Electric Gate Opener

Re: Electric Gate Opener

GreenMachine wrote: »

Hi, I am new to this site and to the world of solar.

I have an electric front gate that uses a 1/2 hp motor that draws 4.3 amps. The gate is in use a few times a day. I searched under garage door openers for some parallel info but did not find much.

Could someone tell me exactly what I would need to adequately power my gate.

thanks

1) If you have electric power going to it now, anything you do will cost you WAY more than doing nothing. Solar ain't cheap.

2) If you want a green star, you can install some solar PV panels, and a Grid Tie inverter, and they will replace the power your gate uses. Cost, 2KW $5,500
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/wind-sun/2kw-gridtie.pdf plus labor and local fees
How many electrons can you buy form the power company for that price? 10 year payback, 20+ year lifetime.

3) if you have to install
200W PV, $500
mounting rack, $200
AGM 100AH 12V battery, $280
charge controller $80
doghouse for it all and
inverter, with high SURGE for motor start $1,000
inverter really sucks because the high current ones, eat a lot of amps just at idle waiting for the gate to open/close.

Re: Electric Gate Opener

Duh. I should have mentioned it earlier, converting to a 12V DC motor will save lots of grief.

Re: Electric Gate Opener

Most of the swing gate "screw drive type" gate openers are 12v.

There are some sliding gate "chain drive type" gate openers that are 12v.

I don't know of any of the swing gate "lever arm type" openers that are 12v, but there's gotta be one out there somewhere.

GTO is pretty much the best known brand name:

http://www.gtopro.com/gto-gate-openers.htm


A *lot* of gate opener systems have "battery backup", which usually means it's a 12v system with a 120v power supply. It runs off the battery, and the power supply just keeps it charged. It's not a big deal to charge the battery with solar instead of a 120v charger. 10w of solar will usually supply enough, but for a busy gate you sometimes need 20w.

Re: Electric Gate Opener

Hrmm. I see that Apollo sells a lever arm type opener that is 12v. I knew there had to be some out there.

I also see this neat little doohickey - The ASC - a waterproof, UL listed, "Modified PWM" charge controller, up to 16a@12v, American made with a 10 year limited warranty:

http://apollogate.com/c-9-SolarPanelsChargersRegulators.aspx

http://www.specialtyconcepts.com/special_home.html


Normally, I wouldn't post links to NAWS competitors, but since it appears that NAWS doesn't carry this line, I guess it'll slide by.

It looks like this item (the ASC) sells for between 45 - 85 bucks depending on voltage/amperage and whether you get it with "low voltage disconnect / generator start" relay, remote temp sensor or voltage adjustment potentiometer.


Specialty Concepts web site looks a bit out of date, but it seems that they actually make a full line of smaller charge controllers:

http://www.oksolar.com/solar_controllers/asc_solar_controllers.html



http://www.specialtyconcepts.com/issues.html

"WHAT IS LFCS PULSE-CHARGING™

One major problem with PWM charging schemes is that they opperate [sic] at high frequencies. This can cause interference in various nearby radio devices. It is very difficult to eradicate such interference.

Specialty Concept's solid-state regulators use a modified PWM charging technique, known as LFCS™ (Low-Frequency, Controlled-Slope). Instead of operating at a fixed frequency, these regulators switch at a frequency determined by the batteries [sic] state-of-charge (SOC). The higher the SOC, the lower the frequency. Usually, many seconds occur between each cycle when the battery is not fully charged. Near full charge, each cycle can take many minutes.

Additionally, the rise and fall times of the switching element (the shunt transistor) are controlled so that they do not generate harmonics that can cause additional radio interference."