xBox in Motorhome on House Batteries?

Too many missing details to answer. How many batteries, what type, what type of inverter, what type of TV, etc etc?

Your draw and your capacity depend on a lot of factors. It's a math problem and can be figured out but you need to know the numbers first.

richhoward wrote:
Just curious, we will be boondocking for my daughters softball tournament and wondering if my son has the xbox turned on and the tv just those two things can he run off house batteries or do I need to crank up the generator for him to play for a couple hours?

Xbox 1 or 360? :)

Regardless - those Xbox'es suck some power. 200, 300 watts depending on a lot of factors. The TV (assuming it's a newer LED TV) will sip power compared to the console.

So - you need a couple of things:
- like said before - how many batteries does the coach have? what are the ratings?
- do you have a 400 watt or better inverter to power the console and TV
- what else is running?
- solar?


Some back of the envelope calculations - every 100 watts takes about 8 1/3 amps at 12V DC.

So 300 watts is going to take 25 Amps every hour.
That's a pretty good hit on a single Group 27 battery battery.

Rich, even with a big battery bank (four or more) you'll need to run the generator whether your son uses his Xbox or not. I'd opt for running while he is playing then the batteries won't get near the below 50% danger level.

I put in an Xbox and TV for my GS when we went out west. He only used it while in transit. When camping he had others things to do like exploring, hiking and bike riding. My alternator was able to put more back into the batteries than he used while traveling.

If you can microwave on the house batteries you can Xbox.

can you use an inverter and power the Xbox ..yes

do you have enough battery for him to do this ? we don't know

how many batteries, what size

that Xbox will use twice or more the power of a residential fridge wile it is on and he is playing, and it won't cycle on/off like a fridge

4hrs of Xbox could equal 16 hrs of fridge time

you can do your geussitmation from that

my best guess 'right now' is run the generator, seems like this is a rare occasion, the gas usage will be cheap compared to battery damage or the cost of upgrading your battery bank, and the genny can probably use the excersize

richhoward wrote:
Just curious, we will be boondocking for my daughters softball tournament and wondering if my son has the xbox turned on and the tv just those two things can he run off house batteries or do I need to crank up the generator for him to play for a couple hours?

If you have a modern flat screen TV it will not draw much power and the XBox is not really that much of an energy hog. You will need an inverter to provide 120V power to these devices so the size, type and number of batteries that you have on board will make a big difference in how long you can run without starting your generator. It should never be an issue, however, as the only issue is how long or how many times you have to run the generator. Since that's why you have a generator, you might as well use it!

That Xbox isn't that bad.

I would say on full charge the batts running the TV+xbox will last several hours. You will need to run the genny though for a recharge. Test the xbox on a battery minder to know the wattage draw.

Answers all over the board, grasping at straws without all the details.