Car battery for a DC plug???

Question

I was wondering if there was anyway to use a car battery to provide electricity to my window ac unit, and if so, for how long?
Reason being, AC accounts for a lot of an electricity bill during the summer, and i can charge my car battery at autozone for free.
I have heard of people putting small window ac units on the cars and connecting them to car batteries, and would like to know how.
any info as to certain websites would be appreciated.

I am a full-time student and a full-time, 40 hours, not 32, worker. If I look at my electricity in the cost of hours work thats my business.
this is directed towards the first answer

from what i have seen in the cost of inverters and batteries (and gas to get the free electricity), i may as well save me the trouble and pay the "power" company.

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/northwest_5000.html

http://www.autozone.com/selectedZip,76208/initialAction,partProductDetail/initialpartType,00175/initialR,APP339700/initialvehicleId,2575802/shopping/selectZip.htm

Answer 1

A battery tied to an inverter to power a room air conditioner??? First, you'd need a deep cycle marine battery, not an auto battery. Auto batteries do NOT like to be drained to the bottom and recharged frequently. They don't live long that way.

Even a deep cycle battery would be on its knees in an hour powering a small window AC unit (5000 btu).

Next, be prepared to pony up about $700 for your "true sine wave" inverter -- the motors in the air conditioner, the compressor in particular, like sinusoidal power, not a lousy "stepped square wave" simulation of a sine wave, and inverters that can provide this will cost you a good bit more than those that don't.

Answer 2

Not clear if this window unit is in your car window or your house. There are car (truck or what ever) so called 12 volt dc
conditioners that will work in your car. Even with a 120 vac conditioner running off a inverter won't be running off of your battery IF your car is running, so battery life is a mute point. IF, however, you are suggesting trying to run an AC conditioner off of DC from a battery, you are going to have to find one heck of a big battery because even a 80 amp/hour battery won't last very long powering an inverter to get 12.5 volt DC up to 120 volt AC to get enough current to run that compressor very long.

Answer 3

Your window ac runs at 110v AC. A battery provides 12 v DC. You would have to convert the DC into AC, plus step up the voltage. You might be able to buy an inverter. Truckers, campers etc... use inverters to step up thier voltages to run thier appliances.
The drain on the battery would be quickly however since an ac unit uses so many amps to run. You would have to buy a high amperage battery.

Good luck!

Answer 4

actually the background which drives the ignition coil is a collapsing magnetic container interior the coil. So the trick is to have some modern working by using it (interior the widely used coil), and turn it off with an interruptor of a few form. The magnetic container collapses and builds up a severe voltage impulse interior the secondary coil, that's hooked as much as the spark-plugs. It would not rely plenty wether this modern for the magnetic container's buildup got here from DC or AC. yet in case it grew to become into AC it might have a limited time to construct up earlier the voltage adjustments its polarity, that's ... the assumption in the back of AC. So for that reason DC ist first selection, reason for having a suited timing interior the engine its mandatory to have the interruptor make certain whilst its time to enable the sphere fall down. utilising AC let's imagine 50Hz might recommend it might fall down a hundred situations a 2nd .. that's ineffective for a stable container to construct up. the only gadget in a automobile utilising AC is the generator, reason turbines in many situations produce AC that's then switched over into DC with a regulator. the coil itself has 2 magnetically blended spools. the widely used with basically some windings is designed for having a severe modern working by using it. the secondary has alot greater windings, for this reason becoming a low modern, yet a severe voltage. its definedly not designed to function as a transformer in uncomplicated experience, its designed to offer a pulse on the secondary coil after an intentional container-fall down in its center.

Answer 5

kinda strange to be answering this but i would personally just get a dc to ac converter and use the ciggarette lighter in the car to power the unit... how long it would last is a question i can't answer...i'd say probably about 4 hours...but after charging and discharging the battery so many times you'll have to buy a new one...hope this helps