Portable Layout

SophieB

SophieB

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Hi y'all. I am trying to put together a portable layout for our club to use. My husband and I have three beer pong tables we have used to do a quick and dirty setup in the past. Throw a piece of fake grass carpet on top and they make a 6' x 8' surface which is big enough for smallish trains on track with 5' curves. Our club has an opportunity to set up at a senior living facility in the near future at an outdoor, but covered spot, that has very limited electricity available. We are looking at using an emergency battery backup (e.g. Jackery/Anker/Bluetti) system to power a conventional track powered system. Any thoughts on what size (watt/hour) power station would be needed to run a couple small trains up to six hours? Battery powered trains are not an option.

Thanks in advance...
Sophie
 
Two trains drawing 2 amps at 24 volts for 6 hours is 12 Amp/hour (24 volts), assuming max power and continues running. This I would think based on the limited information is the maximum size power. But reduced power and stops, it could be a lot less.
Then there are the other variables, temperature, conductivity of the circuit, condition and make of the locos and their motors. So without more specifics, it could be difficult to gauge the exact size of power unit.
 
JimmyB said:
Two trains drawing 2 amps at 24 volts for 6 hours is 12 Amp/hour (24 volts), assuming max power and continues running. This I would think based on the limited information is the maximum size power. But reduced power and stops, it could be a lot less.
Then there are the other variables, temperature, conductivity of the circuit, condition and make of the locos and their motors. So without more specifics, it could be difficult to gauge the exact size of power unit.
Click to expand...
Oh,there'd be tons of variables. How much power is lost in our Bridgewerks converting from an AC input to DC output, what's the inefficiency in the battery bank to get AC out, etc. Short of setting the whole thing up and plugging it into a Kill-A-Watt meter to get real life numbers I was curious if anyone else had tried this type setup and what do we need in order to get within hand grenade distance of the power bank size needed.
 
SophieB said:
Oh,there'd be tons of variables. How much power is lost in our Bridgewerks converting from an AC input to DC output, what's the inefficiency in the battery bank to get AC out, etc. Short of setting the whole thing up and plugging it into a Kill-A-Watt meter to get real life numbers I was curious if anyone else had tried this type setup and what do we need in order to get within hand grenade distance of the power bank size needed.
Click to expand...
I have given you a "ball park" figure based on the information provided, though if it were me, I would then double this just to be in a safer space.
 
Guestimation:

To the track:
24V at 2A for six hours = 24x2x6 = 288Watt-hours.

Power-bank 80% efficient, 288/0.8 = 360Watt-hours.

Old-school controllers, so 50% lost as heat, 360/0.5 = 720Watt-hours.

Then as @JimmyB says, double it, just to be sure...
Switch off / unplug from the power bank when you can..

PhilP.
 
Have a look at people that are converting sheds to Solar or portable solar with battery, this one gives some clues of what is possible. Many more vids available.
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