Connecting lightbulb to 12v leisure battery

Spectreon666

Hi guys just need a little info to see if this is possible. In layman terms what exactly would I need to do to achieve this? It's for a shed that is not hooked up or close enough to hook up to electricity.

What I was thinking in the simplest form I would need 1 leisure battery, a 10w led 230v light bulb http://www.electricirelandstore.ie/Product/osram-10-watt-230v-led-light-bulb-with-bc-or-ese27-caps/1334/611, a light fixture that holds the light bulb and some jumper cables. (maybe a on/off switch as well). I was thinking I could wire the jumper cables directly to the light fixture?

What else would I need for this project? Power inverter or anything like that. I know the story with the wattage and amp hours.

Thanks

Billy Bunting

You obviously need to convert the 230v to 12v so yes you would need a basic invertor.

Why not simply go for ............... http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/21-watt-head-light

Escapees

Best and simplest solution is to use 12v fluorescent lights and simply connect these to the battery and a switch. No point introducing the danger and associated complications of mains lighting in a shed.

2011

I don't know what you mean by a "leisure battery" but if you simply want to power a light from a battery it would be so much easier to select a lamp that operates at the same voltage as the battery.

i.e. Wire a 12VDC lamp to a 12V battery.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

I don't know what you mean by a "leisure battery"

It probably refers to 12v batteries similar to car batteries, except they are deep discharge type ones, for leisure activities, solar setups etc. Car batteries are designed for high current discharge but not for very much drop in charge level.

i.e. Wire a 12VDC lamp to a 12V battery.

That is definitely the way to go.

freddyuk

You need a 12v/24v LED bulb or tube light. Bulb can go into any E27 batten holder or tube into individual tube holders (no need for a batten fitting) which will give you the best light. 18w/1200 tube is brilliant.
Connect to a decent deep cycle battery which will need recharging. So how will you recharge? Take it home and plug in a decent charger or use a solar panel and leave it all in place forever......
Design it correctly (time/load) and you can have light whenever. You can use a cheap car battery (if you must) for one light if it is being recharged constantly and used occasionally.

Spectreon666

Thanks guys for all the replies. Helps alot.

@freddy uk - Basically what I will use is the leisure battery in halfords with 115ah. I will also use a 12vdc light bulb as suggested that will be more than likely be LED. As for wattage I was looking between 10-20watts as I worked out it will last about a week on the leisure battery for the time I want to use it. Also I will be getting a battery charger for it and charging it in my house.

As one of the guy suggested getting an inverter, it handy to have and hooks straight up to the battery but it loses power and kinda out off my budget. I'd rather get something that hooks directly to the battery. Maybe I'll revisit the idea when funds allow it.

Now the only part I get stuck on is how exactly to I go about hooking the batten holder up to the battery?

Thanks all

braddun

get led lamps,campers have them


http://www.lightingever.com/12v-led-strip-waterproof-4100065-dw-f.html?gclid=CJ-9n-uVvcICFcxcMgodJRoAzQ

2011

2011 wrote: »

I don't know what you mean by a "leisure battery"

Leisure battery is a sell word for a low grade semi-traction, deep cycle, wet lead acid battery. In itself it means nothing more than it's target market.

Quite often just a rudimentary starter battery re-branded.
Deep cycle has a thick plate design to deliver low current over long discharge as opposed to a car starter battery, thin plates for burst discharge at high current and immediate recharge.

Golf cart/scissor lift batteries are a much more reliable choice for deep cycle imho. 6V though, so two in series would be standard setup.

2011 wrote: »

Wire a 12VDC lamp to a 12V battery.

+5

Spectreon666 wrote: »

Now the only part I get stuck on is how exactly to I go about hooking the batten holder up to the battery?

Battery -> fuse or dc breaker -> switch -> fixture

freddyuk wrote: »

Design it correctly (time/load) and you can have light whenever. You can use a cheap car battery (if you must) for one light if it is being recharged constantly and used occasionally.

What are you thoughts/experiences on short-cycling semi-tractions Freddy?

freddyuk

No battery likes being left semi charged as they sulphate up and lose capacity. If it is being fully charged every month it is best option. If the OP is going to take home each week and charge on the mains then I would get a decent "liesure" battery which will be sealed. Don't go to Halfords go to a specialist battery supplier. Plenty of "deep cycle" batteries out there but most are made in the far east and most are not what they say they are. If you get them tested they often do not have the capacity stated on the label. How will you ever know??
You should use 2mm DC voltage cable to run cable to switch and then to light fitting. You can probably find an old T8 tube batten at the scrapper and rewire bypassing the starter and transformer to simply send 12v into the LED tube.
A bulb will not give the best light and will probably fail prematurely.
You should fit a fuse on the live supply next to the battery.

Get a proper battery charger NOT from Halfords. You need a decent staged charger to extend the life of the battery and it needs to be matched for the AH size so 110ah needs 10 - 15 amp charger. You can do it cheaper but you will be paying all over again. Halfords is a place for cars not battery based power systems.

freddyuk

freddyuk wrote: »

No battery likes being left semi charged as they sulphate up and lose capacity.

Are you answering me or OP Freddy? Short cycling is recharging from ~ < 5% DOD on a regular basis. Also bad chemistry. It's the reason you never see the first 10% on a discharge versus lifecycle graph.

I wouldn't go 10 days between full charges others recommend a week or 5 days. .

+1 on proper charger.

I'd love a mains one, been through 5 now and they're all underwhelming. No idea where you'd get one for sensible money.
I just use a solar regulator for everything these days and alternate the "solar" inputs. It puts every mains charger in it's price range to shame.

freddyuk

The problem with solar is you are unlikely to get a full charge regularly but a lot of short charging therefore to do a maximum charge each month extends the life of a solar based system.(equalisation on a battery bank). If the solar is under powered then a battery charger via generator can do this job. Battery short cycling is something that is not mentioned in manufacturers data and in a properly designed system is unlikely to be a problem! I would worry about over discharging and not short cycling. In this case the OP is talking about a single battery and light so give the battery a decent discharge and then recharge regularly fully by taking it home (each week) but at least each month.
A decent charger will cost €150 which is about 1 decent deep cycle battery. It can also bring "dead" batteries back to life as cheaper chargers will not recognise very low voltage batteries so will not actually switch on.
In my opinion if you are going to drag a battery home each couple of days for a recharge after powering a light then go for a cheap old car battery.The decent charger can probably bring batteries back to life that are scrapped so you can get batteries for nothing. If your light goes out it is not mission critical.

I have a lot of trouble discharging 10% in the Summer months. It's not mentioned by manufacturers because they don't want to ruin their lovely curve by starting off with 500 cycles and they can bank that if people use the battery this way they probably won't notice. It causes hard lead dioxide clumps to form on the positive plate that don't recombine easily.
I'm sceptical how well idle solar systems work but have nothing conclusive to offer. A full charge does not guarantee equalisation some overcharge is often required...and a hydrometer.

I spent €150 on an all singing all dancing Victron 15A.
Listed 94% efficient. Bench tested 58% efficient. It's certainly a good charger but it doesn't return 120% discharge. It's been demoted to a back-up charger.

If you flatten a battery and catch it soon enough just parallel it with a good charged battery until it hits 10v then charge across the bank.

Aussie Battery

Aussie Battery wrote:

...a battery that is continually cycled 5% or less will usually not last as long as one cycled down 10%. This happens because at very shallow cycles, the Lead Dioxide tends to build up in clumps on the positive plates rather than an even film.

link

SmartGuage wrote:

The only exception to this rule is that batteries should NOT be regularly discharged by only a few percent. Discharging a battery by less than 5% can shorten it's life and limit it's ability to deliver high currents. This is due to the way the sulphate builds up on the plates which is very irregular during the first stage of the discharge cycle. Either don't discharge the battery at all, or ensure it is always discharged by more than 5%. This is not a particularly well known phenomenon (except by the battery manufacturers) and could be the genesis of the urban folklore/myth of "the batteries need to be worked".

link

Industrial Battery Products wrote:

Also, there is an upper limit - a battery that is continually cycled 5% or less will usually not last as long as one cycled down 10%. This happens because at very shallow cycles, the Lead Dioxide tends to build up in clumps on the the positive plates rather in an even film.

link

I suppose the easiest thing is to set the regulator to float service if you suffer from too many photons.