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12 volt lighting???

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Need some more ideas.

would like to light up our two paddocks that are outside town without electricity and would like to do it cheap and simple. Use would be an hour a day at most. Real simple would be a car battery with a headlight (H4?) mounted up in a corner with a mirror or tin foil a foot square or so on the two walls. Next would be 12 volt florescent or CF. Area isn't big (20x30ft) and I won't be doing surgery, just want to be able to see to take care of the horses without carrying a flashlight. Would one of the solar battery maintainers be enough to refill the battery after running a headlight bulb for < an hour? Or would one of the HF 5 or 15 watt ones be the way to go? Maybe skip the headlight and use florescent or CF (would they drain the battery less than the headlight bulb)?

Thanks again,

Dave
 
I don't know about the solar chargers, but I would recommend a marine, deep cycle battery. I would think the solar charger would work, just have no experience with one. I was thinking of doing similar with a water wheel that I was selling. Guy had a pond a LONG way from house, and did not want to run electricity to it. My pump would have drawn so much that the panel was going to cost WAY more than burying a romex ever would have. Greg
 
You can also get RV bulbs. Look like a regular light bulb, but are for 12V.

I think maybe a solar charger would work because you are not using the light very much.

We have a gravel pit here that the scale runs off of a solar panel to a battery and then thru an inverter.
 
It would depend on the number of lights, draw, and battery choice. Most battery tenders will not recharge a battery than has reach a certian point of discharge. So read what your getting and plan on three days of no sun to recharge.

Personally,

My first choice would be 12 RV lamps. Will not have the issues with the cold the florescent or CF will. LED would be nice but just to expensive.

To power them I would consider having a set leads that could be connected to my vehicle. The cost of the Battery and Tender would cover a lot of gas to just idle the car. You will be running wires either way.

Drive up, hook up, do you biz and leave. Only worry is did a ligh bulb go bad.
 
(quoted from post at 15:03:21 12/17/09) To power them I would consider having a set leads that could be connected to my vehicle. The cost of the Battery and Tender would cover a lot of gas to just idle the car. You will be running wires either way.

Drive up, hook up, do you biz and leave. Only worry is did a ligh bulb go bad.
Click to expand...

I could light it up like a football field and just plug into the cigarette lighter.......
Just bought cigarette lighters to install on the tractor and quad today. Real convenient would be about a 50 ft extension. Any idea of how big the wire would need to be, or would it defeat the purpose?

Dave
 
Duh!!! I wasn't even thinking. I have a 12V trouble light in my car. Just hook it up to the battery with clips.
 
(quoted from post at 15:22:05 12/17/09) Duh!!! I wasn't even thinking. I have a 12V trouble light in my car. Just hook it up to the battery with clips.
Click to expand...

Simple stuff always seems to slip right by :roll:

Dave
 
You said "cheap" so that limits things a lot.

One Walmart 12 volt almost-deep cycle battery will light three CFLs that are 100 watt equivalent for 20 hours. So, six lights can go 10 hours, etc.
But charging it? To keep up with a hour's use daily, you'd need $300 in solar equipment.

One suggestion. If you bought a Duracell Powerpack 600 (one sale for $100), it has a built in 26 AH battery, 600 watt inverter, small light, and also jumpercables. It has built in 120 VAC outlets. If you plugged in three 100 watt rated CFLs, it would run them for a little over 2 hours. And, it will recharge through your cigarette lighter or at home at a 120 VAC outlet. Nice thing is, it's handy for a lot of other things, so it wouldn't be $100 spent just for the lights.
 
(quoted from post at 15:41:21 12/17/09) You said "cheap" so that limits things a lot.
If you bought a Duracell Powerpack 600 (one sale for $100), it has a built in 26 AH battery, 600 watt inverter, small light, and also jumpercables. It has built in 120 VAC outlets. If you plugged in three 100 watt rated CFLs, it would run them for a little over 2 hours. And, it will recharge through your cigarette lighter or at home at a 120 VAC outlet. Nice thing is, it's handy for a lot of other things, so it wouldn't be $100 spent just for the lights.
Click to expand...

Not so much cheap as a good value........ Believe it or not, we have one of these boxes in each vehicle :roll: (without the AC outlets).
You just completely space the simple answer.......... This box, with a power inverter that I also have would run two 3ft 18 watt florescent tubes and light the place up like daylight. Looking now for one with AC outlets to carry on the quad/tractor.

Dave
 
Hey Dave, I guess you don't watch much T.V. Seems you missed the advertisement on there about the lights that use battery;s you can locate in any room, closet, stairwell. They say "BUT WAIT Call now and you will get another set (both )for ONLY $19.95 Plus shipping and Handling LOL.ABOUT CHEAP AS YOU CAN GET other then that there is such a thing as a miners helmet with light BUT WAIT!! Only $19.95 plus,S/H/ and if you order NOW, and we will throw in the miners to boot. lol .We power up the house with a generator when power fails, and was considering Emergency Lighting to make moving around safe until we brought the generator on line. Haven't checked prices so don't know how expensive they would be. ANy Way
Hope you find what you need, in the meantime,I'll ask SANTA TO SEND YOU A LiGHTING SYSTEM YOU WOULD BE PROUD TO OWN. MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and the family. LOU & VICTOR.
 
Running a couple 25w RV lights could be done on a 50' 12ga extension cord. About 1/2 volt loss. However 50' is a long ways to go for low voltage DC. Trying to pull any more is going to cost you fast.

I like jdemaris idea of a power pack you can carry home to charge. Only down side would be if you had to go home to get it (not stop on the way home). However 26Ah does not exactly equate to 300w of power for an hour. The 26AH is based on a certian discharge rate over a certian number of hours. At a one hour discharge its probably around 8-9 amps or 100+ watts. But that would still run low voltage lights for a couple hours. I have a set of 100AH batts that will be done in an hour at 35A. The 100AH rate is based on a 8 hour discharge at 12.5A discharge.
 
You would have a chance with LED's, metal hallid or florescents. An incandescent automotive lamp used for an hour would require much more $olar panel.
 
I have an led light that clips to the visor of my hat, gives enough light for feeding cattle in the barn.Saw some led lights with a headband selling for 3.50.
 
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