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Ok so it's pretty much understood that getting sleep in the mornings is pretty damn dificult cause of the heat,right? And little battery powered fans can only do so much.We can't turn the heat down BUT, we can turn the air up a notch or two! So heres my idea/plan.. You need a spare car battery.One with a plastic handle is best cause those things are heavey.Or,if you have a car battery in your car with a reserve switch,you can use it.Just make sure you can get it in and out easy.The reserve switch keeps you from running the battery down till you can't start you car anymore.
After you got yourslef a car battery,Go to Wallmart and get yourself one of those little power inverter things found in the auto department.They convert 12volts dc to 110volts ac.And are rated by wattage.I've seen them as low as $20.00. They have them in many sizes but 150 watts will be plenty enough.This is the ac output power it is capablie of and is very inportant.Then you get yourself some of those cheap 12inch box fans for windows.And maybe even a cheap lamp and put one of those mini twister lightbulbs in it.(yellow or even A UV bug zapper).
The second most inportant thing you gotta look at is the combined power of all the electrical items your gonna hook to it.It's always mesured in wattage.Just add it all together and make sure your less than the max continious output of the inverter. You could hook up 3 or 4 of those 12inch box fans and a lamp with a minitwister lightbulb in it and run it all weekend with a fully charged battery.Less wattage you use the longer the battery will last,BUT,if you do run it dead,and your close to your car,just take it to your car,hook it up with jumper cables, and charge it for 30min or so and your good to go. Now the most inportant thing to keep in mind here is this.The power comming out of that ac inverter is THE SAME AS IN YOUR HOMES AC ELECTRICAL OUTLETS.So take care to keep it off of the ground and AWAY from water.Inverters have fuses that will blow if a short or an overload occures,but it's the thought here that counts.(bring a few extra fuses). You may not wanna try and get a lightbulb into the camping grounds,but those big ass fans will be a lifesaver in the mornings when your trying to sleep.And ladies I have seen inverters as high as 1600 watts,so if your carefull,you could actually use a light hairdryer in your camps if you wanted to. Bring a couple of extinsion cords cause the inverters usually only have one or two electrical outlets.But you can hook up anything to them,radios,fans,TV's,as long as you count your wattage.
You'll want a deep-cycle battery, not a car battery. They're built differently.
Also, you're looking at more than just watts. You're looking at amp hours (abbreviated as "AH"), and I can tell you that running 4 box fans will suck the life out of your battery quickly.
If you find a fan that'll run on DC, that battery would probably run it for as long as you want to run it. The inversion to AC is expensive, however, and it drains the batteries much faster.
Deep cycle would be better,but,I just happen to have a brand new small regular car battery with a strap that I'm gonna try out.Years ago we had a tornado hit and the power was out most of the day.We got bored,and I happen to have a 300 watt inverter.So I hooked it up to my car,ran an extension cord into the house,and we had a 19inch TV and a Nintendo 64.We played that thing the whole time without a glitch,maybe 4 hours,and my car started with ease afterwards.Anyways,two fans for a few hours in the mornings is all I'll need,so I know it will last.I'm just not looking forward to carrying it.But if I end up camping close to the car,not an issue. But I just thought of something else.A bag of ice infront of the fan and I'll have some kind of air conditioning in the tent.Cheap and simple and knowing me I'll give it a try.
Battery was new but I've had it in the garage out of a car for almost a year,so I hooked it up to my car by jumper cables and charged it for one solid hour.No way to know if I had a full charge or not.I did have to put gater clips on the inverter to hook up directly to the battery terminals cause it only had a cigerate lighter plug,was just an adapter. Anyways,I ran both fans on medieum all day long.Over 12 hours till I just turned them off.It showed no signs of running down whatsoever.BUT..the inverter will get hot.To hot to sit on a plastic tarp.It will melt it over time.You would have to sit it on something like a piece of wood or a metal wagon if you brought one.I will only be using it a few hours a day anyways,so this is a must take with me item now. Two 20inch box fans will put out a shitload of air.May blow your tent away if it's not put up well. A warning though,do not have those fans turned on when you turn the inverter on.It will blow fuses almost everytime.Then turn one fan at a time on,after that it's smooth sailling.
Post by spookymonster on Feb 25, 2008 14:44:42 GMT -5
dimwell said:
The Xantrax pack (linked above) is a waste of money for 'roo. The battery is too small and the panel is too weak.
Yeah, kinda gotta agree with this. I went and picked up the Xantrax solar pack. I plugged in my phone after the pack had been charging for 4 days. After about 5 seconds, the display read 80% (?!?!?!!). From what I've read on Amazon.com, at least one other person experienced the same thing. I'll have to give it a proper test (2 phones charging overnight) to see what's what, but I've got fairly low expectations. Oh well.
I think my concern would be that running out. Would something like that charge a cell phone or two daily and run a couple of 12" box fans for maybe 6-8 hours each day?
I think my concern would be that running out. Would something like that charge a cell phone or two daily and run a couple of 12" box fans for maybe 6-8 hours each day?
Based on my calculations, it should be able to run my 20" high-velocity room fan (draws 1.1 amps) for about 26 hours straight.
I can tell you that the solar panel kit posted above has a smaller battery and, based on the reviews I've seen online, the solar panel takes up to 30 hours (!!!) to recharge the battery.
Also ... when you say that you hooked up the battery to the car batt w/ jumper cables to charge it, was that just a straight connection? Or did you run the car for that amount of time, as well?
Post by thewalmarttree on Feb 25, 2008 15:31:05 GMT -5
Wal-Mart sells a battery tester for about 12 dollars. You just touch both ends of the tester to your batteries pos/neg terminals and it will let you know how much juice you have left. It has 4 possible lights that could light up...all four light up then your fully charged.
I found this tool handy for when I use my trolling motor when I'm fishing.
This may not be practical but why buy box fans and bags of ice when you could just go to the pawn shop and buy a small air conditioner unit? You know one that you see in peoples windows. ($50 bucks) If you really insulated your tent you could keep it on long enough to cool you down. 4 days in a tent is a long time. Bring a car battery and a power converter or rent a generator and your good to go. I would look into it if I were camping out there.
I've had the fans a couple of years and could not find an amperage or wattage draw on them.Maybe 1 amp each if that.I'm gonna have to guess and say that app. 110 watts will equel 1 amp,I know theres a calculation for it somewhere though.Just remember with all electical items,they draw there max current when first turned on,after that it's about half.
The car was running at idle for one hour during charge.Without it running the alternator does not turn you know.Also some of the better built inverters have an auto shutdown that prevents them from running the car battery to far down.this way as long as your car is not normally hard to start,it will still have enough juice for cranking,then if needed,charge for a bit more.But an average car battery with a full charge WILL last you all weekend with two of those fans. One other issue I forgot to mention,AND A VERY INPORTANT ONE TO,you do not want to let a car battery sit in direct sunlight all day.It may explode and drown your campsite with acid rain or some shit.I'm going to take an older cooler that I can put the battery into just in case.May even pile some clothes on top of it to keep as much sunlight off as possible.
A car can charge a battery up pretty fast.But the Xantrax pack or anything like it has to be pluged into a wall outlet to charge I believe.So if you did run one of those dead,how would you recharge it in the field?
you know, these powerpack things seem like a damn good idea!
this bad-boy offers 400W, can inflate my thermarest, and i could probably plug a blender or coffeemaker (maybe), and has a light. no fm radio on it, but whatever...
although im leaning towards buying coffee extracts to make ice coffee in the mornings.
The 12" fan I have is rated at about 2 amps meaning you need 230watts to run it alone. I'd suggest nothing less than a 400 watts continuous (800W peak) inverter.
Keep in mind anything with a motor (spins) or a heater (coffee) will take much more power.
Also keep in mind that if you're using the cigarette lighter in your car, do not exceed 150 watts(just over 1 amp) or you'll probably overheat and/or blow the fuse.
Also check the amphours of the battery. You can easily tell how many hours it will draw how many amps by simple multiplication. (3 amps for 12 hours = 36 amphours)
Last Edit: Mar 27, 2008 10:30:04 GMT -5 by troo - Back to Top
Post by Darth Boo Boo Kitty @#*& on Mar 27, 2008 10:29:53 GMT -5
strider said:
A car can charge a battery up pretty fast.But the Xantrax pack or anything like it has to be pluged into a wall outlet to charge I believe.So if you did run one of those dead,how would you recharge it in the field?
Incorrect. The Xantrex Powerpack 600 recharges from an outlet or a cigarette lighter. Takes a while from the cig lighter, but it can be done.
Post by erscott420 on Mar 27, 2008 19:11:30 GMT -5
ok,i have the following:
box fan 200 watt inverter (still with cig light adapter) extention cords tent
what else do i need,and how do i go about making it all come together? looking ahead,i see the end result being the fan going into tent(along with me) but how do i get the rest fo the equation?
I'd bring a couple extra fuses for the the car's cig lighter circuit as 200W is about at the limit. If it overheats and blows you'll want those 50 cent fuses as it may also control other items like wipers, blimkers, brake lights.
Also check the inverter periodocally so it doesn't overheat. And remember that the longer the ext cord the more watts it takes to overcome the extra resistance so use the shortest cord possible.
Last Edit: Mar 27, 2008 21:51:42 GMT -5 by troo - Back to Top
Post by Darth Boo Boo Kitty @#*& on Mar 28, 2008 13:36:45 GMT -5
troo said:
I'd bring a couple extra fuses for the the car's cig lighter circuit as 200W is about at the limit. If it overheats and blows you'll want those 50 cent fuses as it may also control other items like wipers, blimkers, brake lights.
Also check the inverter periodocally so it doesn't overheat. And remember that the longer the ext cord the more watts it takes to overcome the extra resistance so use the shortest cord possible.
You're freaking awesome. I love engineers. I'd give you Karma if I knew how to do it.