Any tips on how to cut the noise of a generator

[walleye977]

i just did a little test the other night i got a 800 watt inverter and a deep cycle battery and i ran a 22in lcd tv with dvd player for 5 hours in kitchen thought that was pretty good not for sure how long it will go but after i shut it off at 11 pm I checked the battery and it still had 12 volts the tv says it takes a max of 150 watts to run dont really know the math on all this just have to wait for the lake for a long run.

[aanderud]

i just did a little test the other night i got a 800 watt inverter and a deep cycle battery and i ran a 22in lcd tv with dvd player for 5 hours in kitchen thought that was pretty good not for sure how long it will go

Way too many unknowns to get a good estimate but here's roughly how the math works.

The inverter is likely running at about 75% efficiency. Your TV probably doesn't burn 150 watts continuously, but for sake of argument here we have very little else to go by. So based on that 75% efficiency, the inverter draws 200 watts from the battery to supply 150 to the TV.

At 12 volts, 200 watts is roughly 16 amps of current -- current draw in amps is "power (watts) divided by voltage (volts)". Most deep cycle batteries provide somewhere between 80 and 120 amp-hours. The amp-hour rating of the battery (also referred to as reserve capacity sometimes) divided by the amps drawn is roughly the battery's life in hours.

So an 80 amp-hour battery could supply 16 amps for roughly 5 hours. And a 120 amp-hour battery could do maybe 8 hours.

I'd guess your TV isn't drawing 150 watts, so you will get more than that. Google told me that a few other TVs draw like 47 watts while operating. Probably all depends on the dvd player, whether the TV is LED or flourescent backlit, etc.

[tsande00]

Interesting. I just looked up my 22" 12v TV I bought last year and the specs say it draws 3 amp. But that is a true 12v TV...no inverter.

[muskE]

The very fact that you are concerned about the noise to want to decrease the noise output as a consideration for others is good enough for me. Kudos to you and the others that try to aim, place, or deaden the noise they make. Nobody should have issues with whatever you do to try to be considerate (there will be exceptions of course) of your noise pollution. It's the other half that just don't care and plop down and fire up after I've been there an hour that get my goat.

[aanderud]

Interesting. I just looked up my 22" 12v TV I bought last year and the specs say it draws 3 amp. But that is a true 12v TV...no inverter.

Sounds about right, that's 36 watts. The one that I looked up said 47 watts. Pretty much in the same ballpark. I think the 150 watts that this other guy was quoting might have been a maximum, not an average. Hard to say really.

[scott b]

Wouldn't ten big deep cycles be cheaper? I have a friend that runs an inverter off of TWO deep cycles(tv and dvd player included, along with a forced air furnace). Batteries, if used wisely, will last for the weekend. I even brought MY battery and he didn't even need it on a three day two night stay. Pretty warm that weekend though.

[scott b]

Build a wood box with egg crate(bumpy soft foam) glued to the inside.