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What’s the best way to power boat stereo with 2 amps?
I currently have 2 amps running 8 6×9 speakers. I have 2 AGM batteries but I try to just use 1 to run stereo when the boats not running (switched). The battery doesn’t last very long at all so I was thinking about installing 2 6v golf cart batteries in place of battery #2 to get more runtime. Is there a better way? 12v deep cycle? Help
One thing you should do is check your battery to see if it’s holding a charge and also check it’s capacity. Realize that many electronics will not run once a battery is more than 50% depleted, so the total amp hours a battery or battery bank may have can be misleading. It’s also difficult to fully charge a battery, so your actual power availabilty may be only 40% or so of the batteries rated output.
For that kind of power, a deep cycle would be a better choice than a starting battery. Though I’ve never done it, I’ve read good reports that using two 6V golf cart batteries as you mentioned to get the 12 volts needed is an affordable option to consider. One of the reasons I haven’t done this is that once you have two batteries, unless you have a battery isolator, a run down battery will drain the good battery, so its important you stay up on the batteries if you do this.
The other thing you need to consider is how your battery or battery bank is charged. Increasing your battery capacity doesn’t do any good if you don’t have the power to fully charge that battery. Again, this is not as easy as simple amps in and amps out. Running your 2 amp stereo for 10 hour may draw 20 amps, but you can’t assume that running a 100 amp alternator for 5 minutes will replace that power. The overall efficiency of charging and the capacity of the battery come into play. Also, if the battery is being charged by a non-regulated power source, it’s possible to over charge the battery, damaging it so it won’t hold a charge. Leaving a battery uncharged over the winter below freezing can also destroy it’s ability to hold a charge.
Hope this helps.
One Response to “What’s the best way to power boat stereo with 2 amps?”
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February 24th, 2010 at 10:52 am
One thing you should do is check your battery to see if it’s holding a charge and also check it’s capacity. Realize that many electronics will not run once a battery is more than 50% depleted, so the total amp hours a battery or battery bank may have can be misleading. It’s also difficult to fully charge a battery, so your actual power availabilty may be only 40% or so of the batteries rated output.
For that kind of power, a deep cycle would be a better choice than a starting battery. Though I’ve never done it, I’ve read good reports that using two 6V golf cart batteries as you mentioned to get the 12 volts needed is an affordable option to consider. One of the reasons I haven’t done this is that once you have two batteries, unless you have a battery isolator, a run down battery will drain the good battery, so its important you stay up on the batteries if you do this.
The other thing you need to consider is how your battery or battery bank is charged. Increasing your battery capacity doesn’t do any good if you don’t have the power to fully charge that battery. Again, this is not as easy as simple amps in and amps out. Running your 2 amp stereo for 10 hour may draw 20 amps, but you can’t assume that running a 100 amp alternator for 5 minutes will replace that power. The overall efficiency of charging and the capacity of the battery come into play. Also, if the battery is being charged by a non-regulated power source, it’s possible to over charge the battery, damaging it so it won’t hold a charge. Leaving a battery uncharged over the winter below freezing can also destroy it’s ability to hold a charge.
Hope this helps.
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