value then it will happen sooner or later .
my panasonic has 3 batterys and will run all day on one 

I don't have a shed, yet. It's a black and decker 18v cordless I've got and  I've had it years, now one of the batteries doesn't hold its charge very well.

I work in plant and tool hire so, maybe the boss will sell me a small geny?? Just one of the petrol 2.2Kva ones. Not a 50Kva that would run a couple of houses!! 

[Bigbadfrankie]

A generator is a better option with a a low wattage 240v drill. To use the inverter you would need the inverter and a very large battery, very expensive. You can only use about 10% of the battery capacity as amps, so a 100 amp hr battery will give 10amps or there abouts without self destruction . This will not translate to 10 hrs use. Your 40W will be about 4or5 amps at 12v. Next is the problem that the charger and inverter are likely both inverters so the charger life will be shortened. Even with the geny at 240v to the charger is bad news as genys use inverters as well.

Now thats as clear as mud. but it is a very complicated

[Snoop]

I live off-grid. I'm not the electrical expert of the household and Gwiz will definitely know far more about this than me, but as I understand it an inverter converts battery power to mains power. So that means you need one or more big batteries to use with your inverter, wiring, battery terminals and a socket to then recharge your little battery. And how would you keep your big batteries charged? You'd either have to install a wind turbine or solar panels and some kind of charge regulator or take the big batteries to your nearest or most convenient power supply. Probably home. Have I got all this right, Gwiz and others?

If I were you, and was interested in taking a laptop down to the plot or using fluorescent lights as well as a bog-standard drill, I'd buy a smallish inverter technology generator. They're not that expensive these days, especially if you compare with the cost of having to keep buying short-life-span, tiddly rechargeable batteries.

Bear in mind that at start-up, your tools and other devices need significantly more than their stated wattage to kick them into action. I'm told it's up to double. So you'll need to take that into account, as well as pairofacres comment about cheap inverters.

Plus, I wouldn't leave the generator at the site. Someone would notice sooner or later. The theft of the generator itself might be trivial in comparison with the cost of repairing damage done to get at it. They're not enormously heavy. I'm a 50-year-old, short, fat female and can move ours around without too much trouble!

[Gwiz]

I was kinda thinking that a lot of people drive to allotments (I do) and the inverters can be plugged into the car cigarette lighter socket so you don't need another battery, start engine of car, so the the alternator does all the work. ( and the car will start when you want to go home..... )