36 volt to 12 volt converter

[JGC403]

How do these work? Does the 36 volts just go through a bunch of resistors to get it down to 12 volts making heat and wasting power? Is it going to waste power when using 12 volt accessories? In the description is states that its 90% efficient. I have seen other people on here using an extra 12 volt battery to power 12 volt accessories, but I don't want to do that. I use this golf cart for working around, I have lights and an ARB air compressor for airing up tires and is capable of running air tools.

https://www.amazon.com/JahyShow-Volt...volt+converter

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by JGC403

How do these work? Does the 36 volts just go through a bunch of resistors to get it down to 12 volts making heat and wasting power? Is it going to waste power when using 12 volt accessories? In the description is states that its 90% efficient. I have seen other people on here using an extra 12 volt battery to power 12 volt accessories, but I don't want to do that. I use this golf cart for working around, I have lights and an ARB air compressor for airing up tires and is capable of running air tools.

https://www.amazon.com/JahyShow-Volt...volt+converter

Typically, voltage converters use a DC to DC converter to efficiently convert one DC voltage to another. These converters are much more efficient than resistors or bipolar transistors that convert waste energy into heat.

[Mooncarter]

Without getting into the "how they work" I am a believer in having a separate switch to power the converter BEFORE it goes to any accessories. That way you don't have to worry about the converter draining batteries while not using accessories. Just my 2 cents worth.

[cgtech]

The modern styles of dc converters generally work by taking the input power and turning it "on-and-off" very, very quickly so that the load device (lights, ect) only sees an average voltage matching the converter's target output voltage. This switching has to happen super quickly to work, like thousands of times a second. And reliably, countless billions of times during the converters life. The transistors capable of meeting both of those criteria are not 100% efficient at transferring energy (but are many times better than "a bunch of resistors"). So a little bit of energy is lost as heat. You know the old saying "there's no free lunch". The efficiency can be looked at like this- if you have a air compressor that requires 15 amps and 12 volts, a 100% efficient converter would be able to do it while only drawing only 5 amps from the 36 volt battery pack (notice the 3:1 ratios). A 90% efficient one would require 5.5 amps at 36 volts to do the job, while wasting 0.5 amps as lost heat.

[noslofivoh]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Without getting into the "how they work" I am a believer in having a separate switch to power the converter BEFORE it goes to any accessories. That way you don't have to worry about the converter draining batteries while not using accessories. Just my 2 cents worth.

Are you referring to a switch between the converter and the lights?

[orangeman6]

Originally Posted by noslofivoh

Are you referring to a switch between the converter and the lights?

I don't think he is. I'm pretty sure he's talking about being able to switch the converter on and off itself.

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by noslofivoh

Are you referring to a switch between the converter and the lights?

No. Between pack positive and the reducer.

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by orangeman6

I don't think he is. I'm pretty sure he's talking about being able to switch the converter on and off itself.

[marianol]

If you are going to be running tools and a compressor.
I will go with the extra 12v battery, you do not want to work for a couple of hours just to figure our you have drained the 36v pack and cannot get back home :)

Just my 2 cents.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[Mooncarter]

I'm curious too. Just what type of compressor are you trying to run off of a golf cart?