leisure battery query

[rainman]

Now I know nothing about electrickery other than that it involves witchcraft on some level. I was wondering how long you could run a portable DVD player on a leisure battery before it drained and how much driving would you need to do to recharge?
I would test this out by practical application but my van's in bits at the moment and I'm wanting to book a campsite for the summer. I've looked at one where I want to go and it's fully booked for August already! Going without hookup would broaden my choices a bit and the only thing I'd really miss would be the option of settling little one down at night with a DVD.
Oh and one more question - if I run the DVD player from the cig lighter, is that taking power from the leisure or starting battery? or do I need to connect it directly to leisure?

sod it, i think I'll just go without hookup as there are some nicer looking campsites without, but I'd be interested in any answers anyway - thanks.

[Grun]

Rainman,
O.K. I am prepared to be shot down.... DVD, Probably draws about 2 amps, leisure battery 50/60 ampere/hours, 12 hours running or more?
If your ciggy lighter socket is wired to the main battery, thats the one that will run down, if wired to the leisure..........
How long to recharge, very variable........let us know?
Cheers.
Mike

[Ian Hulley]

Now I know nothing about electrickery other than that it involves witchcraft on some level.

You've clearly been talking to a Master of the Dark Arts (commonly called a sparky to mere mortals)

Ian

[tonytech]

How long is a piece of string?
A portable Dvd will probably only draw about 2 Amps, depending on the screen size. (look on the back for ratings)
Your leisure battery will have an Ahr rating, which will give you an idea of how long you can run appliances for.

For ex ample a 65 Ahr leisurebattery will run a 2 A load for a theoretical time of 65/2 = 32.5 hours
However avter about half of this time the battery voltage will fall to a point where the Dvd player wont work.

Remeber you may well have lights and other equipment drawing power too!!!

Your cigarette lighter may be connected to the main battery or the leisure, only you can work it out, by disconnectin each battery in turn.

Recharging your leisure battery again depends on how big it is, and how much you have taken out.
Anything up to 3 hours for a pretty flat battery.
T

[ermie571]

Read the little'un a story...

all the fresh air and running around will have knackered him/her out hopefully, and reading will send them to the land of nod....


Em
x

[rainman]

right so it's somewhere between half an hour and twelve hours. I was following the a/h thing until you introduced volts into the mix, now I'm lost again.
I guess I could wire the cig socket direct to leisure and when the power goes at least I'd know I wasn't draining the starter, and I'll bring some books.

[Ian Hulley]

right so it's somewhere between half an hour and twelve hours. I was following the a/h thing until you introduced volts into the mix, now I'm lost again.
I guess I could wire the cig socket direct to leisure and when the power goes at least I'd know I wasn't draining the starter, and I'll bring some books.

As I understand it if you divide the wattage by the voltage you get the amp/hour rating ... e.g. a 100w 240v lamp uses 0.4166666 amp/hour or a 21w 12v bulb draws 1.75 a/h.

Ian.

[tonytech]

Watts divided by volts equals Amps.... Yes

Leisure batterys have a rating in Amp hours. this is a rough guide to how much current thy will deliver and for how long...
Very simply a 65 Ahr battery will give 1 amp for 65 hours... or 65 A for 1 hour.
If you have a digital camera you will find that after a using it for a while it wont work, take the batteries out and put them in a torch and you will find there is still usefull energy there, The camera is more sensitive to the batteries Voltage.

I think I stated that the Dvd player would work for about half of the 32.5 hours, ie about 15 hours.

It is a bit like witchcraft or maybe brewing.
There are set rules that work, but then a fair bit of guessing, As batteries age they loose their ability to store electricery, so an old battery wont run your player for as long as a new one.

T

[andisnewsyncro]

I guess I could wire the cig socket direct to leisure and when the power goes at least I'd know I wasn't draining the starter,

Don't forget to put a fuse in there somewhere....

[DentedDevon]

how much driving would you need to do to recharge?

This depend on the type of battery and the charging current (amps).
So , a 60 ah battery requires 60 amps for 1 hour or 1 amp for 60 hours (or somewhere in between)
In practice a lesure battery will only accept a relativly small current , with the charge rate dropping from 10 amps to as little as 2 amps after the first hour. This means that to fully recharge a genuine lesure battery it could take as long as 48 hours - a long drive !
On the other hand an engine battery will accept all the charge you can throw at it , if your car battery is totally flat an hours drive should fully recharge it.
Its horses for courses.
Leisure battery, designed for deep discharge and low current output without causing damage , realy needs hookup to fully charge up again.
Engine battery , designed for heavy discharge & rapid charging , life seriously reduced if used as leisure battery (2 seasons)
Personally , I use an engine battery as my leisure battery so I dont have to rely on hookup for recharging.
You can get batterys that claim to be dual purpose, and give you the best of both worlds?

[tonytype25]

My main battery is completely dead. Does anyone know how long it will take to trickle charge it?

[kevtherev]

My main battery is completely dead. Does anyone know how long it will take to trickle charge it?

Do you have a meter to test how much V is left?

if it's below 9V.. trickle, maybe never.
An alternator will cane it with amps
as will a nomal charger to a lesser degree
There are chargers on the market that can rescue a dead battery. They will completly discharge the battery and use current reversal to de-sulphate the plates. Then recharge.

[Adrian244]

Don't bother with the de-sulphating chargers. Been there on my motorbikes, In my experience if you can't trickle charge it back to life give up and buy another one. They work to a point but only partially recover the things. It's not worth the risk of getting stranded IMO (cos it will let go in a force ten gale when it's dark and piddling down )