Garage opener

System · June 2008

Howdy,

I'm trying to buy a house that has a detached garage without electric service. I don't want to run electric and wondering if my little backup solar setup might be sufficient to power a garage door opener. Currently I have a 40 watt PV panel that goes through a morningstar 30 controller into a 55AH AGM battery.

Is the draw from the opener too much?

66merc

icarus · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

What is the draw of the opener? How often do you open/close it? My intuition is that the battery is too small, probably the panel as well. With charging losses and inverter losses I think it would be a stretch. You might find if you could replace the drive motor with a high torque 12vdc motor. Also, the opener RC unit will draw power 24/7 unless it is unplugged.

Or you could open it by hand!

Tony

mike95490 · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

Or you could open it by hand! Tony

Noooo!!!!

There is a company that makes electric gates [Electric Mule?] that may have garage door openers, but because the door opener has 1/2 to 3/4 HP motor - you need a big inverter to power that up. it's likely a mod-sine inverter may work, because these are heavy motors with a short duty cycle. You will need a large battery, maybe 2, to handle the high start up surge in cold weather.

http://www.mightymule.com/

Brock · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

Someone who posted here had a 12v garage door opener. I think it was meant for backup, basically a 12v opener and 12v receiver and then it just trickle charged the 12v battery from AC it was meant to be a "backup" or always on instead of a regular door opener. I liked the looks of it because it didn't need an inverter, just 12v in and it would be pretty easy to swap that out to a solar panel to keep it topped off. It does use a bunch of power running, but then again doesn't run that often.

Ok a quick look got me to this
http://www.liftmaster.com/consumerweb/pages/productmodeldetail.aspx?modelId=838
which looks like a 12v unit.

Or this one

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00953918000P

System2 · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

Cool, Brock

The battery on those look pretty small. Supposedly will last 1-2 days for backup. Probably could hack in a larger battery and charge by a panel and cheap controller. Maybe upsize the system for garage lights and an inverter to charge all the battery operated hand tools. Keep my old system for its intended purpose---powering a couple of LED lights in the basement and charging a xantrex power pack for emergency backup.

66merc

2manytoyz · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

No problem...

I have a hurricane rated door (heavy) on a well balanced spring opener. I'm using a 1/2 HP opener, and an old MSW 1500 Watt inverter.

http://www.2manytoyz.com/hardware/inverter/6445.jpg

Pulled under 500 Watts. Easily opened the door as smoothly as if on grid power. Operated it from the battery in my SUV, with the engine off.

I did not measure the standby current. This would be the only concern (to me) for running it from an alt-power setup.

FWIW, the idle current for my Prosine 1800 Watt inverter is 22 Watts! This is why I leave it in the Standby mode, which is only 1.5 Watts, but takes a couple of seconds to come to life when a load is applied. This mode would not be suitable for a door opener as it needs power all the time.

mike95490 · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

I wonder if you could separate the radio power from the motor power, and use a small 25 or 50W "cig lighter" inverter for the radio, and a larger Mod-Sine inverter, in standby, for the motor. Otherwise, just eat the loss of a large inverter in idle, powering the radio.

Of course, I forgot about about the transformer for the radio, it may smoke with mod-sine, or maybe not, you'll know in the first week.

n3qik · June 2008

Re: Garage opener

I have a 3/4 HP Liftmaster opening a 16'wide door.

Standby draw is 5 watts. Opening/closing is 320 watts w/o any lights.

stimpy17 · July 2008

Re: Garage opener

In a nutshell I used a 2000 watt 12 volt inverter and 2- 6 volt(210 amps) batteries(Sams Club golf cart specials) to operate a double car door(new) @ 1/2 HP with temp. CFL lights. It lasted for maybe 10+ cycles. Note, I also have a "Man Door" on the side to use just in case. No recharging took place during testing and the inverter cut out @ 10.5 amps.

My goal is to put my garage door opener + 16-60 watt(14watt) CFL lights on a 4 battery(440 amp) battery bank and charge with 3-115 watt @ 6.73 amp Evergreen panels(I'd like to buy another but they discontinued them!!!!)

Just looking at the stats here I think the Man Door will come in handy.

mike95490 · July 2008

Re: Garage opener

> It lasted for maybe 10+ cycles.

What lasted ? Battery charge ? Opener motor ? inverter ? What stopped ?

> My goal is to put my garage door opener + 16-60 watt(14watt) CFL lights
> on a 4 battery(440 amp) battery bank and charge with
> 3-115 watt @ 6.73 amp Evergreen panels

Depending on how much all those 16 lights are on, and how much sun you get, that may work
The evergreen panels are
http://www.xantrex.com/support/gtsizing/index.asp
spece'd at 16.5V (20V open ckt) so they are borderline for running one of the new MPPT charge controllers. (as batteries charge up, and current demand goes down, MAYBE the MPPT controller will allow the panel voltage to creep up toward the 20V oc point. Heat will lower their voltage)
If you had a 4th panel, or could find something else close, you could wire in series/parallel for a 24V array, and 12A, into a MPPT charger.
http://store.solar-electric.com/mosumpsochco.html
also, going to 24V will allow you to reliably get an EQ cycle in. (15V for 3 hrs), otherwise, there would NOT be enough system voltage, except in winter below 50F, to have enough voltage, to reliably EQ with 16.5V panels, as you loose about 2 volts thru the charge controller.

Garage opener

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