Battery, Inverter, 240volt

grumpyengraver

Guest
Hi,

I have a 65amp leisure battery (no room for larger) which I keep charged by Solar Panel. Engine running and Mains or Generator.
How long do you think the battery will stay charged running a TV on the Inverter.

Regards
Tony

:pc:
nearest icon I could find to a TV :)
 
You will need to give us full details of the power rating of the TV, and let us know what type, size and preferably, the efficiency of the inverter.

Have a look at the rating plate of the TV and it should give you a rating in Watts or maybe Amps.
As an alternative, the size and type of TV (LED, Plasma, CRT) would help if you can't give us the power rating

Inverter size sometimes becomes important because a very large inverter could use nearly as much power just sitting there as the TV.
 
What is the wattage of the TV?

You may be better running a 12V TV on this set up. 65 Ah is next to nothing, as you can only use about 35 Ah of it if you want to have a decent battery life. So inverter losses will eat into your small capacity faster as a % than with a more robust supply,
 
I run a small 12 inch flat screen tv on a cheepo type 300 watt inverter this draws about 4 amps so a similar set up using your 35ah available (in darkness) would give you about 8 hours.

You would also have to take in account other usage such as water pump,lighting,heater control etc
 
Tony Lee said:
You will need to give us full details of the power rating of the TV, and let us know what type, size and preferably, the efficiency of the inverter.

Have a look at the rating plate of the TV and it should give you a rating in Watts or maybe Amps.
As an alternative, the size and type of TV (LED, Plasma, CRT) would help if you can't give us the power rating

Inverter size sometimes becomes important because a very large inverter could use nearly as much power just sitting there as the TV.
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for all the info so far, my TV is a LED and it says 22watt, the Inverter is a 300watt, I wish I could put a larger battery
than the 65amp but just don't have the room.

Tony
 
Assume 5% losses at inverter = 15W

15+22w = 37W

37W/12V = 3A

10hx3A = 30 Ah

So about 10h assuming nothing else running. Your inverter may have a low voltage cut off when the supply battery voltage drops to around 12V. Then again some of the smaller ones don't.

Do a test and see how long you can watch TV for! If it goes on much longer than 10 hours, I would stop as you will be discharging your battery too much.
 
Firefox said:
Assume 5% losses at inverter = 15W

15+22w = 37W

37W/12V = 3A

10hx3A = 30 Ah

So about 10h assuming nothing else running. Your inverter may have a low voltage cut off when the supply battery voltage drops to around 12V. Then again some of the smaller ones don't.

Do a test and see how long you can watch TV for! If it goes on much longer than 10 hours, I would stop as you will be discharging your battery too much.
Click to expand...


Many thanks for that Firefox, as long as I can watch Coronation St and Emerdale thats not to bad I hope it will give me enough to drive the water pump for a cup of tea while I'm watching.

Regards
Tony
:cheers:
 
Sure! Things like water pumps can be discounted as they only run for a few seconds.

If you've got some LED lights ( I use those 3W bulbs from Maplins or the Internet), one of those wouldn't make much difference either. You could still have that on while watching TV, it's only 0.25A, so only 2.5Ah over 10 hours. Still within your 35 or so allowed.
 
Firefox said:
Sure! Things like water pumps can be discounted as they only run for a few seconds.

If you've got some LED lights ( I use those 3W bulbs from Maplins or the Internet), one of those wouldn't make much difference either. You could still have that on while watching TV, it's only 0.25A, so only 2.5Ah over 10 hours. Still within your 35 or so allowed.
Click to expand...

I will have to get some of those, my T4 has strip lights and I think they take quite a lot. Dont have a link to the Maplin bulbs do you?

Tony
 
Maplin Electronics : LED Bulbs

I use the MR16 push in ones tri-LED but they do tube replacements as well.

Someone will no doubt post another link where you can get them a few quid cheaper on the net or ebay, but for one or two small items like this, by the time you have paid postage and packing, I prefer to drop by Maplins if it's local.


Edit to say: Those tubes on Maplins are 240V domestic replacements. Your 12v (fluo?) tubes/strips may already be quite low wattage. Check on the tube/strip itself. Typical wattage for small tubes 8W 10W, 12W, 15W. Maybe half of your TV. So you could be down to 7-8 hours, but no big deal if you just want to watch a couple of things. You could always install an extra 3W 12v MR16 spot light for long use - that would probably be best for extended evenings.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
grumpyengraver said:
Hi,

I have a 65amp leisure battery (no room for larger) which I keep charged by Solar Panel. Engine running and Mains or Generator.
How long do you think the battery will stay charged running a TV on the Inverter.

Regards
Tony

:pc:
nearest icon I could find to a TV :)
Click to expand...

There is another thread on the forum about this...I had the same problem and after good advice from this site I opted for a TV/DVD that already had a 12v transformer thingy in-line (Tesco £79)...I then bought a 12v stabiliser thingy on ebay for £24 an it plugs straight into a 12v cigar socket and uses less battery power than through the 240v inverter...

I've no clue about all the amps...watts...mulitiple by x and add y stuff....it just works for a few hours each night and doesnt flatten the aux battery...my aux battery is charged via a relay from the alternator
 
The best way to go with a small power source, as stated above, is use a 12v input TV and a 12v supply as you avoid the losses from inverters etc.

Stabilisers just regulate the voltage to 12v which is good for sensitive components such as bulbs and some electronic equipment which can blow on higher voltages eg 13.5 when a battery is freshly charged. They are not magic boxes which give you any extra power for any longer though, simply another small transformer which will have its own losses to deduct from your limited supply.
 
Firefox said:
The best way to go with a small power source, as stated above, is use a 12v input TV and a 12v supply as you avoid the losses from inverters etc.

Stabilisers just regulate the voltage to 12v which is good for sensitive components such as bulbs and some electronic equipment which can blow on higher voltages eg 13.5 when a battery is freshly charged. They are not magic boxes which give you any extra power for any longer though, simply another small transformer which will have its own losses to deduct from your limited supply.
Click to expand...


:yeahthat:

Couldnt have put it better myself...:confused:

I want to stay off site as much as possible so I like everything to work via 12v system although I do have a 1000 Watt power inverter and mains hook up should I need it...
 
We have just got one of the usb tv dongle for the laptop with a little mag mount Ariel ,have not had chance to use it , but our son has one that he uses a lot when is away and says it works well, you get all the freeview channels and can record and watch latter so if it dose what it says on the tin it should be ok and use less power than most TV's I think ??
 
Laptops with hard drive running continuously can use far more power than a similar sized modern TV
 
Anne Daynes said:
We have just got one of the usb tv dongle for the laptop with a little mag mount Ariel ,have not had chance to use it , but our son has one that he uses a lot when is away and says it works well, you get all the freeview channels and can record and watch latter so if it dose what it says on the tin it should be ok and use less power than most TV's I think ??
Click to expand...

I've had a couple of these for a few years, and even with a high gain directional aerial, reception was pretty poor,when wilding and a hassle to set up on the laptop.
It's a good idea to get a digital tv reception meter,:idea-007: about £10 off flebay, otherwise you will spend hours trying to tune in to the local channels, only to find no signal in the first place.
When we go completely digital the transmitter power will increase,
mag mount aerials seem to be vertically polarised, and main transmitters are horizontally polarised,


Lorry :drive:
 
grumpyengraver said:
Hi,

I have a 65amp leisure battery (no room for larger) which I keep charged by Solar Panel. Engine running and Mains or Generator.
How long do you think the battery will stay charged running a TV on the Inverter.

Regards
Tony

:pc:
nearest icon I could find to a TV :)
Click to expand...

Hi,

I could help by reading a previous post you made regarding your Autosleeper and it's battery/power situation on another thread.
With things such as media equipment, the guys have been spot on with the money in getting your equipment to run without the use of inverters. Inverters a good in their own right, but over long periods such as watching TV, having a 12v power source direct to device will not drain uneccesary power, as inverters use power to produce 240v not including the demand from the equipment.
Inverters can use up to 15%, pending on if it's a modified or pure sine wave (the differnces between modified and pure sine wave are important when operating sensitive equipment that requires a near to perfect 240V supply).

Go with the great advise on trying to get a dedicated 12v supply, without the use of the inverter and look at the various LED bulbs available.

One thing that is throwing me is you say your Autosleeper has a 65ah battery and a 110ah engine battery. Could you confirm the battery size of the one that is nearest the front of the van? It's just my Farther has had 2 x VW's, a Trooper and a Trident and both I managed to fit 110Ah leisure batteries.
 
NicknClair said:
Hi,

I could help by reading a previous post you made regarding your Autosleeper and it's battery/power situation on another thread.
With things such as media equipment, the guys have been spot on with the money in getting your equipment to run without the use of inverters. Inverters a good in their own right, but over long periods such as watching TV, having a 12v power source direct to device will not drain uneccesary power, as inverters use power to produce 240v not including the demand from the equipment.
Inverters can use up to 15%, pending on if it's a modified or pure sine wave (the differnces between modified and pure sine wave are important when operating sensitive equipment that requires a near to perfect 240V supply).

Go with the great advise on trying to get a dedicated 12v supply, without the use of the inverter and look at the various LED bulbs available.

One thing that is throwing me is you say your Autosleeper has a 65ah battery and a 110ah engine battery. Could you confirm the battery size of the one that is nearest the front of the van? It's just my Farther has had 2 x VW's, a Trooper and a Trident and both I managed to fit 110Ah leisure batteries.
Click to expand...

Hi,
my van is a Richard Holdsworth 2 berth conversion, which has two single beds down the front end with the back end being the kitchen and toilet etc. There is no room at the back to fit batterys both are under the bonnet side by side one is a 110amp (Main) and the 65amp is the (leisure).
Its ok if we go on site and if we go wilding in the middle of nowhere I can use the genny.
I have a little 10" tv that runs fine on 5.5v but I would like to go up in size
Do you know the size of your Dads Main Battery, as I'm thinking of changing my batterys over ie:- 110amp Leisure - Main 65amp .

Regards
Tony
:have fun:
 
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