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Old 07-23-2016, 04:21 PM   #1
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Portable Battery Pack

I have read lots of discussions about boondocking in these forums and my wife and I have down so several times in Walmart parking lots in our 2 week vacation in a 2016 Vegas 24.1. The problem is that my wife MUST have an electric blanket running. In the future we will be boondocking at a place which has quiet hours and will be cold. Yes, there is propane heat, but if she is warm without her electric blanket, it will be too hot for me to sleep in the RV.

So I need a way to power her electric blanket off of battery power. From what I know about the Axis / Vegas RV's there is no inverter, so we can only get 110 AC power from the generator. Rather than modifying an RV, how about using a portable battery pack to run my wife's electric blanket. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Gene...m+battery+pack

Any thoughts?

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Old 07-23-2016, 04:34 PM   #2
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Should be fine without installing an inverter, same result as its a portable inverter
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Old 07-23-2016, 04:58 PM   #3
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Do you think the 200W maximum is enough for your electric blanket? Will the modified sine output destroy blanket heating elements? What's the recharge plan?

Seems simpler, in the long run, to attach an adequate pure sine inverter to the coach batteries and run an AC line to the locations needed.
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Old 07-23-2016, 05:24 PM   #4
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Do you think the 200W maximum is enough for your electric blanket? Will the modified sine output destroy blanket heating elements? What's the recharge plan?

Seems simpler, in the long run, to attach an adequate pure sine inverter to the coach batteries and run an AC line to the locations needed.
This particular product says that it is pure sine and we can run the gennie during the day.

We would be staying in a dark sky astronomy site so my wife, the astronomer, would probably be out for half the night. I have plans to convert the RV into a warming station so she can warm up on those cold (but not freezing) Texas winter nights.

The Axis / Vegas has only two batteries under the steps. Do they store enough power if we get a pure sine inverter? Would they be able to store more than 200 watts of AC power (in DC form of course)? I sort of like the idea of a completely seperate electral system not tied to the RV for a backup to the RV systems and for portability ... it could also power telescopes!

Also, I know something about electrical systems ... but am still having problems understanding it all.

Any thoughts?
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Old 07-23-2016, 05:55 PM   #5
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I think that an electric blanket would work for about four hours with that battery pack:

The electric blanket would pull about 5 amps (60 watts/12 volts) and the battery has a capacity of 20 amp hours at 11 volts.

Your house batteries probably have about 100 amp hours per battery.
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Old 07-23-2016, 06:12 PM   #6
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If it's pure sine the heating elements should be ok and for that price it seems to be a pretty cool portable power supply if it's powerful enough to drive what you need.

I have a battery powered jacket by Milwaukee that lasts several hours on a small battery pack. For extra run time I purchased a few more tool/battery combo units. The tools are handy and didn't cost much more than the bare batteries.

The cool thing about Lithium 20Ahr is that you can get reliable life out of it near full use cycles vs 50% capacity cycles from coach batteries. The portability is priceless! Especially for the use you describe
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Old 07-23-2016, 06:26 PM   #7
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Some things are being over simplified in these analyis.

Watts is a measure of how much power can be delivered in a instant. In order to find our much energy it would take to run the blanket all night you need watt-hours.

A typical electric blanket can draw up to 200 watts. That times 8 hours equals 1600 watt hours.

The device you are looking at has a battery capability of storing up to 220 Watt hours maximum. So it would power the electric blanket for a little over an hour. You would need at least 8 of them to go all night. That's a 1600 dollar investment. You could get a lot of nights at a fancy campground with electric hook ups for that.

Ken

P.S The electric blanket should not care if power is pure sine wave or not and probably would even work on 120 volts DC. But that would also be a pretty costly investment in batteries.
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Old 07-23-2016, 07:21 PM   #8
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Some things are being over simplified in these analyis.
We basically say the same thing - 1 hour at 200 watts or 4 hours at 50 watts. There are smaller blankets that use only 50 watts at the low setting.

There are also DC blankets that would avoid the inefficiency of converting to AC.
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Old 07-23-2016, 08:33 PM   #9
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We basically say the same thing - 1 hour at 200 watts or 4 hours at 50 watts. There are smaller blankets that use only 50 watts at the low setting.

There are also DC blankets that would avoid the inefficiency of converting to AC.
Yes, I agree. I read the longer post, and by that time kind of skipped over yours.

Ken,
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Old 07-23-2016, 11:36 PM   #10
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Why must it be an electric blanket? A good down comforter holds in body heat quite well. There are sleeping bags at LL Bean or other suppliers that are rated to 40 degrees below zero. It seems to me that a good thermal blanket or comforter ought to be adequate.
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Old 07-24-2016, 02:12 AM   #11
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Why must it be an electric blanket? A good down comforter holds in body heat quite well. There are sleeping bags at LL Bean or other suppliers that are rated to 40 degrees below zero. It seems to me that a good thermal blanket or comforter ought to be adequate.
This something that my wife, who is very cold natured cannot do without. You have to have some body heat to begin with to get a good comforter going. In the days before we had a good electric blanket, I would get under her comforter to warm up the sheets. For this particular use she will come in very cold, coming into a warm RV a thermos of hot chocolate will help, but she will need her electric blanket to go to sleep.
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Old 07-24-2016, 02:23 AM   #12
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Some things are being over simplified in these analyis.

Watts is a measure of how much power can be delivered in a instant. In order to find our much energy it would take to run the blanket all night you need watt-hours.

A typical electric blanket can draw up to 200 watts. That times 8 hours equals 1600 watt hours.

The device you are looking at has a battery capability of storing up to 220 Watt hours maximum. So it would power the electric blanket for a little over an hour. You would need at least 8 of them to go all night. That's a 1600 dollar investment. You could get a lot of nights at a fancy campground with electric hook ups for that.

Ken

P.S The electric blanket should not care if power is pure sine wave or not and probably would even work on 120 volts DC. But that would also be a pretty costly investment in batteries.
I checked her blanket and it says that it should use a max of 180 watts (per hour???). But that is on high, she would keep it on high for maybe 30 min. tops. Then she would cut it down to maybe 20% power for the rest of the night. So correct me if I am doing my math wrong:

30 minutes on high = 90 watts
3 hours at 20% = 105 watts
That leaves 5 watts left over so this might keep the blanket going for almost 4 hours according these rough calculations.
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Old 07-24-2016, 02:26 AM   #13
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We basically say the same thing - 1 hour at 200 watts or 4 hours at 50 watts. There are smaller blankets that use only 50 watts at the low setting.

There are also DC blankets that would avoid the inefficiency of converting to AC.
I will check out some DC blankets. This might more sense than using a power hungry residential blanket.
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Old 07-24-2016, 03:52 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by Eratosthenes View Post
I checked her blanket and it says that it should use a max of 180 watts (per hour???). But that is on high, she would keep it on high for maybe 30 min. tops. Then she would cut it down to maybe 20% power for the rest of the night. So correct me if I am doing my math wrong:

30 minutes on high = 90 watts
3 hours at 20% = 105 watts
That leaves 5 watts left over so this might keep the blanket going for almost 4 hours according these rough calculations.
I'm going to to the math myself and see if I get the same result.
30 minutes at 180 watts = 90 watt hours.
220 Watt hours (Max) - 90 Watt hours = 130 watt hours remaining at end of 30 mins.
20% 0f 180 Watts = 36 watts
130 Watthours / 36 watts = 3.6 hours
.5 hours + 3.6 Hours =4.10 hours of sleep. (If she turns the blanket down in her sleep)

We came close enough that I convinced we're both right. So now all you have to do is convince your wife she only needs 4 hours of sleep,, or get an additional power supply to power the rest of the night. if she didn't need to do the 30 mins on high over again she could 220 Watthours / 36 watts = 6.1 hours of additional sleep.

Ken

My math is not infallible and I welcome any corrections.
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Old 07-24-2016, 03:54 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Eratosthenes View Post
I will check out some DC blankets. This might more sense than using a power hungry residential blanket.
Why not look at HotHands Hand Warmers?
https://www.amazon.com/HotHands-Hand...s=hand+warmers

You can also get them in Sportsman's Warehouse.
HotHands Value Pack 10-Pack | Sportsman's Warehouse

I used to use them when tent camping. I would place the hand warmer in a cotton crew sock. Then roll the sock up and use it like a hot water bottle.
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Old 07-24-2016, 03:58 AM   #16
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First search found this:

You can't beat the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Trademark-Too...ectric+blanket

Plenty of other DC blankets on amazon

Ken
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Old 07-24-2016, 02:47 PM   #17
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Why not look at HotHands Hand Warmers?
https://www.amazon.com/HotHands-Hand...s=hand+warmers
My wife loves the HotHands, we buy in bulk. Naturally, we forgot them when we drove north to Wyoming this summer. When you are in Texas in July it is hard to imagine what cold feels like anymore.

My wife uses them while outside to do astronomy, but when she comes inside we need to pull out the big guns ... hence the electric blanket. She should really try to find a warmer hobby!
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Old 07-24-2016, 02:52 PM   #18
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First search found this:

You can't beat the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Trademark-Too...ectric+blanket

Plenty of other DC blankets on amazon

Ken
Think I found the problem with a DC blanket ... no 12 volt cigarette lighter outlet in the bedroom. Would need to get an adapter.

Do any of the Vegas outlets work in the bedroom off of the coach battery? I think you have to be connected to shore power or have the gennie running to use those outlets.

Thanks for all the ideas!
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Old 07-24-2016, 03:19 PM   #19
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I added a 12V cigarette lighter outlet in the bedroom of my 24.1. Not hard to do and really useful. My wife has the opposite problem so I needed an outlet for the fan.
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Old 07-24-2016, 04:13 PM   #20
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I added a 12V cigarette lighter outlet in the bedroom of my 24.1. Not hard to do and really useful. My wife has the opposite problem so I needed an outlet for the fan.
I am planning to add a couple in our motorhome. In addition there are lot of these are available at RV supply places.

Prime Products Adapter Plug Extension Cord


Ken
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