Running Heater Off Leisure Battery?

[windyman]

I think I already know the answer to this, but thought I'd ask someone in the know!

Is it possible to run a heater (e.g one of those tubular heaters everyone seems to be getting) off your leisure battery?

I assume it'd drain it quite soon, but wondered how long you'd get from a full battery.

If not, then what do you guys do? Run it from your house with an extension??

Thanks in advance.

 

[rcproperty]

with the tube heaters well the 120watts or less ones, depending on you battery size and how good it is.

as a rough guide a 110ah would run one for about 2 days.

 

[windyman]

Wow thanks! That's brilliant.

Think my bat is 110ah, so you're saying I could easily run a 120w tubular heater off my leisure battery overnight? Say 10hrs.

It recharges off my van alternator so would recharge as I drove along.

Would the wiring be easy to do???

 

[rcproperty]

Wow thanks! That's brilliant.

Think my bat is 110ah, so you're saying I could easily run a 120w tubular heater off my leisure battery overnight? Say 10hrs.

It recharges off my van alternator so would recharge as I drove along.

Would the wiring be easy to do???

it should do, but not 100% sure as i havent working it out for one of them.

if possible, it would be better to run it from the house if you can do it safely

the wiring is easy if you use and inverter, them come fit the fittings to fit to battery

 

[Squeak and Bubbles]

I have a 2ft one throws out 80w and lasts all night with my 110ah leisure battery dude.

 

[Jackie]

120 watt (heater) divided by 12 volt (battery) = 10 amps.

120ah leisure battery should last 12 hours at 10 amps per hour.

110ah leisure battery should last 11 hours

85ah should last 8.5 hours.

I think.

 

[chip]

I've just got a new batt for the van, thinking of putting a splitter in to use the old one for a bit of backup for pump, can I also stick a tube on it for o/night?

 

[Razersharp]

Will be interested to see if this works, are you using 12volt heaters or are they 230 volt through an inverter, I would be carefull about running the battery flat as you can easliy damage a battery

 

[Squeak and Bubbles]

Will be interested to see if this works, are you using 12volt heaters or are they 230 volt through an inverter, I would be carefull about running the battery flat as you can easliy damage a battery

not if it's a leisure battery dude.

 

[chip]

He might have been referring to my car batt ploy

 

[Razersharp]

not if it's a leisure battery dude.

My interest is, is the heater a 12 volt DC heater running from a 12 volt battery, or is it a 230 volt AC heater running via an invertor from the same battery, an invertor is a device that converts the 12 volt DC from the battery into 230 volt AC

 

[spruce]

120 watt (heater) divided by 12 volt (battery) = 10 amps.

120ah leisure battery should last 12 hours at 10 amps per hour.

110ah leisure battery should last 11 hours

85ah should last 8.5 hours.

I think.

Your are on the right track - what you also need to include in the calculation is the efficiency of the inverter. If the inverter has an effieciency of 90% then a 110 amp battery would be flat in 10 hours. I doubt you will find this figure in any manufacturers spec sheet though.

When we sold generators for running power tools on site we calculated an efficiency of around 80%, so a 3KVA generator would produce about 2.4KVA at the plug.

I won't be a bit surprised if the efficiency of an inverter is similar.

 

[spruce]

My interest is, is the heater a 12 volt DC heater running from a 12 volt battery, or is it a 230 volt AC heater running via an invertor from the same battery, an invertor is a device that converts the 12 volt DC from the battery into 230 volt AC

I'm sure that the tube heaters referred to here are 230v AC which need an inverter to power them from a 12v DC battery.

 

[Jackie]

I, too, would be interested to know if it is practical to use these heaters to keep van warm or even heat the water as I don't want to go to the extent of an lpg fired water geyser with or without flue and I can't run mains electric to van overnight.

 

[spruce]

I, too, would be interested to know if it is practical to use these heaters to keep van warm or even heat the water as I don't want to go to the extent of an lpg fired water geyser with or without flue and I can't run mains electric to van overnight.

Then I think you haven't many options left.

Is it practical to use these tube heaters? I won't have thought so.

Your only option would be to switch off the tap at the tank outlet, unscrew your filter bowl, throw the water away and then switch on your pump to drain the pipes from the filter, through the pump and out to your van ports. Bring the hose reel indoors to stop it freezing. Empty the pipe to your brush head and throw a duvet over the tank to slow the freezing process. The water in the tank may have a thin layer of ice on it in the morning, but filling up should help to dissolve that.

There maybe another option that I heard of that someone uses. Its called heat trace wire - 12 v rated.

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item5aeb7bef9b

This uses about 12w or 1amp per meter which is must less than 10 amps. I would have thought you could cable tie it to the pipe from the tank to your pump, insulate it with some pipe insulation (say 22mm), drain every thing else down as before. On a very cold night you will have to leave it running all night, and it will draw the same amount of current as your pump will working for 3 hours. On a not so cold night, you maybe able to switch this on as you get going in the morning and depending on the mileage you travel you should be ok when you get to the job.

You will have to supplementary charge your leisure battery much more regularily, maybe every 2nd or 3rd night.

 

[Guest]

This setup is much more viable now that Lithium battery’s are available. I know they cost a fortune.... about £700 for a good 100ah but they last for a very long time.

equlivent to a 200ah acid battery and you can cycle them around 5000 times. A acid battery is only capable of discharging half its capacity and you can only cycle them around 200 times. 
 

It’s a big expensive purchase. I put mine in with 2 40w enclosure heaters and I didn’t have much change from £1k but it’s done now and I don’t have to worry about it for a long time