Operating Voltage..?

[Doobie1]

Question: I have a TV in my car (6.5" TV/DVD) if im sitting in my car with the tv on & the car off is the TV using enough power to drain the battery? If im looking at it for about 30-60min a day Or I shouldnt worry about it ?

In my manual it say Operating Voltage- 14.4V

[jdando]

What is the amp draw of the TV/DVD? If that is not available what wattage.

Then a better estimate can be made.

jeremy

[Captain Steve]

14.4 may just be the maximum. A normal voltage in a 12 volt system is 13.8v I think, so it's probably close enough.

If the TV is a LCD screen, I would say you have no problem at all running it for a few hours a day.

If it's a CRT it will draw more power, but still probably not enough to worry about.

Just run it for an hour and watch your volt meter, the volts probably won't even drop.

The volt meters in our car aren't super accurate in an absolute sense.. meaning they may be off a volt or two compared to reality. However, they work fine for the purpose of monitering your battery. Just check the voltage when you have the TV on, then after a half hour or so check again. If your voltage has dropped more than a couple of volts, then start the car up run it for 15 minutes or so, giving it just a little bit of throttle in idle.. about 1k rpms should do. That will charge your battery up again and you'll be good to go.

[Doobie1]

Ok I looked in the manual and it say current consumption 15A

[Captain Steve]

15 amps is alot of draw for a car battery. Car batteries charge up fast and have a lot of cold cranking amps, but they aren't very deep. A deep cycle battery like they have on boats will have alot more amp-hours than a starting battery, but they charge alot slower.


With that much draw, I would recommend that you use the TV no more than an hour at a time between starting the car and re-charging the battery. That way you'll be sure to not drain the battery so much that the car won't start.