powering a TV

[BuckKiller]

My Dad recently bought a "new" wheel house that came with a TV in it. I was wondering if a battery could power this or do I need a generator?

[acman2u]

What the? All those fish you are catching, who has time for the tube!

LOL

What voltage is the tv?

[wheelerboy920]

you need at least a 400-500 watt generator to power a tv thats smaller than 30".

[eyebjim]

A 400 watt inverter will do and you can run it off batteries then.

[BuckKiller]

lol it will keep me company when im by my self.

and I'm not sure the volts, how can I find out? Will a 400-500 watt generator be enough to power a T.V and lights?

tell me more about this inverter... are they expensive, where can I get one?

[eyebjim]

You can get a inverter at many places like wal mart etc. It connects to a deep cycle battery and it has a outlet on it to plug in 120 volt household items like a tv into it. A 400 watt will power up to 400 watts of equipment. If you look on the back of the TV it will have a power rating in watts. Most are around 60 watts if it isn't too big. It is a good idea to get a inverter that is rated for twice as much power as you will be using. The 400 watt unit I got was about $50.

[BuckKiller]

thanks eyebjim I just might have to ge one of those... cheeper than a generator.

[Johnny_Da_Der]

How long can you expect to run say a 60 watt TV for before the battery goes dead?

[crothmeier]

i have a 400w inverter and run a 19" Tv and a DVD player off of it, as well as the lights for my house. I can get 4-5 hours on a good deep cycle battery running all of them together, without the tv i can go 3 days though, so i dont run the tv too often, unless im only out there for one night or have close access to a charger.

[hoggs222]

I've got a little 500 watt honda generator that I power lights, ceiling fan, tv & dvd player with.

[eyebjim]

I have carfully selected a tv that uses less wattage. It is a 10 inch lcd that uses about 18 watts. I can run that and a 27 watt satelite receiver and a light (6 watt) and fan (6 watt) for 4 solid days on two 29 series deep cycle batteries. I do only use the fan and light some of the time and turn the tv and sat receiver off at when sleeping.

You can get a rough estimate of how long it will run by taking the amp hour rating of the battery and divide it by how many amps you are using. If you have a 125 amp hour batttery and you are pulling 5 amps you will get 25 hours roughly out of it.

[Just Me]

need help to.

If i have a gereator, do I need a inverter. Ive been running the house off of battries but would love to have a small geneator. What do I need to do? Id like to run everything ie lights, tv,radio, fan, ect ect......

I have King Crow ice house.It has the 12 volt plug ins that must connect to the battries. It has a plug on the outside. Can i plug a generator into it?

Thanks

Just Me

[barebackjack]

You should be able to plug right in to that one, there was a post about this somewhere else, somethign having to do with a female to female connection on those King Crow houses, look around the forum for it. I found some generators dirt cheap for a 3125/2500 continuous,$250.00, let me know if your interested and Ill get in contact with the guy. They are the coleman Powermate 3125, they are legit.

[eyebjim]

If you have a generator you do not need a inverter. I just don't like the noise of the generator so I use the inverter and only use the generator when I need to charge which is almost never.

I have a king crow too. The plug on the outside is a 12DC plug. It is a regular 120v outlet so be careful not to plug ac into it. The guy who had the house before me installed a AC outlet for hooking up a generator. You could do the same. You would need a male (power in)fixture outside and then connect that to a regular household outlet on the inside.

[hoggs222]

I called king crow a year ago and they told me that it was a 12 V outlet on the outsides of the house. You would have to run your generator off of the 12 V mode (plug). Now I'm really confused. I haven't used the generator on my house yet, just a rental house on mille lacs.

[eyebjim]

The outlet is a for 12 volt dc only. You could run a generator to the 12 volt plug but you would have to use the 12 volt output from the generator instead of the 120 volt AC output. To run 120 VAC into the house you would have to install a 120 volt AC power inlet recepticle to run the generator into the house. It is outdoor type receptacle like you may have on your house with a little flip-out door to keep the weather out. It has a plug end instead of a outlet end. You mount that on the outside, drill a hole thru the wall and run a wire thru then connect a standard 120 VAC hosehold type receptacle on the inside.

[Just Me]

First off thaks for the replys.

ok. DC is direct current. AC is alternating current. I would need to rewire my ice house for AC outlets (plug ins for the TV)& connect those outlets to a NEW external outlet dedicated to the generator? I would then have a 12 volt (DC) & AC outlets that would run indedentinly of each other? Im willing to rewire if required. I think I have it but........

Sorry for the spelling

Just Me

[eyebjim]

Just post if you have more questions.

[hoggs222]

OK, good. So I can use the 12 volt outlet off of the generator then.

[eyebjim]

Yes but you will only have 12 volts in the house. If you want 120 VAC you could use the 12 volt outlet and connect it to a inverter inside the house to get 120 vac inside the house.