Powering your goodies

ChrisGa23

Expert Expediter
Have a few questions. I'm running a single odyssey 2150 battery in the sprinter which does fine for watching tv or playing around with the computer but i just recently added my xbox to the system and with just the tv and xbox going battery lasts maybe 3 hours on a fresh recently driven charge. My tv is a 24inch led tv. Thinking about ether running the generator to power everything or buy one or more batteries How do i wire them to the existing one? Got an idea how to wire it up but would rather get help from the experts like turtle
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
The Odyssey 2150 is a Group 31 battery with 205 minutes of reserve capacity and 94 amp hours. If it's only lasting 3 hours, then it's not starting out with anywhere near a full charge. If you run it until things stop working, you've obviously gone well below the 50% DoD down below 80%. That's OK with AGMs, but it's still better to keep it 50% or higher. In any case, if you draw 45 amps out of there to get it to 50% DoD, then it'll require somewhere around 12-14 hours off the alternator to fully recharge it. Every time it doesn't get fully recharged, sulfation increases and lifespan and capacity decreases. My guess it that's it's been chronically undercharged and chronically discharged too deeply, and the capacity is about half of the original 94 Ah.

If the current battery is severely sulfated and has a diminished capacity, adding a second battery will just kill the second battery in short order. Better to replace the current battery with 2 new ones.

First thing you need to determine is the amp draw of your appliances. Watts divided by volts is amps. If your TV draws 60 Watts, then it's drawing 5 amps from the battery. (Actually, 5.5 because of the 10% loss of the inverter). An xBox draws about 170 Watts of power, which is 14 amps (15.5 with the 10%). Just watching a DVD on an xBox draws 120 Watts (10 amps). I'm guessing, but add another 5 for the TV and another 5 for the computer and you're at a 25 amp draw. That's a lot. So on a fully charged 2150, 3-4 hours is all you're gonna get. Two hours would run it to 50%.

If you want to draw 20-25 amps an hour for 8 hours between charges and stay no less than 50% DoD, you'll need a battery bank of 400 amp hours or more, or a generator to run things.

There should be a tag on all the appliances to let you know how many Watts or amps they draw. The computer, it's probably on the transformer. Report back here what you find.
 

ChrisGa23

Expert Expediter
When i was saying 3 hours that's till the battery meter on my inverter turns red meaning low battery but still has power i never taken it to when it shuts off. But i will time it and do it today and report back. I would guess i can push it 4.5 hours on a good charge. Most of the time its the tv and xbox going and maybe charging my phone. Would like to add a 2nd battery and maybe use the generator to charge then back up instead of running the engine
 
Last edited:

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
The battery meter is probably coming on at around 11.6 volts, which is 80% DoD. It might be coming on lower than that. The inverter's manual should tell you. 50% DoD is 12.1 (or 12.2 for some AGMs). 100% is about 12.7 volts.

Charging the battery bank while driving, and then finishing it off with a generator is a good thing, especially if you run a smart charger off the generator to do it. If you discharge deep enough, you can want to run the engine and the generator for a while to put a lot of amps back in there quickly.

I would recommend a Kill-A-Watt meter to check the actual draw of each appliance. It's cheap, found at Lowe's and Walmart (I think). It'll tell you Watts, but that can be easily converted into amps.

You might also want to consider getting a battery monitor, like a Xantrex, which monitors all amps in and all amps out, and lets you know what's going on with the battery.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Xbox has 16.5a tv has 33 watts and laptop has 1.8 according to the charger

xBox is 16.5 amps, at 120 volts? No way. A space heater draws less than that. TV at 33 Watts sounds about right. The laptop, 1.8 what? Amps, Watts? And at what voltage?
 

Cuuzzz

Seasoned Expediter
The Odyssey 2150 is a Group 31 battery with 205 minutes of reserve capacity and 94 amp hours. If it's only lasting 3 hours, then it's not starting out with anywhere near a full charge. If you run it until things stop working, you've obviously gone well below the 50% DoD down below 80%. That's OK with AGMs, but it's still better to keep it 50% or higher. In any case, if you draw 45 amps out of there to get it to 50% DoD, then it'll require somewhere around 12-14 hours off the alternator to fully recharge it. Every time it doesn't get fully recharged, sulfation increases and lifespan and capacity decreases. My guess it that's it's been chronically undercharged and chronically discharged too deeply, and the capacity is about half of the original 94 Ah.

If the current battery is severely sulfated and has a diminished capacity, adding a second battery will just kill the second battery in short order. Better to replace the current battery with 2 new ones.

First thing you need to determine is the amp draw of your appliances. Watts divided by volts is amps. If your TV draws 60 Watts, then it's drawing 5 amps from the battery. (Actually, 5.5 because of the 10% loss of the inverter). An xBox draws about 170 Watts of power, which is 14 amps (15.5 with the 10%). Just watching a DVD on an xBox draws 120 Watts (10 amps). I'm guessing, but add another 5 for the TV and another 5 for the computer and you're at a 25 amp draw. That's a lot. So on a fully charged 2150, 3-4 hours is all you're gonna get. Two hours would run it to 50%.

If you want to draw 20-25 amps an hour for 8 hours between charges and stay no less than 50% DoD, you'll need a battery bank of 400 amp hours or more, or a generator to run things.

There should be a tag on all the appliances to let you know how many Watts or amps they draw. The computer, it's probably on the transformer. Report back here what you find.

What website did you copy that info from? That would be a good site for me to read up on.

Sent from my PC36100 using EO Forums
 

Cuuzzz

Seasoned Expediter
When i was saying 3 hours that's till the battery meter on my inverter turns red meaning low battery but still has power i never taken it to when it shuts off. But i will time it and do it today and report back. I would guess i can push it 4.5 hours on a good charge. Most of the time its the tv and xbox going and maybe charging my phone. Would like to add a 2nd battery and maybe use the generator to charge then back up instead of running the engine

Hey Chris,
I have a 2k watt inverter hooked up to 3 Optima, gell cell batteries. The batteries are bridged to one another and all go to a solenoid(spelling???) and switch that I put on my dash. This let's Mr turn on/off the charge to the batteries. All that goes to my factory battery which is all charged by my alternator. I run a fridge, separate freezer, micro, computer etc. on a daily basis. I can run these without charging for about 2 days. No generator needed, I just let my engine charge them when I'm on a run. I will upgrade my inverter when I install t.v. and xbox. It a lil pricey. Batteries are about 190.00 a piece. Look for me at the yard sometime and you can look over my setup.

Sent from my PC36100 using EO Forums
 

Cuuzzz

Seasoned Expediter
I bought my van used and he already had them set up like that. He gave me a good price on the batteries, so I bought them from him.

Sent from my PC36100 using EO Forums
 

ChrisGa23

Expert Expediter
Ok got a time for ya let it charge good while i delivered a 300 mile load. Total time was 4hours 37minutes running tv xbox and charging my phone. Let it run till the alarm came on and shut everything down
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I though Optima batteries were AGM vs. Gel cell. It has been a while so maybe I am remembering wrong?

It was driving me nuts so I looked it up. Below is from the Optima page.


"A gel battery design is typically a modification of the standard lead-acid automotive or marine battery. A gelling agent is added to the electrolyte to reduce movement inside the battery case. Many gel batteries also use one way valves in place of open vents, which helps the normal internal gasses to recombine back into water in the battery, reducing gassing.
An OPTIMA battery is not a "gel" battery or regular flooded acid battery. An OPTIMA is a Spiralcell AGM "
 
Last edited:

sirgregory46

Expert Expediter
They are pricey but the Optima is the way to go. I have one and it runs my QC and refer really well. I am going to put another in this week. I should be set.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using EO Forums
 

sirgregory46

Expert Expediter
BTW Turtle I have gotten some good info from your posts here at EO thanks for all your posts!!!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using EO Forums
 
Top