Battery-Driven Tanis

On Jan 31, 6:41 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Sounds like a perfect application for one of those annoying little
Honda generators that we always seem to get stuck next to when
camping...?

Annoying and expensive! The Honda's go for around $600 and the
Coleman's about $450. There's a DuroPower line that runs just north of
$100 but that price makes me take a step back.

Marco

On Feb 1, 8:26 am, "BDS" wrote:
That might not work so well in an application like this. If he has the 250
watt heater and runs it for 3 hours then he has removed 750 watt-hours of
energy from the battery (plus change).

A typical solar panel charger is meant for trickle charging and they only
put out something like 10 watts or less, although I've seen some up around
20 watts. That means that it will take 75 hours of charging time at 10
watts to replace that 750 watt-hours, and that's at 100% efficiency which,
as well all know, doesn't exist.

There's a guy with a solar-power setup on the ramp but I've never been
able to run into him to pick his brain. A friend heard that he has his
thing patented so I might get little info other than a price... I
researched the solar powered thing briefly but stopped after the
numbers on the napkin hit 4-digits to the right of the dollar sign.


Most of these deep cycle cells are looking for a charge at around 20 amps
for 10 hours or so to bring them up to full charge, and then a float charge
to hold the terminal voltage around 13.8 volts.

Either a generator or a propane-fired pre-heater is the way to go here.

Yeah, I think a generator is the ideal thing. Plus, I can use it for
many different applications as well.

On Jan 31, 6:01 pm, "Jim Macklin"
wrote:
Go to a store and buy a portable gasoline powered generator.
Get insulating blankets for the cowl, otherwise all the heat
will escape.
If you can setup some sort of remote starting for the
generator, you can get started warming it up or just start
the generator and go get a cup of coffee.

You don't want to be hauling hundreds of pounds of acid
filled batteries around.

That's a good point about the acid batteries. Charging would be a
constantpain as well.

I think you guys are convincing me to go the generator route...

I've been reading this tread with some interest, but I am fortunate in
that I have electricity to my hanger. What I'm curious about is the
cell phone or pager thing to turn on a heater remotely. Has anyone
done that, and how so? One thing that came to mind with pagers is that
alot of times they will beep something like once a minute as a
reminder if you don't push the button when it goes off, does that mean
that any application would be switching on and off likewise if you
used a pager?
-Ryan Wubben
Madison

On Feb 1, 11:54 am, wrote:
I've been reading this tread with some interest, but I am fortunate in
that I have electricity to my hanger. What I'm curious about is the
cell phone or pager thing to turn on a heater remotely. Has anyone
done that, and how so? One thing that came to mind with pagers is that
alot of times they will beep something like once a minute as a
reminder if you don't push the button when it goes off, does that mean
that any application would be switching on and off likewise if you
used a pager?
-Ryan Wubben
Madison

You can start he http://www.reiffpreheat.com/Beeper%20Box%20pg%201.htm.
There are others on the market I believe. There's also a $15
ThermoCube that turns on the outlet under a certain temperature.
Sporty's has it.

Marco

wrote:
I've been reading this tread with some interest, but I am fortunate in
that I have electricity to my hanger. What I'm curious about is the
cell phone or pager thing to turn on a heater remotely. Has anyone
done that, and how so? One thing that came to mind with pagers is that
alot of times they will beep something like once a minute as a
reminder if you don't push the button when it goes off, does that mean
that any application would be switching on and off likewise if you
used a pager?
-Ryan Wubben
Madison

Tanis sells a pager device.


I just have mine on a 7-day timer and a thermostat that kicks it on
FRI/SAT/SUN early in the morning when it is cold.

On Feb 1, 8:26 am, "BDS" wrote:
"Dave" wrote

You could charge the battery with a solar
panel

That might not work so well in an application like this. If he has the 250
watt heater and runs it for 3 hours then he has removed 750 watt-hours of
energy from the battery (plus change).

A typical solar panel charger is meant for trickle charging and they only
put out something like 10 watts or less, although I've seen some up around
20 watts. That means that it will take 75 hours of charging time at 10
watts to replace that 750 watt-hours, and that's at 100% efficiency which,
as well all know, doesn't exist.

Most of these deep cycle cells are looking for a charge at around 20 amps
for 10 hours or so to bring them up to full charge, and then a float charge
to hold the terminal voltage around 13.8 volts.

Either a generator or a propane-fired pre-heater is the way to go here.

BDS

I did say that you'd have to do the math to see if it is practical or
not. I think it would work for someone who flies infrequently. Solar
power does have a significant upfront cost - but is essentially free
thereafter.

Personally I have had good luck with a couple of ceramic "cube"
heaters with dryer duct hoses attached to the business end - but have
been fortunate to have had AC available.

David Johnson

Annoying and expensive! The Honda's go for around $600 and the
Coleman's about $450.

True, but you'd have something that would be truly useful in other
applications all year long. (Like a power outage?) Not sure what
else you could do with a solar-powered Tanis heater contraption...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Winter means thick overcast, how well will your solar panels
work in the cold with dark overcast and short days?


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
| Annoying and expensive! The Honda's go for around $600
and the
| Coleman's about $450.
|
| True, but you'd have something that would be truly useful
in other
| applications all year long. (Like a power outage?) Not
sure what
| else you could do with a solar-powered Tanis heater
contraption...
|
| ;-)
| --
| Jay Honeck
| Iowa City, IA
| Pathfinder N56993
| www.AlexisParkInn.com
| "Your Aviation Destination"
|

Winter means thick overcast, how well will your solar panels
work in the cold with dark overcast and short days?

I don't know. However, winter isn't always a thick overcast,
especially at this time of year.

When it gets really, really cold, we are often under a big bubble of
Canadian high pressure. The sky turns cobalt blue, the winds die
down, and the temperature plummets. Today was an absolutely perfect
day to fly, if you don't mind the cold.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination