Maplin deep cycle solar batteries

[River Song]

OK - I am going put to buy a deep cycle battery thingy.

Now can anyone give me a (blonde) answer

The one Im looking at £89 is a 125 AH battery
I guess this refers to Amp Hour. I know what an hour is
and I can get a definition of an 'amp' but it makes it no clearer.

Is 125AH good? If so why? How long would it last before it needs recharging if it was connected to a 1KW or 2KW inverter.

If I connected two together would that double the time?

Can it keep my Harveys Bristol Cream chilled or my Hair Straighteners hot :-) :-)

[LawAbidingCitizen]

(1 November 2013, 16:05)River Song Wrote: OK - I am going put to buy a deep cycle battery thingy.

Now can anyone give me a (blonde) answer

The one Im looking at £89 is a 125 AH battery
I guess this refers to Amp Hour. I know what an hour is
and I can get a definition of an 'amp' but it makes it no clearer.

Is 125AH good? If so why? How long would it last before it needs recharging if it was connected to a 1KW or 2KW inverter.

If I connected two together would that double the time?

Can it keep my Harveys Bristol Cream chilled or my Hair Straighteners hot :-) :-)

It means it should put out a maximum of 125 amps for an hour. If you use all of the 1KW from the inverter this should be around 4 amps output if my calculations are correct (1000 watts / 240 volts = 4.16 amps). Which means your battery should last about 30 hours (125AH / 4 amps = 31.25). However this is seldom the case as there is a degree of redundancy involved so it's best to take off about 30%. Therefore your 125AH battery is really about 87.5AH (87.5AH / 4 amps = 21.875), so in reality it should last about 20 hours. One thing though is you shouldn't really completely discharge to battery and it should not be allowed to go down below about 30% before recharging, so taking taking that 30% off as well we have - 61.25AH / 4 amps = 15.31 hours, so you will need to recharge the battery after about 15 hours use at a maximum of 1 KW (4 amps).

LAC

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(1 November 2013, 17:48)LawAbidingCitizen Wrote:

(1 November 2013, 16:05)River Song Wrote: OK - I am going put to buy a deep cycle battery thingy.

Now can anyone give me a (blonde) answer

The one Im looking at £89 is a 125 AH battery
I guess this refers to Amp Hour. I know what an hour is
and I can get a definition of an 'amp' but it makes it no clearer.

Is 125AH good? If so why? How long would it last before it needs recharging if it was connected to a 1KW or 2KW inverter.

If I connected two together would that double the time?

Can it keep my Harveys Bristol Cream chilled or my Hair Straighteners hot :-) :-)

It means it should put out a maximum of 125 amps for an hour. If you use all of the 1KW from the inverter this should be around 4 amps output if my calculations are correct (1000 watts / 240 volts = 4.16 amps). Which means your battery should last about 30 hours (125AH / 4 amps = 31.25). However this is seldom the case as there is a degree of redundancy involved so it's best to take off about 30%. Therefore your 125AH battery is really about 87.5AH (87.5AH / 4 amps = 21.875), so in reality it should last about 20 hours. One thing though is you shouldn't really completely discharge to battery and it should not be allowed to go down below about 30% before recharging, so taking taking that 30% off as well we have - 61.25AH / 4 amps = 15.31 hours, so you will need to recharge the battery after about 15 hours use at a maximum of 1 KW (4 amps).

LAC

Meant to also say you can increase the size by wiring the batteries together in parallel (positive to positive and negative to negative) so 125AH wired together in parallel would be added together as 250AH.

[River Song]

This is the one I want to go for.

Any final warnings?

http://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/brands/...e-battery/

Thanks

[LawAbidingCitizen]

That's looks like a good price. one more thing I should also mention is, at a high power output the figures don't quite work - A high power consumption over a short period will drain the battery much faster than a low power consumption over a short period of time, in other words there is a correlation with respect to the power consumption/time discharge rate.

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(1 November 2013, 20:23)LawAbidingCitizen Wrote: That's looks like a good price. one more thing I should also mention is, at a high power output the figures don't quite work - A high power consumption over a short period will drain the battery much faster than a low power consumption over a short period of time, in other words there is a correlation with respect to the power consumption/time discharge rate.

That's looks like a good price. one more thing I should also mention is, at a high power output the figures don't quite work - A high power consumption over a short period will drain the battery much faster than a low power consumption over a LONG period of time, in other words there is a correlation with respect to the power consumption/time discharge rate.

[Nix]

Quote:It means it should put out a maximum of 125 amps for an hour. If you use all of the 1KW from the inverter this should be around 4 amps output if my calculations are correct (1000 watts / 240 volts = 4.16 amps). Which means your battery should last about 30 hours (125AH / 4 amps = 31.25). However this is seldom the case as there is a degree of redundancy involved so it's best to take off about 30%. Therefore your 125AH battery is really about 87.5AH (87.5AH / 4 amps = 21.875), so in reality it should last about 20 hours. One thing though is you shouldn't really completely discharge to battery and it should not be allowed to go down below about 30% before recharging, so taking taking that 30% off as well we have - 61.25AH / 4 amps = 15.31 hours, so you will need to recharge the battery after about 15 hours use at a maximum of 1 KW (4 amps).

LAC, your intentions are good but the calculation is way out. If you use 1kW power on a single 12v 125ah battery, you're looking at a very short time indeed.

Firstly, it's 1kW/12v = 83 amps! Not only will you have to use massive cables to carry the ampage (you could just get away with 16.0mm, depending, but I'd use 25.0mm personally).

Secondly, using 1kW, I reckon the battery would last you 3 mins max before you start endangering it's DOD life span.

Quite right, these batteries are designed for slow discharge and not an abrupt drain from huge loads.

[PreparednessUK]

You guys need to google Stephen Harris he knows everything on this subject. I got his DVDs on the subject there excellent. He also did some podcasts with Jack Spirko on the survival podcast check them out full of good info

[River Song]

I can't understand that 1KW inverter would drain this battery in 3 minw. Your math may be suspect. It seems odd that it actually plugs into the car ciggy lighter

[PreparednessUK]

(1 November 2013, 21:32)River Song Wrote: I can't understand that 1KW inverter would drain this battery in 3 minw. Your math may be suspect. It seems odd that it actually plugs into the car ciggy lighter

I read they recommend you use a 800watt max with your car as it would drain the battery to quick. Back up battery's are just that back up keep the phone charged USB kit charged. If you want to run your tv and microwave your looking at major amps

[River Song]

Nah

I don't need a 1KW inverter to charge a USB phone. My 150w one will do that thanks..

What is the point in purchasing a 1KW inverter if you can't use it?

Or what do you need to use it?

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A TV is not major amps. Microwave might be.

[PreparednessUK]

(1 November 2013, 21:47)River Song Wrote: Nah

I don't need a 1KW inverter to charge a USB phone. My 150w one will do that thanks..

What is the point in purchasing a 1KW inverter if you can't use it?

Or what do you need to use it?

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A TV is not major amps. Microwave might be.

I would imagine you would use it with a battery bank system