Sine wave converter question.

[lukesdad]

One of my little projects at the moment is a model railway building, which I want to power from a home hybrid set up (wind and solar). The only power i will be drawing is for the layout, lights and a small heater(as the dump load). My question is will i get away with a modified sine wave converter or am I going to need a pure sine wave converter. Its a stand alone project and small scale wind and solar plant.

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[vernon]

Sounds far too complex and expensive for me.

I'd just use a long extension lead to the house.

Are there no specialist web sites where you can find the answers.

How about the alternative energy centre at Machynlleth?

 

[asterix]

One of my little projects at the moment is a model railway building, which I want to power from a home hybrid set up (wind and solar). The only power i will be drawing is for the layout, lights and a small heater(as the dump load). My question is will i get away with a modified sine wave converter or am I going to need a pure sine wave converter. Its a stand alone project and small scale wind and solar plant.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Might I suggest a beer fridge instead of a heater?

 

[vernon]

Might I suggest a beer fridge instead of a heater?

In this weather he'll need a beer heater.

 

[lukesdad]

Sounds far too complex and expensive for me.

I'd just use a long extension lead to the house.

Are there no specialist web sites where you can find the answers.

How about the alternative energy centre at Machynlleth?

Do you know I can find every household appliance and application except for model railway.

 

[BrumJim]

What do you mean by "layout"?

(Think I understand now - see response below)

Lights and heater should be fine, as they are purely resistive items. It's when you start getting to more complex stuff that square-ish waves tend to cause problems. Motors can be a bit tricky, as the additional frequency causes stress in the windings.

 

[BrumJim]

For powering a model railway, I would be very wary. Although I would have thought that the power would be rectified and smoothed to a decent DC before sending it down the tracks to the train. Depends a lot on wher the controller fits in the circuit.

I would avoid having any power sockets, as they then become available for battery charging, vacuum cleaner, etc. These are where you might find more problems.

 

[vernon]

Do you know I can find every household appliance and application except for model railway.

Sidestep the issue and go for live steam.....

 

[lukesdad]

Sounds far too complex and expensive for me.

I'd just use a long extension lead to the house.

Are there no specialist web sites where you can find the answers.

How about the alternative energy centre at Machynlleth?

Far to simple for me Vernon and has I have allready built the wind turbine .., if all else fails i shall just have to bite the bullet and splash out on a pure wave converter, knowing the wealth of knowledge here it was worth a try.

 

[lukesdad]

What do you mean by "layout"?
Lights and heater should be fine, as they are purely resistive items. It's when you start getting to more complex stuff that square-ish waves tend to cause problems. Motors can be a bit tricky, as the additional frequency causes stress in the windings.

Thanks Jim this is my line of thought its the motors Im worried about.

 

[BrumJim]

I have an electrical engineer in the railway industry sitting behind me. We are well used to running electrical components off squareish a.c. wave-forms since the replacement of motor/generator sets with static converters. If you have any more details, send them to me and I can ask some questions.

 

[lukesdad]

I have an electrical engineer in the railway industry sitting behind me. We are well used to running electrical components off squareish a.c. wave-forms since the replacement of motor/generator sets with static converters. If you have any more details, send them to me and I can ask some questions.

Thanks Jim I may have a few for you as Im also trying to put together a stand alone system for my water supply system which involves pumps. Although this may have to wait a while. Too many projects not enough time.

 

[lukesdad]

following jims suggestion im going to run the layout and lighting on low voltage. I dug out some old hornby controllers where the transformer is on the plug, this puts out 16v AC across a bridge rectifier and gives the 12v DC at the track, it works fine with a 12v DC supply I lose a little top speed on the loccos as the supply is a little lower. So now I have to find some decent 12v lighting and was wondering if anybody could reccomend some.

Im going to save the turbine for our water system and run the train shed off solar and a smaller turbine.Im hoping the pumps on the water system will run off a modified sine wave inverter,but im not going to know untill I try.

 

[02GF74]

you don't quitre give enough details but from chilldhood memories model railways run on 12 V DC.

you will a rectifier to convert AC to DC and a regulator to limit output to 12 V - these are cheap off the shelf compononent.
instead of a heater, connect a 12 V battery to store engery rather than wasting it.

 

[lukesdad]

sorry not enough info. the transformer is out of the equation so its a straight DC supply.