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niaro · May 13, 2009, 03:59 PM

Can a house run on a dry car battery and for how long, house meaning the refrigerators, lights and all other house hold appliances

N0help4u · May 13, 2009, 04:07 PM

I would think you would need a battery for each thing. My friend ran his TV off a car battery and I have ran a stereo off a car battery.

excon · May 13, 2009, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by niaro

can a house run on a dry car battery

Hello n:

Nope. A car battery puts out 12 volts. A house runs on 120 volts.

excon

ballengerb1 · May 13, 2009, 04:44 PM

You can use a transformer or an inverter to step up voltage but then your amps will drop, in the long run this will not work. Some small Tvs are deisgned to be run on a battery but none of your standard household appliances will work.

Fr_Chuck · May 13, 2009, 05:54 PM

But not really a car battery, you need a deep cell battery, often in large banks, They make special batteries for such use

KISS · May 13, 2009, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

But not really a car battery, you need a deep cell battery, often in large banks, They make special batteries for such use

Not Deep Cell, but Deep Cycle

These are the same type of batteries used for golf cart applications or electric outboard motors.

A car battery is designed to deliver lots of Amps for a short time and there for have really close plates. A Deep cycle battery will not start a car because the plates are farther apart.

Close plates mean that it's really easy for the plates to short when the electrolyte is depleated.

Batteries are typically rated in capacity by Amp-hours. In theory, it can deliver x amount of Amps for an hour, but in reality it's not the way they are measured.

Inverters are necessary to change the DC voltage of a battery to an AC voltage. To find out a lot abut the technology see Home Power Magazine: Solar | Wind | Water | Design | Build where lots of different alternative energy sources are discussed as this is the magazine's focus.

Batteries as a storage medium have lots of issues that need to be addressed.

N0help4u · May 14, 2009, 05:13 AM

Also I am sure they would need a battery charger to keep charging the battery. Then the battery charger would need the house electricity.

Capuchin · May 14, 2009, 03:25 PM

During a powercut, my father would often run things like a few lights and other small comforts off his battery. However it's probably pretty infeasible to run the whole house off it.

andrewc24301 · Jun 7, 2009, 08:56 PM

I met an Amish man once who ran his entire store on 12V DC power, so it can be done. Of course it's a lot of work, and you will suffer inconviences that folks hooked up to the grid don't have to worry about.

Clough · Jun 7, 2009, 09:28 PM

Hi, niaro!

I would like to know why you're asking the question, if you wouldn't mind sharing the reason.

Thanks!