Will this setup increase battery time

Thread Starter

mrel

Joined Jan 20, 2009
185
Hello



Got 100 amp hour ,12 volts AGM battery.

Will this increase running time of of 12 volts battery, using LED 12 volts ,10 watts led.

if I get buck converter board to drop the 12 volts battery volts to 5 volt,
and hookup Boost converter board to buck converter board to boost the 5 volts to 12 volts will this extend the battery running time longer since the battery only put out 5 volts and boost converter is creating 7 volts to make total 12 volts .
Will this work?
mrel
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
No, run time will not increase. It will decrease. Neither converter is 100% efficient. Most important, the "additional" 7V is not created. It is produced from the input voltage.

Just use your 12V battery directly.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
In a perfect world, converting from one voltage to another would NOT lose any of its power. I said "Power". 10 volts at 1 amp is the same power as 1 volt at 10 amps. But since we don't live in a perfect world there are losses in everything we do when we change a voltage (for instance).

The things that will influence battery life the most are the things that have the lowest losses. Copper wire is a very good conductor. Silver (I think) is better, and therefore less loss. Gold (I believe) is the best conductor and will reduce the losses even further. Go with a "Super Conductor" and your losses are nearly zero. But in the end you can't get more out of a battery than it is able to give.

IF you change your circuit to operate on 5 volts, powered from a 12 volt battery through a PWM supply you'll lower your consumption of power.

For best results, show us your project. Someone here will certainly know a better way of accomplishing whatever it is your goal is. Perhaps the 12 V LED can be replaced with a smaller LED, one that can run on as little as 3 volts. But for 10 watts - watts is watts.

A 100 Ah battery is pretty big for powering 10 watts of light. If this is something for the campground I can see the reason for using 12 volts. There are some pretty bright "Super Bright" LED's available that use very little power. Building a small array with them may give you more lumens than using an automotive LED bulb. However, those automotive LED bulbs are meant to be pretty bright while consuming very little power.

The point is - give us more details. Someone will possibly have a better way of accomplishing the task at hand.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,852
@Danko Not sure I follow the chart. Either way, copper is not the best of the three. I'm always open to learning something new - or correct - or better.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Remember that while gold is not the best conductor, it gives better sound when plated on anything related to high fidelity audio. :rolleyes:

The real reason for its use in PCB's and connectors, as I understand it, is that it doesn't tarnish under ordinary conditions, so the contacts are not affected by that. It is also easy to solder to.
 
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