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Author Topic: Portable power??  (Read 1366 times)

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Th3Batman86

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Portable power??
« on: February 03, 2020, 04:09:13 PM »
Anyone know how much power the units pull? I have to imagine the fan and igniter would be pretty standard power draw across all the makes. Is anyone using any sort of portable power supply that isn't a generator? I am looking at buying/building something for use away from the house and I am just wondering if anyone is using anything like a Goal Zero or Jackery or just a battery and an inverter?
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RWhyman

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2020, 06:01:40 PM »
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Canadian John

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2020, 10:37:02 AM »
 Any pit will have a"high" power requirement @ start -up due to igniter//hot rod operation..Some users disconnect the igniter when using an inverter to save the battery. To do so the fire must be started with an

alternate heat source, IE propane torch (must be able to operate inverted-has a regulator), paper/pellets and a match...

 Here is an "average" pits electrical power consumption:    Igniter -        200 to 300 Watts

                                                                                     Controller -        ~2 Watts

                                                                                     Fan(s) -               35 Watts

                                                                                     Auger   -              35 Watts
35 Watts

                                                                                     Total #1-              272 to 372 Watts *

                                                                                     Total #2-              72 Watts (With Igniter disconnected)*

 * Will be lower (~35 W) with fan(s) + controller only.. 

 The igniter  is on only @ start-up, the first 4 to 7 minutes.... Some pits with auto restart will energize the igniter later if required..Eliminating the igniter will lower the power requirements below

100 Watts  as you can see.. Any electrical devices will have a Wattage # listed on a tag somewhere on the unit. It has a fudge factor built in for safety. That # should confirm the above..Hope this helps.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2020, 12:04:36 PM by Canadian John »
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2020, 10:38:37 AM »
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2020, 10:42:22 AM »
Quote from: Canadian John on February 04, 2020, 10:37:02 AM

 Any pit will have a"high" power requirement @ start -up due to igniter//hot rod operation..Some users disconnect the igniter when using an inverter to save the battery. To do so the fire must be started with an

alternate heat source, IE propane torch (must be able to operate inverted-has a regulator), paper/pellets and a match...

 Here is an "average" pits electrical power consumption:    Igniter -        200 to 300 Watts

                                                                                     Controller -     ~2 Watts

                                                                                     Fan(s) -           35 Watts

                                                                                     Auger -            35 Watts

                                                                                     Total -              272 to 372 Watts *

                                                                                     Total -              72 Watts (With Igniter disconnected)*

 * Will be lower (~35 W) with fan(s) + controller only.. 

 The igniter on most pits is on only @ start-up, the first 4 to 7 minutes.... Some pits with auto restart will energize the igniter later if required..Eliminating the igniter will lower the power requirements below

100 Watts  as you can see.. Any electrical devices will have a Wattage # listed on a tag somewhere on the unit. It has a fudge factor built in for safety. That # should confirm the above..Hope this helps.

Candadian John,

This is great, thank you. Amazes me that even with a couple days of Google I couldn't find this information online from any other forum or MFG. All I can find is generic "oh about 30W after the igniter turns off" but that's it. You pointing out that the fan and the controller and the auger will all be using power makes a lot of (reasonable) sense. I am not knowledgeable when it comes to electricity at all, thank you for this info.
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Canadian John

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2020, 10:54:22 AM »
 If everything is 100%, divide the consumption into the supply minus converter efficiency.. Consumption = max Watts X Hours = Watt Hours. IE: 72 W X 1 HR = 72 WH.. The battery can be a tricky one and it

won't be 100% start to finish. The WH rating should help.

 There is also  the inverter efficiency to consider. I would contact the inverter manufactured with the question. This is their business and they must have tons of information..There has to be a chart do deal with

this, relating delivery hours to battery capacity and the power being consumed.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2020, 11:15:35 AM »
Quote from: Canadian John on February 04, 2020, 10:54:22 AM
If everything is 100%, divide the consumption into the supply minus converter efficiency.. Consumption = max Watts X Hours = Watt Hours. IE: 72 W X 1 HR = 72 WH.. The battery can be a tricky one and it

won't be 100% start to finish. The WH rating should help.

 There is also  the inverter efficiency to consider. I would contact the inverter manufactured with the question. This is their business and they must have tons of information..There has to be a chart do deal with

this, relating delivery hours to battery capacity and the power being consumed.

I did figure out the inverter loss thing. Seems to be about 85% efficiency is standard. I know that I could build something with a batter and an inverter for less money than buying but I was seeing if I could get away with just buying like a Jackery 500 or something. Not that I don't want to build it just that something that is already in it's own little case seems easier to manage. However, seems like it might take a lot of battery power to get say a ~12 hour cook.

I asked a friend who has a Kill A Watt device and they are going to let me borrow it so I can get a definitive answer on the power draw. I will update this when I get that.
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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2020, 11:18:29 AM »

Great, you are well on your way.. It will be interesting to hear how it works out.
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Bentley

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #8 on: February 04, 2020, 12:08:17 PM »
It is a shame can't pull the data off Pelletheads, we started doing the usage on the last 5 or 6 Performance Tested units, I dont remember any pulling more then 400 max at start up.  After that, I dont think any unit went over 100 even when the auger turned...
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2020, 12:54:21 PM »
Quote from: Bentley on February 04, 2020, 12:08:17 PM
It is a shame can't pull the data off Pelletheads, we started doing the usage on the last 5 or 6 Performance Tested units, I dont remember any pulling more then 400 max at start up.  After that, I dont think any unit went over 100 even when the auger turned...

I knew I couldn't be the first or even 1000th to wonder about this but I'll be darned if I can find the information out there. If the weather holds (my patio is uncovered) I will have the data tonight and upload tomorrow. If it goes back to rain/hail it will take me a couple days. Either way we will have some data for a RecTec 2500. I know that it has a larger fire pot but I believe that is just size of pot. Auger,igniter,fan, and controller draw should all be the same I would imagine. Should give some sort of baseline on draw. 
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Bar-B-Lew

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2020, 01:36:11 PM »
My MAK 2 Star recorded the following a few years ago.

Startup 2.6 amps
Auger running 0.6 amps
Fan only running 0.2 amps

I recorded this to see what else I could run on my 15 amp line at the same time.
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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2020, 01:52:16 PM »
I have powered both my MAC and my Memphis Advantage with a deep cycle marine battery and a 1000w inverter.
The set up worked excellent.
The inverter (now kaput) will soon be replaced.
A 2000w Honda or Yamaha portable generator is the best setup - IMHO.
I had gone with the marine battery/inverter set up for financial reasons.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2020, 05:21:39 PM »
Quote from: Trooper on February 04, 2020, 01:52:16 PM
I have powered both my MAC and my Memphis Advantage with a deep cycle marine battery and a 1000w inverter.
The set up worked excellent.
The inverter (now kaput) will soon be replaced.
A 2000w Honda or Yamaha portable generator is the best setup - IMHO.
I had gone with the marine battery/inverter set up for financial reasons.

I agree that a generator is best. But it's the noise I don't want to have to deal with in some situations. What size battery (if you recall) and how long did you get from it?
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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #13 on: February 04, 2020, 05:40:20 PM »
Batman, I have heard that those Honda generators are extremely quiet.  But they look to be a lot more expensive then a battery and inverter.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: Portable power??
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2020, 04:48:42 PM »
Update from Kill A Watt test

I am really impressed folks. Not the result I was expecting. Very low draw overall. This is for a RecTec 2500 BFG

Startup .... Roughly 140 Watts for roughly 11 minutes (It was 10 min ~30 seconds but I forgot to start the stopwatch right away) This is for Controller, Auger, Fan, and Ceramic Igniter

Without Auger draw is roughly 118 Watts

After igniter cuts off draw is 36 watts with auger running

20 Watts when just fan

Pull is 118V the entire time

Overall I am very pleased with this. I was expecting the igniter to pull somewhere around 300 watts based off what I had read online. Perhaps the ceramic igniters pull much less than the old metal ones? Perhaps the MFG's telling everyone that they need a minimum 400W inverter was just them being careful (both RecTec and Traeger recommend a 400W inverter). Either way, it seems like a good reasonable large (75AH) deep cycle would run it for a good long time. Or say a Jackery 500.

Jackery 500 has 518WH of power. Figure a 85% loss of efficiency with the inverter.

518*.85/50 = 8.8

So roughly 8 hours of run time off one of these portable power boxes. I just put in 50W for the draw for ease of numbers. Not sure how to do the math with 11 minutes of high draw and then jumping from 20W to 36W every few seconds.
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