[iviark]

Hi, if it were simple to do I'd be interested in being able to run my guitar amp from my battery. But just have a few questions is all that i hope you guys will know more than I do.

Its a 15W amp but it says on the back that it needs a supply of 240V 75W. Is this something that the standard alternator in the van can produce with a inverter such as http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8160002/?grossPrice=Y&cm_mmc=UK-PLA-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Power_Supplies_And_Transformers-_-DC-AC_Power_Inverters&mkwid=sWmHmed2e_dc|pcrid|88057063443|pkw||pmt||prd|8160002&gclid=Cj0KEQjwmv7JBRDXkMWW4_Tf8ZoBEiQA11B2fkqtl_Usg31uAhNw9aiV1BcXAfkk3mAAvpUeFXZCV_waAntT8P8HAQ ?

Will this kill my battery and alternator? It'd only be running whilst the engine was running?

Would it be better through a leisure battery?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[triffic]

Yes - it's certainly feasible. It won't be very efficient, and you may find you need to go with a slightly higher power inverter to cope with the amp power-on surge (depending on the design of the amp as much as anything else) but I doubt that's too important. It will probably take 6-8 Amps from the battery when running at higher volume, so you should get a couple of hours easily from a decent leisure battery in good condition.

The alternator should have no trouble with a load of that size, though having the engine droning away in the background may not be ideal. If you choose to run it from the engine battery without the engine running, keep a close eye on the battery voltage or you may have too little left to start the engine, obviously.

 

[landie]

It'd probably work out cheaper if you bought a 12v amp or a mobile amp with a built in battery.

Trying to use an inverter is likely to cause noise issues with the amp as well as being really inefficient.

 

[iviark]

I didnt think about the inverter interfering with the amp itself. Just thought because im going away in it to andorra with my mates and thought for a bit of entertainment that could be cheap at ~£35 for an inverter and getting a much better sound than the van speakers haha

 

[landie]

I didnt think about the inverter interfering with the amp itself. Just thought because im going away in it to andorra with my mates and thought for a bit of entertainment that could be cheap at ~£35 for an inverter and getting a much better sound than the van speakers haha

A £35 inverter won't be a proper sine wave inverter, it'll be a very rough smoothed square wave. You're looking more like £100 minimum for a sine wave inverter.

 

[iviark]

A £35 inverter won't be a proper sine wave inverter, it'll be a very rough smoothed square wave. You're looking more like £100 minimum for a sine wave inverter.

Another thing to bear in mind then, because thats something else I didnt realise. thanks