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ELECTRICTY IN THE PARKING LOT One doesn't absolutely need electricity at a tailgate party, but it sure can come in handy! You might want to watch the pregame hoopla on a portable TV or hook up your stereo, blender, hair clippers. Your power can be used for just about anything from a toaster oven to a satellite dish. Some may think it would be a real pain to hook up satellite when it's really not. All you need is a dish, a receiver, a Sidekick portable dish mount, some cables, and a 110/12 volt inverter. You could spend hundreds to thousands on a basic generator. The choice is yours . . . Me . . . Forget loud generators. Power tv, satellite, radio, fan, etc. with marine batteries (bring 2, one for backup). Get yourself a nice inverter to handle anything you have to throw at it. To figure out how much power you'll need, figure out how many amps are needed to start each of your appliances (starting power is measured in amps, while the power needed to run the appliances is measured in watts). Then take the total number of amps needed for ALL the appliances you tend on using and multiply by 3 - this is the minimum amp capacity you'll need from your power source - be it an inverter or a generator. INVERTERS - More than likely a 700 watt inverter or 1000 watt generator will be more than suffice for your tailgating needs. A 400 watt unit ($50 with 2 outlets) will power anything under 150 watts right from the cars cigarette lighter. Anything more needs a direct connection to your 12 volt battery (either the car battery or spare). You can use it to power your TV for pregame/postgame broadcasts (20" TV uses about 110 Watts), lights for the late or night games (x-mas type lights that you can string up around your 10' x 10' canopy), stereo, or even the Coleman 40 quart thermoelectric cooler among other things. THE CATCH: You can't run your TV, electric blender, stereo and "The Bar is Open" neon sign for hours and later expect your vehicle to run. Your vehicle needs a certain amount of battery power to start. Temperature can also have an affect on your cranking amps. The colder it is, the more power you need to conserve to start your vehicle.
You have several options:
GENERATORS - A
high quality 1,000 watt is easy to haul around weighing about
20-30lbs. Yet, space consuming in your vehicle. There's also the
hidden costs of your generator:
A small generator operating at it's rated load (maximum power potential) will last around 4 hours before it needs refueling.. Assuming you're just powering a few items, you'll probably be operating at something like a ¼ of the rated load - in this case, the generators fuel supply could last over 8 hours. Basically, the more appliances there are and the bigger they are, the more fuel you'll burn.
If you're going with the
generator mode then you're a living room bringing type of tailgater
therefore your probably aching for MORE POWER! If you find that your
one of these people you could either buy a bigger generator or you
can cable 2 generators together and get double the capacity. SAFETY
Read your owners manual and
observe the following:
Don't forget an extension cord.
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