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#1
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Battery-Driven Tanis
I have a common problem of possessing a Tanis heater in my Warrior but
no electrical source by which to run it. Past newsgroup and online knowledge (including an email from Tanis) say that at least a couple of hours are needed to heat the engine in about 20 deg F temps. An old post from 1999 suggested that a "deep cycle" battery be used in conjuction with an inverter to be turned on a couple of hours prior to flight. Does anyone currently use this setup? If so, any suggestions on the myriad of battery types and brands? Golf cart batteries are mentioned quite a bit but they range in price so much that it demands some research. Although I live 3 minutes from my tiedown, sitting in my car two hours before any winter flight kinda takes the wind out of that benefit. Marco |
#2
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Battery-Driven Tanis
"Marco Leon" wrote in message ups.com... I have a common problem of possessing a Tanis heater in my Warrior but no electrical source by which to run it. Past newsgroup and online knowledge (including an email from Tanis) say that at least a couple of hours are needed to heat the engine in about 20 deg F temps. An old post from 1999 suggested that a "deep cycle" battery be used in conjuction with an inverter to be turned on a couple of hours prior to flight. Looks like the smallest Tanis heaters are around 250 watts. Even with a good inverter you will probably consume around 300 watts, or 25 amps at 12 volts. Most of the deep cycle batteries are rated based on a 20-hr discharge rate. That means that a 225 amp-hr battery will only deliver that storage capacity when it is discharged at the 20-hr rate, or in this case about 12.5 amps - if you discharge it faster (25 amps) then you will not get rated capacity. Of course, the battery will not do as well in very cold temperatures either. In addition and IIRC, deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged to about 20% of capacity and no more. Even so, it looks like getting a couple of hours out of a 225 amp-hr battery shouldn't be a problem. You will just have to haul the thing around and keep it charged all the time to be able to use it and to keep it healthy. I wouldn't expect that you'd be able to run more than about 5 or 6 hours continuous though, and again, that's on a healthy battery. If your heater has a higher rating than 250 watts, you would have to take that into account and decrease the numbers above accordingly. BDS |
#3
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Battery-Driven Tanis
Go to a store and buy a portable gasoline powered generator.
Get insulating blankets for the cowl, otherwise all the heat will escape. If you can setup some sort of remote starting for the generator, you can get started warming it up or just start the generator and go get a cup of coffee. You don't want to be hauling hundreds of pounds of acid filled batteries around. Or run a powerline, they do that all the time at construction sites. "BDS" wrote in message et... | | "Marco Leon" wrote in message | ups.com... | I have a common problem of possessing a Tanis heater in my Warrior but | no electrical source by which to run it. Past newsgroup and online | knowledge (including an email from Tanis) say that at least a couple | of hours are needed to heat the engine in about 20 deg F temps. | | An old post from 1999 suggested that a "deep cycle" battery be used in | conjuction with an inverter to be turned on a couple of hours prior to | flight. | | Looks like the smallest Tanis heaters are around 250 watts. Even with a | good inverter you will probably consume around 300 watts, or 25 amps at 12 | volts. | | Most of the deep cycle batteries are rated based on a 20-hr discharge rate. | That means that a 225 amp-hr battery will only deliver that storage capacity | when it is discharged at the 20-hr rate, or in this case about 12.5 amps - | if you discharge it faster (25 amps) then you will not get rated capacity. | Of course, the battery will not do as well in very cold temperatures either. | In addition and IIRC, deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged to | about 20% of capacity and no more. | | Even so, it looks like getting a couple of hours out of a 225 amp-hr battery | shouldn't be a problem. You will just have to haul the thing around and | keep it charged all the time to be able to use it and to keep it healthy. I | wouldn't expect that you'd be able to run more than about 5 or 6 hours | continuous though, and again, that's on a healthy battery. | | If your heater has a higher rating than 250 watts, you would have to take | that into account and decrease the numbers above accordingly. | | BDS | | |
#4
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Battery-Driven Tanis
On Jan 31, 6:01 pm, "Jim Macklin"
wrote: Go to a store and buy a portable gasoline powered generator. Get insulating blankets for the cowl, otherwise all the heat will escape. If you can setup some sort of remote starting for the generator, you can get started warming it up or just start the generator and go get a cup of coffee. You don't want to be hauling hundreds of pounds of acid filled batteries around. That's a good point about the acid batteries. Charging would be a constantpain as well. I think you guys are convincing me to go the generator route... |
#5
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Battery-Driven Tanis
I've been reading this tread with some interest, but I am fortunate in
that I have electricity to my hanger. What I'm curious about is the cell phone or pager thing to turn on a heater remotely. Has anyone done that, and how so? One thing that came to mind with pagers is that alot of times they will beep something like once a minute as a reminder if you don't push the button when it goes off, does that mean that any application would be switching on and off likewise if you used a pager? -Ryan Wubben Madison |
#6
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Battery-Driven Tanis
On Feb 1, 11:54 am, wrote:
I've been reading this tread with some interest, but I am fortunate in that I have electricity to my hanger. What I'm curious about is the cell phone or pager thing to turn on a heater remotely. Has anyone done that, and how so? One thing that came to mind with pagers is that alot of times they will beep something like once a minute as a reminder if you don't push the button when it goes off, does that mean that any application would be switching on and off likewise if you used a pager? -Ryan Wubben Madison You can start he http://www.reiffpreheat.com/Beeper%20Box%20pg%201.htm. There are others on the market I believe. There's also a $15 ThermoCube that turns on the outlet under a certain temperature. Sporty's has it. Marco |
#7
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Battery-Driven Tanis
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#8
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Battery-Driven Tanis
Although I live 3 minutes from my tiedown, sitting in my car two hours
before any winter flight kinda takes the wind out of that benefit. Sounds like a perfect application for one of those annoying little Honda generators that we always seem to get stuck next to when camping...? -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#9
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Battery-Driven Tanis
On Jan 31, 6:41 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Sounds like a perfect application for one of those annoying little Honda generators that we always seem to get stuck next to when camping...? Annoying and expensive! The Honda's go for around $600 and the Coleman's about $450. There's a DuroPower line that runs just north of $100 but that price makes me take a step back. Marco |
#10
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Battery-Driven Tanis
Annoying and expensive! The Honda's go for around $600 and the
Coleman's about $450. True, but you'd have something that would be truly useful in other applications all year long. (Like a power outage?) Not sure what else you could do with a solar-powered Tanis heater contraption... ;-) -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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