[57north-discuss] Car battery as portable electricity setup

[Lawrence]

Do the lamps have to run from 240V? Are they just for illumination or 
are they the thing to look at and buy?

My experience is narrow boats and you would then use low voltage lamps 
running direct off 12V. Plenty of LEDs that will do that now a days.

Using and carrying a lead acid battery, key part ACID. You will need to 
box it and protect it.. Bigger risk is dropping something metal across 
the terminals.

If this is a formal market, i.e. Aberdeen St Machar the organisers will 
have a whole bunch of hoops to jump through from their risk assessment. 
So you do not want to get there and be told No to this, No to that.

Capacity:
For boating you reckon on no more than 50% drain from the battery, 
without affecting the life of the battery. So draining 2Amps for 10 
hours takes you close to that. Also for that sort of load would be using 
a leisure battery and not a starter battery. Leisure battery designed 
for delivering small amounts of power over longer term. Narrow boats 
like motorhomes tend to be fitted with multiple batteries, a starter 
battery for the engine and one or more leisure batteries for the 
domestic side. e.g. 
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/lion-leisure-battery-676-65ah-444776761. 
USed to use 4 110Ah Lesiure batteries for domestics.

Invertors: What is the efficiency of the invertor? At that low a load on 
it I could imagine it drawing 3Amps to deliver 20W, down circa 60-70%. 
Its real consumer grade electronics, built to a price not performance.

Will you have a vehicle next to you? Makes a good place to install a 
power source properly.

Lawrence.

On 13/10/2021 20:46, Wouter Piessens wrote:
>
> Hey all,
>
> Next month I hope to attend the first outdoor Christmas fair with my 
> lamps, with a gazebo stand at Christmas market in Ballater. 
> Unfortunately the fair does not have the possibility to have fun 
> electricity to my stand, so I will need to source my own solutions.  
> Since it is my first outdoor fair, I don't have a practical setup 
> yet.  So I thought to pass my ideas via this mailing list for second 
> (and third, etc) opinions.
>
> _What are my needs:_
>
> 1)  3 to 5 lamps on the table:  Total 20-25 Watt consumption in total
>
> 2) Approx 8 hours electricity
>
> _Solution:_
>
> 1) 40 Ah lead battery 12V:  If my calculations are correct, 25 Watt at 
> 12V would give me 2.08Ah, so a 40Ah battery should be sufficient  . 
> Something like this one 
> :https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/lion-063-car-battery-3-year-guarantee-444770631
>
> 2) Use inverter to convert 12V DC to 230V AC 
> https://www.ringautomotive.com/en/product/RINVU300
>
> 3) recharge the battery at home afterwards through an indoor charger.
>
> _Safety concern_
>
> This solution looks fairly simple, but is it really save to use this 
> setup in outdoor environment?  Are the crocodile clips that come with 
> the inverter safe to use for hours? What other safety precautions 
> should I take, to avoid accidents? And lastly, how does moisture 
> affect the the performance of such a battery?
>
> Looking forward to hearing your inputs on this.  Would this setup with 
> a lead battery work, or should I consider a higher density (but 
> costlier) battery.  I got 2 USB powerbanks lingering about (Total 
> 20Ah), but no inverter from 5V DC to 230V AC (via USB ?)
>
> Cheerio,
>
> Wouter
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------
>
> Wouter Piessens (Wisp & Willows)
> Find me at :http://www.wispandwillows.co.uk/  
> andhttps://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WispAndWillows
>
> _______________________________________________
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> 57north-discuss at lists.57north.co
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