what do i need to run my PA for an hour outdoors? A battery etc, not too expensive.?

Question

I need to run a PA and a CD player outdoors for an hour at a time. I have heard I can run it off a battery. But I need details and what adapters to use etc.

Answer 1

Rent a generator.

Use a car battery and a inverter - make sure its Watt rating is sufficient - and remember the battery will go dead rather quickly depending on the power your PA uses..

Rent a generator.

Answer 2

You need an inverter. Get a true sine wave inverter. If in the UK, get it from Maplin - you probably have a store near you. If not, try Radio Shack. If you don't need it now, go online.

Now then, batteries have an amp-hour rating which tells you how long they will last. A car battery might be rated at 40 amp-hours (Ah) for a modest sized one. That means it can pump 40 amps for an hour, or one amp for forty hours. Ish. But it does this at 12 volts. So the VAh rating is 40x12 which is... er... 480 VAh. For simplicity's sake, call that 480 watt-hours (Wh). It's not, but hey ho, it will do.

Now then, what is the power rating of the PA? 1000W? That means your battery will run that thing for just under half an hour at full blast, longer at lower volumes (you'll never run it at full blast; it would sound horrible). If you need it to last longer, you need more car batteries, connected in PARALLEL (plus to plus, minus to minus). Be careful setting this up. Use proper connections. Follow the inverter instructions.

You also need to check on the power rating of the inverter - that will be expressed as W or as VA. Make sure that the W rating of the inverter is greater than the W rating of the PA. If it's given in VA (probably) then make sure the inverter VA rating is a lot bigger than the PA's W rating.

Answer 3

1 your pa´s agreement (it may be too cold for him)
2 an outside
3 an hour