I bought a 300W inverter from Maplins yesterday for charging my laptop etc whilst camping, has anyone tried using second hand Yuasa En160-6 standby batteries for general camping/ boating use and do they stand up well to repeated charge cycles ? Is it better to get a proper 'leisure' battery ? I don't want to ruin my car battery if I can help it, although the laptop only draws upto 70W
I'll let others deal with the battery question (I'd use a deep discharge leisure battery for this), but consider getting hold of a 12V psu for your laptop - they are readily available, and you'll cut down your current draw from the battery by half compared to battery > inverter > mains psu.
On 16 Feb 2007 06:45:41 -0800, " snipped-for-privacy@lycos.co.uk" mused:
If you're just using the inverter for the laptop then using a 12V laptop PSU will be much more efficient as you are atm converting from
12VDC to 230VAC to ~16-18VDC ish. This involves a lot of losses through the various transformers.
indeed, I had the Maplin 12v laptop converter in my hand, however I thought the inverter would be of more use. I dont have any power in my garage for example.. I'm tempted to pick up a couple of the Yuasa's and see how long they last, they don't seem to specify how many charge/ discarge cycles they are good for but they're relativly cheap ( =A330 quid ) compared to new laptop batteries at least !
What voltage are the Yuasa's? Can't you power the "12v" laptop converter directly from one of them. Drops the losses in the invertor out of the equation at least.
It depends on where you are sourcing these batteries from really, if they are from my bin, then they will last about 5 seconds, and that is on a day I am feeling generous!
If they are ex-alarm panels, only replaced because they are 3 years or whatever old, then they will probably have quite a bit of life in them.
If they are ex UPS batteries, they are going to almost certainly be shot - UPS' seem to cook batteries.
Unless I am mistaken, A En160-6 is a 6v 160aH battery weighing 35KG
You will need two for a 12V inverter, of course.
70KG for going camping!?!As you will be pairing them up, you do need closely matched batteries too, not sure if this is an issue?
Sparks...
the weight of them isn't really an issue so far as I can see and the seller offers a 2 month gaurentee so I would get a chance to test them. I'm working on the theory that the bigger the AH rating the better. I guess I need to find what else can be had for the same money though really.
On 16 Feb 2007 13:37:37 -0800, " snipped-for-privacy@lycos.co.uk" mused:
If it was maintained with the correct charger and held in the correct state then yes. If you're going to be charging\discharging them regularly and then storing them off charge for long periods of time then in the long term you'd be better with a brand new (warrantied) leisure battery.
A friend needed a power source for almost exactly the same reason. It was difficult to beat those Jumpstart power sources which come with a built in inverter and/or compressor, such as:
If you use the car while camping it would make more sense to charge the laptop while you are using the car. You could get a car charger for about £25 or use the inverter and the normal PSU. The car charger may be quicker.
At that price I'd be awfully concerned that the battery will be either too small or low quality or both. I bought one when they first came out and only got a couple of dozen charge cycles out of it.
I've got the previous model:
My el cheapo Lidl one cuts out after charging. I did a quick test on it and it appears to be a constant voltage unit.
I don't fancy going down this route now I already have an inverter already :( I've already got a couple of usable yuasa 6ah 12v's from an old UPS I was given anyway, so these probably provide simmilar power to one of these ? If I bother at all then I think I am going to have a haggle for a couple of the yuasa's and see how I get on. I'm thinking of taking my electric blanket with me he he !!
-- Simon
take the inverter back
That's 13W max output, on a sunny day, with optimum positioning. That'll drop to about 3W on a cloudy day and slightly off positioning, which might be just enough to charge your mobile, but not much else.
Would you trust a company that sold these as eco products?
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