Should Television work on battery power alone?

yakman · 07-19-2009, 08:40 PM

I was looking at my television today to get an idea of what to replace it with and noticed it reads 18 V DC on it. (would like to get HD tuner tv so I don't have to deal with the converter box anymore)

Should my tv be able to work under battery power only? It never has so I assume no. If it is, something must be wrong.

The TV is the Sony 19" that came with the trailer.

Thanks,

yakman

purman · 07-19-2009, 08:54 PM

I don't think they do, and if it did your batteries wouldn't last very long..

Lumatic · 07-19-2009, 09:02 PM

I tried Akai and Audiovox 12v tv/dvd player units. The DVD drives did not last in the 12v units. I now have a Sharp TV/ DVD that I use with a 400w modified sine wave inverter. I have a 200 amp hour Universal AGM battery. This weekend in addition to the interior lights and water pump my grandson watched at least 8 hours of DVDs. The battery still had plenty of juice.

16595 · 07-19-2009, 09:54 PM

My TV runs on 110V that is converted to 12 V. I called the company and asked if I could cut off the plug and transformer and plug it in to 12 V power. He did not like the idea even a little bit.

Using the inverter as mentioned above would be the way to go. I have 2 AGM's as well and think I could go for a little bit. Mostly news & weather is all I watch anyway.

Dwight

Lumatic · 07-20-2009, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 16595

My TV runs on 110V that is converted to 12 V. I called the company and asked if I could cut off the plug and transformer and plug it in to 12 V power. He did not like the idea even a little bit.

It is my opinion that manufacturers and their minions don't know what to do with questions that deal with out of the box thinking. In that case they usually C their liablility A and say something like that application is not recommended.

As far as I know 12v DC is 12v DC, although the voltage coming out of a battery does vary from 13v+ to 12v- depending on the level of charge.

**Chuck** · 07-20-2009, 08:33 AM

there are televisions that are made to run on 12v. Mine has both a 110v plug, as well as a 12v (cig lighter) plug.

OB Bambi · 07-21-2009, 05:52 PM

We have a 19" Polaroid LCD with DVD we got from Target. It is a 12 volt unit that had a 120v inline transformer with it when we bought it. We don't have to use the inline transformer. I bought a cigarette adapter plug from Radio Shack and pluged it in to the line for the TV an viola! No inverter.
Randy

mello mike · 07-19-2009, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yakman

I was looking at my television today to get an idea of what to replace it with and noticed it reads 18 V DC on it. (would like to get HD tuner tv so I don't have to deal with the converter box anymore)

Should my tv be able to work under battery power only? It never has so I assume no. If it is, something must be wrong.

The TV is the Sony 19" that came with the trailer.

Thanks,

yakman

Only if you have an inverter that converts 12vdc to 110ac.

TBRich · 07-19-2009, 10:19 PM

We have to use our factory inverter to run the TV or DVD via the TV...but it doesn't seem to wear down the batteries much.

mojo · 07-19-2009, 11:15 PM

I have a Magnavox HD Tv in my trailer which I bought because it runs on 18V. The 110 AC plug that came with it is a large converter plug. I bought a separate converter that plugs into the 12v socket and has the option to select the converted output, which is 18V for the TV. It works fine and does not cause any significant drain on the battery. I can switch between 110 and 18V depending on power availability. However, I still need 110 to run the DVD player.

a4rent · 07-20-2009, 01:09 AM

Target.com sells a good Skyworth 19" LCD TV that runs on 12v. I have them in two of our units and they work well. I like an external 12v DVD player rather than the built in ones. Makes it easy and cheap to replace when they die (not if).

Airstream25 · 07-21-2009, 06:41 PM

An inverter is not the way to go. You are suffering losses in the conversion from 12vdc to ac and then back to dc. If you doubt this, simply run your inverter under load for an hour then put your hand on it. The heat you feel comes from electrical losses. Larger inverters even have a cooling fan that wastes even more electricity.

Simply do a google search for 12 volt tv and you will find lots of options. I use a 12 vdc HD TV in my Airstream with good results.

Mexray · 07-21-2009, 06:54 PM

Sure, an inverter is not 100% efficient when converting from 12VDC to 110VAC, but the newer, solid state, types are good enough that you'll probably not notice...

With an inverter, you don't have to limit your search for a 12VDC TV, or DVD player...get the ones you want, use an inverter, and recharge your batteries with your generator each day to keep em' topped off...

We use an 1500 watt inverter so we can use it for other stuff besides the TV, Sat receiver and DVD player...blender, computer, phone chargers, etc...the only detractor, most larger rated inverters have biscuit fans to keep em' cool, and you can hear the fan running at a low hum...

We plug our TV, DVD, SAT receiver, SAT antenna operator, into one AC surge protector...we can then plug this protector into the inverter when on batteries, or plug it into the standard trailer AC receptacle when on shore power...works great and the expensive electronics are protected from surges when we're at RV parks as well...