Recommend a battery for 12V equipment

barneysplash

Hi all

With all that bad flooding on the continent and the recent snowy winters
we've had, I'm getting a few things and putting a few things aside, just in case.

One thing I bought was a power inverter. This lets you power mains electric
equipment from a car battery. So if the power goes off, I will still be able
to use laptop, TV, etc. for short periods of time.

http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/SID-9380357E-E4B13329/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_31817.htm



I don't know a great deal about this kind of thing, I want to stay safe
first of all and not electrocute myself.

I need to get a battery to power this unit. Can anyone recommend a good battery?

What else would be good to know about working with inverters, car batteries and
the whole 12V appliance world?

I was going to go to my local Halfords at the weekend and
have a look. They seem to start about €70 for a car battery.

Thanks

mawk

i can tell you that my lidl invertor did not have a protection diode at the input and asploded when i guessed wrong which side of a cig lighter would have been positive..

Batteries? Marine ones will sit more happily for long periods. Call to a scrap/breakers yard and ask for a few on the cheap. Or look up battery suppliers in the yellow pages and tell them what you are up to, they may well have replaced a big jeep or truck battery that is now sitting in their recycle bin waiting to be sold cheaply.

mawk

oh, do you have a car? If so... That one. Run a length of cable to inside and run the engine. Not a very efficient generator but you wont need it to last awfully long in ireland. Put half of that seventy euro into a jerrycan for emergencies.

And check the current rating on your invertor.. You wont ever run a kettle off one, but maybe think ahead about what WILL work on it

aaakev

Do not buy this stuff from halfords would be my first advice!

Ill second whats already been said by mawk about scrap yards/ garages ect. They will have alot of batteries and you can build yourself a battery bank which is alot better than one big battery.

Was chattin to an electrician friend at the gym and he told me he runs his garage/home workshop/man shed on a battery bank powered by a windmil he made out of an old altinator and mounted on the roof, I want one!!

Tabnabs

I know a dangerously small amount about batteries, but a car battery is no good, you want a deep cycle battery. Designed to be run right down and then charged up again. Car batteries are not designed for this kind of treatment. They also cost a good €100+ for anything worthwhile. I would be reluctant to go scavenging for old batteries unless you have the skills to bring an old battery back to spec. Scrap yards will have few deep cell batteries either. There is a market for old batteries and you can sell them in bulk for a decent price.

If you're in Dublin, these guys have a selection of good quality batteries and know their stuff. http://ashgrove.goldenpages.ie/ (no connection, happy customer etc. etc.)

aaakev

Thats true. At a guess id say the reason my electrician friends battery bank works is because its charging all the time there is some wind, just like your car batrery is charging while driving so its not getting the chance to power down all the way.

Ill ask him about it next time we are talking

wexie

From what I know I can tell you I wouldn't necessarily be comfortable with an inverter from Lidl if I needed to depend on it working (properly).

Good, high load, inverters can be quite expensive and if you're going to run stuff off it you'll want a decent rating. What's the point of running your TV off it if you've no signal? So you'll want to run the Skybox or a laptop off it as well?

With regards to batteries, as already pointed out : car batteries don't really suit this use as they aren't designed to be run down and then charged again. This could even damage the battery so you'd need to make sure you're keeping it on a trickle charger when you're not using it.

Deep cycle batteries are meant for this kind of thing and are what's used in battery banks in boats and campers. Unfortunately these tend to be expensive. Odyssey and Optima are generally acknowledged to be very good brands for deep cycle batteries, but you'll pay for them.

All in all by the time you've bought a decent inverter, one or more decent batteries and all the wiring chances are you'll have spent similar money to what you'd pay for a small generator which would last much longer and which would give you much more power.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REFURBISHED-Petrol-Generator-230v-12v-Camping-Caravan-Motorhome-800W-/251225829631?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Generators_ET&hash=item3a7e39f0ff

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wolf-WP3500LR-3200Watt-6-5HP-4-KVA-Petrol-Generator-/370752973929?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Generators_ET&hash=item5652996c69

mawk

there is a guy in the motors section looking to get rid of two car batteries if you are anywhere near him