infinite battery life

bmxfreakrider · 07-03-2007, 02:40 AM

yea, thats what my main topic is tonight. for the last hour or so, me and my dad have been arguing about this, and its now starting to **** me off, first, becasue to me it seems impossible. he is describing this:

Take a 12v car battery, hook a 120v inverter up to it, then take a car battery charger and plug that in to the inverter, and charge the 12v battery.

now the main reason I see as this won't work, is because it takes power to convert the power to 120v, and it also takes power to convert 120v to 12v, so you have power wasted. Plus, the inverter and charger both create heat, and heat is created by electrical resistance, which takes power. so he thinks that the system, with draw from a 60w light bulb would last about 3 years. now my point is, it will last longer with out the charger and inverter on the battery because they use power, and with out the devices connected, there will be more power left for the light.

so am I right? or is he right? srry if its hard to understand, but I kinda need the answer quick or something might get broken.

Biker-Boy-Nay · 07-03-2007, 05:17 AM

it might charge but it isnt Going to last forever lol

Brinson · 07-03-2007, 08:15 AM

Its not 100% efficient so it won't last forever, but it could last a while. Thought doubtfully much longer than the normal battery.

superdave1984 · 07-03-2007, 08:31 AM

The problem with his idea is the 120 inverter with the charger plugged into it pulls more amps than the charger puts into the battery. It is actually more likely that the battery will die sooner.

molsen · 07-03-2007, 10:25 AM

batteries have a limited number of charge cycles....you can only get power from them for so long before they stop holding a charge.

look into direct methanol fuel cells. infinite charge cycles and recharge instantly with a small canister of methanol. expect this to hit the market in a year or so.

Brinson · 07-03-2007, 12:25 PM

If the idea of just recharging the battery using its own power worked it would be how we powered our houses.

The energy loss as both heat and as the laptop itself cause it to be much less than 100% efficient.

bmxfreakrider · 07-03-2007, 12:32 PM

so cool, I was right. but if it did work, that would be pretty crazy. the only way I could see it working is have a series of 3 batterys, and have one off to the side, and have some solar panels during the day, and if the batts die at night, use the leftover battery either for power for a small light, or have it recharge the other batterys. but he was thinking of doing the one battery thing and he was saying it would last for about 3 years, and I should put my computer on it. my reply:

"SCREW THAT!!! I AINT GONNA HAVE MY PC FRY! only way I'd do it would be with a good high power UPS that has an alarm when it looses ac power"

Quote:

batteries have a limited number of charge cycles....you can only get power from them for so long before they stop holding a charge.

look into direct methanol fuel cells. infinite charge cycles and recharge instantly with a small canister of methanol. expect this to hit the market in a year or so.

that sounds pretty cool, Id probably invest in it.