Re: 12v TV

"Woody" <harrogate3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:xtgSl.247174$oh6.86667@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh dear. With respect, if you don't fully understand it don't pontificate.

with respect... this is a soddin caravan group, not a science group,

no domestic TFT TV's are not designed to run on 12 to 15 volts, they are sold to be used in a house, not a caravan, so they are never supposed to be used with anything but the supplied psu, it'll even say something like that in the manual,

luckily there are people out there whho have experianced what happens when you power one of these TV's from a battery on charge, and they have come up with solutions, your choice, a one off 40 quid dc-dc psu which can also power a pace javelin sat reciever (they arent too happy on more than 12 volts either) and any other sensative electronic stuff about,

or suck it and see, just dont expect the warrenty to cover a blown backlight psu in the TV if it lets the magic smoke out, ok if the tv is a 100 quid cheapie i guess, but then again, i'd rather pay 40 quid to be sure it'll work, than risk wasting 100 quid if it dosent.

and not all batteries are the same, i charge my 500 AH semi AGM battery bank from either the dedicated alternator on the engine (in a motorhome btw) which the regulator has been modified to battery sense, and a max charge rate of 14.8 volts,
from the solar array (370 watts) where the regulator has settings for the type of battery i have, and sets it to 14.8 volt bulk charge rate, with a once a month equalising charge of 16 volts for a few hours.

and also the mains charger, which is only a tiddely sterling 20 amp jobie,
also used to charge with a 12 volt generator, but wore the engine out on it so now use a 2 stroke mains genny to run the mains charger, need to run it longer as the 12 volt charger charged at 85 amps, and dont worry, your are highly unlikely to be parked next to me (caravans arent allowed on wohnmobile stellplatz's, and when in england i go to the motorhome rallies, where i have one of the quietest gennies there, or woodland sites where i run it if needed between the times posted for genny run times)

yes the batteries vent gas, out the vent tubes and out the side of the van, that's how they get the solution mixed up nicely to ensure a proper charge, yes my batteries do need topping up with water every month, but i'm in the battery locker checking the connections anyway,

i've about wore my current set of batteries out now, have over 600 cycles on them, some of them very heavy, as i have loads like 150 amps to run the central vacuum, 100 amps for the microwave, 350 watts for the washing machine (no heater element, i feed it warm water from the calorifier) and so on, my heating system takes 10 amps on start up and 4 amps running, the fridge pulls 9 amps when running at max compressor speed and so on.

They are 5 years old, and cost me 30 quid each, so i dont think i've done badly, (they are the batteries used in those led traffic lights at roadworks, bought legitemately from the bloke i got my 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter from)

When i get a new battery bank i'm going to make it 5 batteries, and fit a semi automatic watering system, just attatch the bottle of de-ionised water to the tube and squeeze, it'll fill each cell as needed then cut off.

But that's at the opposite end of the scale from most caravans, most european motorhomes too (it's a self build coachbuilt btw.. nothing factory produced came close to my requirments so we built one)

most caravans have one battery to run the lights the odd night they stay away from a site, they are designed to be used on a campsite hooked up to shore power, so the charger can be very basic and have a 13.8 volt cut off, you'll never fully charge the battery like that, but you dont need to, that last 20% isnt importiant on a camp site, on the top of a swiss mountian when it's minus 10 outside, it is.



not all switched mode psu's run cool, when pushed hard they will run hot, my 12 volt laptop psu will run very hot when it's running the laptop and charging the internal battery from flat, once it's charged, it'll run as cool as if it were off,
it runs slightly warm runnin the laptop with the internal battery removed (pulls around 2 amps from the battery bank then, as opposed to 3.5 when the battery is in and on maintinance charge, and 7 amps when fully charging it and running the machine)

Same with my switched mode charger, in boost mode the fans are switching on and off all the time, and it will be too hot to rest your hand on it for long, once it's gone into float mode, it cools right down,

Sorry for the length of this post, and most of the irrelivent crap, but it hopefully shows no 2 set ups are the same, that's why motorhome and caravan makers can never please everyone, one persons dream van is the others nightmare, and not everyone uses the same type of battery either.

.

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