CFL bulbs and deep cycle batteries - scientific question

great unwashed

Do any of you keep a very close eye on what power your campervan/boat batteries can supply? I'm thinking of CFL bulbs and such 'low wattage' devices (laptops too) - do any of you find that CFL bulbs drain your batteries as much as the older incandescent bulbs? i.e. the low wattage is a bit of a sham because of the power factor being the same or worse. They may last longer but do they burn up the same power as conventional bulbs?

peasant

I have no idea about the actual ratings, but in my old van I had a aged battery for a while that wouldn't hold a charge for long.

The little 12V flourescent lamp I had over the sink was the last thing that stopped working as the power drained away ...it stayed on for much longer than normal light bulbs (never mind the water pump)

stapeler

I have 2 Florusent bulbs that seem to have little affect on my battery. The power display doesn't appear to change that much. On the other hand the few Halogen reading lights (at 20 watts each) seem to eat battery power. For this reason I've replaced them with Led lights that are 1.8watts each.

great unwashed

stapeler wrote: »

I have 2 Florusent bulbs that seem to have little affect on my battery. The power display doesn't appear to change that much. On the other hand the few Halogen reading lights (at 20 watts each) seem to eat battery power. For this reason I've replaced them with Led lights that are 1.8watts each.

Thanks to both of you for your replies. It seems that fluorescent bulbs might drain a lot less power than the older incandescent bulbs - you might remember this from having changed over from them or was it always well-known in the campervan and boating world that some technologies like fluorescent bulbs were less energy hungry?

For this purpose, a halogen bulb is the same technology as the older incandescent bulbs according to this

bido

There was a thread about changing to low voltage bulbs on motorhomefacts.com recently that might help you