Is there a way to power household wall outlet things (i.e lamp,tv) by a car battery?
2006-12-29 18:17:23 · 9 answers · asked by El Matador 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
Certainly, as answer number one states. BTW Honda offered it, beginning a few years ago in an SUV. Specifically designed to promote that SUV as a great camping "tool"
Without knowing your reasons, is it likely that you'd have to "recharge" the car battery, and to do so, then run a charger, or the vehicle? In either case an alternate source of energy has to also be used. In the case of recharging by a charger, it's "electricty" hence it seems counter productive. Even more silly might be powering a home generator to accomplish your goal? In the case of it being accomplished by "running" the vehicles engine/alternator, the issue is fuel consumption. If it's for the purpose of a weekend camping trip all this is a Moot point.
Steven Wolf
2006-12-30 02:06:56 · answer #1 · answered by DIY Doc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can buy a device called a DC-AC inverter. But you'll find the power capability is very limited, perhaps 500 watts maximum.
An inverter is a 2-stage electrical system. First is a DC to AC circuit to convert direct current to alternating current at about 12 volts. Stage 2 is an AC transformer to step-up the AC voltage from about 12 volts to 120 volts AC. Both circuits have inefficiencies (losses), so the overall conversion rate might be as low as 50% to as good as 80%. That means to get 500 watts of 120 AC power, you would need to draw 1000 watts from your 12 volt battery, or as much as 83 amps! (at 50% efficiency.)
More likely, an affordable inverter could provide 100 to 200 watts at 120 volts AC. Then it would 'only' draw 16 amps from the 12 volt battery (at 50% efficiency.)
Check the maximum current load on your 120 V appliance, and then look for an inverter to provide that amperage capacity with about 25% spare capacity. And make sure the inverter gets lots of cool air - it will dissipate a lot of heat. It also might need to be turned off from time to time (a duty cycle requirement) to keep from burning up.
2006-12-29 22:38:22 · answer #2 · answered by Tom-SJ 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sure. With a DC-AC power inverter. But unless you've got a really big battery and a small appliance, and probably keep the car engine running to recharge the battery, it's not going to last long.
2006-12-29 18:23:09 · answer #3 · answered by BuddyL 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes! It's called a power inverter. Some models plug into the cigarette light, others attach to the battery like jumper cables.
2006-12-29 18:21:42 · answer #4 · answered by Ta Dah! 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
you need to buy a fairly exspensive inverter/converter....and then run the car to keep battery charged...then only run small items on 110 volts...since your battery is 12 volts....draining it at 110 volts uses lots more current running even a standard 100 watt 110 volt bulb...
2006-12-30 01:35:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
buy a 12 volt bulb from an rv dealer or auto parts store for the light.
2006-12-29 18:30:41 · answer #6 · answered by car dude 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a little more about inverters, all are rated by watts, ones sold can go up to 1400 watts, most inverters have what devices they will handle on packaging.
2006-12-30 03:32:43 · answer #7 · answered by mystk1111 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course you can use a converter for some things but, can you afford the gasoline, never thought about that did we Pard?
2006-12-29 21:55:19 · answer #8 · answered by cowboydoc 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
with a tranformer you can do it
2006-12-29 18:48:35 · answer #9 · answered by ward4527@sbcglobal.net 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋