Wisconsin area events

@pearing sorry I missed your request to share my site, but glad you're set now. That said, I am willing to share, so let me know if any of yous guys need a spot.

 

I just reserved Friday night. Willing to roll with the group concerning Saturday. We'll figure it out.

 

Get a piece of that hard foam like that pink stuff and put a square of it between you & the gen or put it behind a tree.

 

I was thinking of making a box of sorts out of that and duct tape.

 

I've seen guys at the races do that but I would be worried about lack of fresh cooling air.

 

No worries-I figured we'd need a few anyway.

 

I agree.

But,,,

They do have some rather large stones.

 

So, I've been bringing the Milwaukee inverter and some batteries with me everywhere for a year or two now. It seems to suit my needs. But, what is everyone using these things to power? Anything that draws more than 175 watts? I'm just curious if there's a good reason to consider an upgrade.

 

I didn't intend this to be so long but it kind of just got long so strap in and bear with me...

If you are only considering an upgrade from your M18 batteries, then I'd say a Jackery/Bluetti probably isn't worth it. For example, take a Jackery 300 which is one of the most popular products you'll find out there. Those are $300 and only have 20.4Ah capacity, but at 80% depth of discharge you really only get about 16Ah output. Jackerys are also only rated for about 500 cycles to 80% which is low by comparison nowadays. From your previous tool photo you definitely have more than 16Ah worth of power already there. I don't know what the efficiency is for M18 adapters or the depth of discharge, but I don't really need to. You already have more without buying something. The biggest differece is something like a Jackery is simple to use and in a convenient all-in-one package size. That's about it.

Now if you lose your marbles and go to a full LFP battery setup like I did, first sell one of your kidneys and get a mental evaluation. OK I joke but yeah this aint cheap. However just like any other hobby if you plan to stick with it and use it, it might be worth it. For comparison, I have 206Ah capacity battery that can discharge well past 80% if I so choose. Basically it's like having 10+ Jackery 300 boxes in about the same size factor. Stupid overkill for most people, but since the lifespan is rated somewhere around 4,000-8,000 cycles (basically 10-20 years if cycled daily) then the ROI over a long period becomes much easier to swallow.

Realistically I am planning to (or already have) run the following things: fridge, 180W laptop charger, heated blanket, drone batteries, misc USB things like phones/ipads, and some small LED lights. The list of things needing power never gets smaller so planning for the future can be wise. My SOK-brand LFP battery has a max discharge rate of 100A continuous (200A burst for 3 seconds) so theoretically I could run some pretty hungry devices. I could install an inverter and run a blender for margaritas. Or even a small toaster or microwave. But frankly that's not how I roll so it probably won't happen. But I could, hmm.....

Like everything in life it just depends what you are looking to do and what you want to pay for it. Same as any other sport/hobby/etc. Same argument can be made about owning a Tacoma/4Runner vs a Geo Metro.

 

Good info, thank you!

That's kinda what I was hoping to hear. I assume those all in one units are a better fit for those who don't already have a bunch of rechargeable batteries at their disposal.

I have also considered setting up something with a deep cycle battery that would charge off the alternator, and also have the option to charge off solar panels. It's in the "maybe, eventually" stage now, so I'll probably want to pick your brain, and the whole group really, if it ever moves into the "definitely, soon" stage.

 

Any time, I'm happy to share the little knowledge I have if it can help someone else!

 

How long will your battery run a 1500 watt heater?

 

@wi_taco
@Camerasandcoffee

Which heated blanket are you using?

 

Looks like about 1.6 hours by my calculations.

206ah × 12 volts = 2472 watt/hours

2472 ÷ 1500 = 1.648.

Of course, there's bound to be some loss involved, so I'd expect a little less than that.

 

Making an assumption that it's a 12V heater and using the equation I=P/V then we get I = 1500W/12V = 125A, which means if run continuous for an hour it would consume 125Ah (amp hours). Assuming my battery cuts off at 80% DoD, then it could run continuous for 1.32 hours.

Of course I have no intention to run something that large with my rig. Assuming you are asking for powering your "pleasure palace"? If so, then yeah this 206Ah battery is probably too small.

I don't have one yet but it's on my short list of things to get once I run power back to the camper shell area. I haven't done it yet because other things have come up first, and I keep going back & forth on how to run auxiliary fuse panels for it. Targeting end of year to make that happen. I could do it quick-and-dirty with what I have, but my blankets & sleeping bags are warm enough it hasn't been an issue.

 

Oh. It’s 120 volt, 1500 watts. Does that change things at all?

 

No. A watt is 1 amp at 1 volt. So, the math is the same.

Edit, aside from the losses @wi_taco mentions below.

 

Yes there would be changes. If you are running 120V AC appliances you'd need to also have an inverter. Typically efficiency for those are at best 85-95% so right off the top you lose runtime. Assuming 85% efficiency the continuous runtime would be down just over 1 hour.

But again if you are running something like that continuous then you would have already gone with a larger battery (or run on shore power). I have no need for something that large, and thus a 200Ah battery is sized to my needs.

Also this.

 

Thanks, that part of the formula has always eluded me.

hmmm. I see a 200ah lip4 battery for sale at about $600.

 

One last thing to share is this link that I found which explains the formulas and has some nice charts. Should help to figure out your power needs: https://learnmetrics.com/watts-to-amps-converter-2/

This is good conversation but we should probably get back to discussing the upcoming trips in this thread.

And on that note, 10-day forecast says 45 degrees on 2/14 so that's enough to convince me. Booked campsite #14 to further lock down that area for the group. Should have room for at least one more there.