Hi all,
Well, I've been busy fixing up my 1974 Compact II (pics will be coming soon) and my wife, 3-month-old and I are leaving for our first camping trip tomorrow... YEAH!! My question is regarding my 12v setup. I installed a 115 amp hour Everstart Marine
battery and basically want to just use it for 2 things:
lights and the occasional 150W inverter. Forgetting the inverter for a second, I installed 4 8-led dome
lights (
http://autolumination.com/fixtures.htm) rated at 80 milliamps each. I have a switch to turn 2 blue ones on at night (night
light for baby) and 2 white ones in the evening ( may switch to the 24-led
lights for this as the 8-leds are a bit weak). So I just want to see if I have this:
1 amp = 1000 milliamps
1 hour with 2 lights = 160 milliamps
10 hours of lights (approximate for a day) = 1.6 amps
Since I can use up to 50% of a 115 amp hour
battery (so 57 amp hours), that would mean for lights only, I could run them for 57/1.6 or 35 days at 10 hours per day... right?
Another question: I have a voltmeter but I think that readings are different for open circuit vs. under load. If I leave my
battery hooked up, but nothing turned on, will my readings be considered open circuit or under load? I ask because according to the following website, the battery at 50% should read 12.06 under load and 12.24 open circuit. (Website:
http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm)
THANKS!