Thread: How long will my battery last?

Originally Posted by tmorgant1

Okay, I am going to show my ignorance on my first post.

DO NOT DOUBLE POST. Please delete one of your posts.

Michael

Originally Posted by tmorgant1

Okay, I am going to show my ignorance on my first post. I will admit that I know nothing about electric/batteries etc. That is why I cam here to ask my question. Okay here it goes.

I have purchased a water heater ( for a stock tank that I can’t get electric to) that is designed to work off either a 12 volt or 6 volt battery. The heater is 600 watts with a 12 volt battery or is 300 watts with a 6 volt battery. I have no idea how to maximize the battery life so I am not changing batteries daily. The advertisement said

Extending battery time - Batteries can also be banked together in PARALLEL (not series) to extend the time in between visits to remote stock tanks. You can also extend the running time by up to 4 times by using 6 volt "GOLF CART" batteries and running the heater on only 6 volts. On a 6 volt battery they will last 4 times longer in between charges BUT they will not run as HOT either which could work out nice for smaller or really remote tanks!

So, If I get a 6 volt golf cart battery, how long should I expect that it will stay heating? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You need to provide more information. It depends on the capacity of the batteries you use, how many, and how you wire them, in parallel or in series.
Also, batteries will lose voltage as they "get low". Therefore, we would also need to know at what voltage the heater will cut out, and also, at what capacity in the battery the voltage will drop.

There is no answer based on the information you provided.

Michael

Originally Posted by tmorgant1

How? I put it in the wrong place. Didn't mean to make you mad. First day and I'm already in trouble.

Not mad. Just go to the thread, and hit edit, and try and delete it. You might need to hit the "go advanced" button to delete the thread.

Michael

Originally Posted by tmorgant1

I want to use one battery at a time and change them out as they go dead. I guess that is part of my question, what size battery and once that is established how long will it last?

Like I said, it is impossible to know with out knowing a lot more information. I need to know the size of the battery, not physically but capacity wise, at what level the voltage will drop and to which point, and at what voltage your unit will stop operating. There are too many unknowns.

But, here is the thing

VoltageXamperage=wattage.
Batteries are rated in amps, or milliamps, or whatever. With that rating, which is dependent on the battery, we can START to calculate an approximate length of time. But remember, we do not know at what voltage the heater will stop working, and we don't necessarily know at what level the votlage of the battery will drop. A 12 volt deep cycle battery (golf cart batteries are deep cycle, but not 12 volts) is rated at X amp hours until it the battery voltage drops below 10.5 volts. We need to know the same thing about your cart battery to determine your question with any sort of accuracy.

Michael

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

Best explanation on the web!

to

Michael