Inverter question

[jomary12]

What combination of battery and inverter are you using to keep a 26" LCD TV and a Dish receiver going for say 4-5 hours?

[RVhiker]

I have a 32" LCD TV and a DirecTv receiver and watch it for up to 3 hours daily with no problems. I usually re-charge for an hour or so daily. IIRC, the combo of the TV, receiver, and power inserter is about 10 AMPS. I have 3 group 27 batteries, each of which has a rating of about 100 amps at the 20 hour rate. So, at 10 amps for 3 hours I've used 30 amps of 300 available at maximum discharge (you're not supposed to discharge more deeply than 50%, so really I have only about 150 amps available). Recharge times will vary depending on the output of whatever you're using to recharge with - I use a 60 AMP converter to recharge with.

I'm using this inverter.

[3'senough]

I can run two TV's and a few other light electronics on my 750W inverter and 2 x 6V GC2's for about 3-4 hrs and be at about 60% if I go that long. Whatever you choose you will need a true deep cycle, nothing with CCA ratings.

Do a search on this forum and you will find numerous threads and write up on this specific topic that should help you find the setup for you.

Welcome!

[RoyBraddy]

I am using a 600WATT PURE SINE WAVE inverter off my 255AH capacity battery bank and do just fine running my Home entertainment setup. I ran two 120VAC drops back from my Inverter which is mounted real close to my battery bank. One 120VAC drop goes to the home entertainment location and the other one goes back to the bedroom table location. These are my two emergency power so to speak spots I want to have available when camping off the power grid.

With this setup I usually run around 20AMPS from the battery bank between 8PM and 11PM each night and the basic consumption is around 1Amp to keep most of the keep alive items in my trailer setup.

My success is to watch the battery DC voltage levels pretty close when camping off the power grid and what I hope for is my battery bank to drop down to around 12.0VDC around 8AM the next morning when I can connect my trailer shore power cable directly to the 2KW generator 120VAC panel receptacle. At most camp sites here on the East side of the US I can usually run the generator for a coupe of hours from 8AM to 10AM and again from 4:30PM to 7:30PM and this is when I get to recharge my 255AH battery bank using my on-board smart-mode charging technology. I only re-charge for a couple of hours in the morning and then can re-charge again in the early evening so sometime I am getting at good five hours generator run time when allowed. This really puts my battery bank in it 90% charge state to do my heaviest battery drain in the evening time slot. The marine batteries really perform great doing this 50% to 90% charge cycles over and over again and will almost perform at full specifications.

To be able to do this for many cycles requires getting them re-charged back up to their 90% charge state before the heavy discharge periods. Most deep cycle batteries require a full 100% charge state about every 10-14 days to not start doing harm to the batteries. A 100% charge time in my setup will require about 12 hours of re-charge time.

If you can follow these procedures pretty close you shouldn't have any problems running your home entertainment items every night for 4-5 hours with a battery capacity of at least 220AHs... My battery bank consists of the three 85AH 12VDC GP24 Interstate batteries that came with my trailer. The GC2 Golf Cart 6V batteries in series would be a good setup choice for camping off the power grid. These are available from COSTCO/SAMs CLUB for around $75 each. Also having smart mode technology converter/charger system on-board is almost a must item to have if you want to do the 50%-90% re-charge cycle each day using a small 2KW honda type generator to recharge your batteries at least three hours a day.

We camp alot off the power grids and watch HDTV everynight. Used to bring along all my portable SAT DISH items but since the National Broadcast started broadcasting in digital mode we get to watch all of the network channels CBS-NBC-FOX-ABC-PBS for free in full HDTV mode using our OTA Batwing crank-up antenna pointing to the local area towns. We dont miss the DIRECTV SAT RCVR at all...

Just my thoughts
Roy Ken

[jomary12]

I work at the campground I am at and I am connected to the campground generator from 7AM to 10PM. I just need something to get me by to midnight at the latest. It looks like any of these setups would work well with even maybe 2 GP24 marine batteries. I have been looking at this inverter, can anyone comment on it? http://www.amazonsupply.com/sunforce.../dp/B000WGNNUQ

Thanks

[bigfoot]

You really don't need much if you can recharge the battery daily. We have a 26" TV and a DirecTV DVR. Together they pull less than 100w. We run it off a deep cycle battery and a 400w inverter that I got from Newegg.com or maybe Amazon. I think the inverter cost $30 on sale. The battery is a deep cycle battery from Sam's Club. I don't remember what size but it's one of the larger ones but it's way more than we need to run the TV. We've run it for 4 or 5 hours with no problems. The battery will fully recharge in a couple hours using a Harbor Freight charger, the one they often have 'on sale' for $30.