12v garage power..

[Joeman]

For various reasons my garage doesn't have mains power at the moment, and with days getting shorter I've decided to rig up some 12v lights.

I know Fozzie was looking at this too..

So today Iused the halfords card to buy a lesure battery and a solar charger..

Need to source some lights now.. Any ideas?

Its just temporary until I get mains power back..

[cockercas]

Look in tool station. They had some 12v work lights.

Could you not of run a lead tempory from your house and run a couple of tube lights?

[Joeman]

Look in tool station. They had some 12v work lights.

Could you not of run a lead tempory from your house and run a couple of tube lights?

 

Having the back of my house extended, so running an extension lead is not really gonna work with builders and mechanical diggers about.

So I've got at least 6weeks with no garage power..

[cockercas]

Should of asked them to sort you temp power to the garage.

I wouldnt of left anyone without power to were its needed. Usually people have freezers in the garage so its something thats usually done.

[Mr Fro]

I run 12v in my garage because it's not got mains power.

I've got 3 panels about the size of yours rigged to an old battery from a 2.5 diesel and have 8 led bulbs running from it. I probably get 6-8 hours constant burn time before I get any flicker from the bulbs.

I've put the bulbs in the corners of the garage and half way along each length which gives me loads of light to work by and gives me very little shadow.

[Fozzie]

I have been eyeing up the same battery! How much was it on trade?!

My calculations of running a 5foot fluorescent tube and 2 foot tube through a 150w inverter coming off the battery would last 8 hours (8.5 in reality but I'm playing it safe) discharging to 75%. Leisure batteries can be discharged to 80% without harming their life span. Any further and you're risking it! These calcs assume the worst case for inverter losses as well.

Remember a leisure battery with a capacity of 70ah will not tolerate more than about 9amps draw on it at any time otherwise in an acid battery like that the voltage will nose dive.

12V lighting has been a right bugger to work out, there's barely any tube style lighting like I want and the lumen count is pretty poor on a lot of them. Obviously they draw much less power.

So I'm still rigging my battery to a CFL tube network I will control via switches, the big one packing out 1800 lumen.

But if you can find a system that competes for much less wattage then I'd be very interested to hear it!

[Grumpy Old Git]

Never tried this before but are Aquarium Tubes any better?

Just a thought.

[Pete]

I run 12v in my garage because it's not got mains power.

I've got 3 panels about the size of yours rigged to an old battery from a 2.5 diesel and have 8 led bulbs running from it. I probably get 6-8 hours constant burn time before I get any flicker from the bulbs.

I've put the bulbs in the corners of the garage and half way along each length which gives me loads of light to work by and gives me very little shadow.

 

Something I've been thinking of doing as well because my garage also has no power to it (away from house). How do you wire your LEDs to the battery, in serial or parallel? And how did you go about getting the bulbs regulated? If in serial did you just put a regulator in front of/behind (can't remember which) each bulb?

A diagram of your setup would be ace so I/we can just copy!

[Joeman]

Never tried this before but are Aquarium Tubes any better?

Just a thought.

 

too much UV light - we'll come out of our man caves with crazy suntans!!

[Joeman]

im probably gonna buy a set of these to see how well they work...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12v-30-LED-Li ... 43cebb55b1

[Joeman]

I have been eyeing up the same battery! How much was it on trade?!

My calculations of running a 5foot fluorescent tube and 2 foot tube through a 150w inverter coming off the battery would last 8 hours (8.5 in reality but I'm playing it safe) discharging to 75%. Leisure batteries can be discharged to 80% without harming their life span. Any further and you're risking it! These calcs assume the worst case for inverter losses as well.

Remember a leisure battery with a capacity of 70ah will not tolerate more than about 9amps draw on it at any time otherwise in an acid battery like that the voltage will nose dive.

12V lighting has been a right bugger to work out, there's barely any tube style lighting like I want and the lumen count is pretty poor on a lot of them. Obviously they draw much less power.

So I'm still rigging my battery to a CFL tube network I will control via switches, the big one packing out 1800 lumen.

But if you can find a system that competes for much less wattage then I'd be very interested to hear it!

 

battery was about 45quid i think. total price for the battery and panel was 70 something quid...

Lumen count is the problem! the LED sets i posted above are only 480 lumens.. but if that's spread evenly over the ceiling, it might be better than point sources of light. Cetainly good enough for me to not trip over a motorbike, but probably not good enough for intricate work...

Other idea was to buy an LED spotlight. there are loads on the market to replace the older 500w halogen spotlights. They are all 240v but i reckon they must have a step down transformer inside them. If that's the case, we might be able to buy mains voltage LED spotlights, bypass the transformer and run direct from battery...

[Joeman]

10watts of LED lighting for 10.99 - no mention of Lumens though

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/10w-led-floodlight-a00ra

I wonder if these have a stepdown transformer inside them that we can bypass to allows us to run from battery?

[Stu]

you would get about 10 hours out of these with a 75 ampere hour battery

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-27W-LED-F ... 4864888433

[Fozzie]

10watts of LED lighting for 10.99 - no mention of Lumens though

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/10w-led-floodlight-a00ra

I wonder if these have a stepdown transformer inside them that we can bypass to allows us to run from battery?

 

I know they do but it could be anywhere, the apple iphone charger has one inside the actual plug itself, just uses a small step down transformer as the current draw is so low you don't need anything serious. And at 10w it's pulling less than an amp.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/15100414 ... 108&ff19=0

This intrigues me... The picture shows a big back end, I once fitted a ceiling light that used 10 or 12 separate 12v bulbs linked in parallel. The backing container on that light looks big enough to hold the 240-12v transformer that it used... I'm tempted to buy it and take it apart just to have a look. At £9 I waste more everytime there's a big jackpot on the lottery so worth a punt?

As for brightness I found this on google:

http://v1rtual.net/images/2012/20120128-212132-DSC04841.jpg

Not much light... I may stick with my 58w CFL, as when it's warm I've known them drop to 35w or so.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Fozzie

[Joeman]

you would get about 10 hours out of these with a 75 ampere hour battery

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-27W-LED-F ... 4864888433

 

saw those... wonder if they'll be too bright for inside a garage?

[Stu]

fit a dimmer switch

and paint all your walls white too

you can never have enough light

[Joeman]

fit a dimmer switch

and paint all your walls white too

you can never have enough light

 

Will have to wear my welding mask all the time I'm in the garage to avoid going blind...

[Mr Fro]

Something I've been thinking of doing as well because my garage also has no power to it (away from house). How do you wire your LEDs to the battery, in serial or parallel? And how did you go about getting the bulbs regulated? If in serial did you just put a regulator in front of/behind (can't remember which) each bulb?

A diagram of your setup would be ace so I/we can just copy!

Regulated? Nah! A lead acid battery should give a fairly steady output until it's nearly flat so I didn't bother. It was one I was going to scrap anyway so it's no big loss if it croaks.

I've just rigged them up in parallel with an old bathroom pull cord for the switch. I've got a mix of 4W and 5.5W so have probably around 35-40W total. The wire is pretty skinny as it's only a few amps - I stuck a 5A fuse in line just in case it goes bandy.

[Fozzie]

I've encountered a major problem with my setup, one that requires big money or an alternative to fix.

So I have a 150w inverter connected to a 18w 2 foot long fluorescent tube. Connected it to the very same leisure battery that Joeman has and inside a few minutes the inverter played up.

It was only cheap I figure, so I go to halfords and buy a 500W inverter.

My reasoning is that the starter is playing havoc, and most sources say an inverter with a CFL light will be fine.

This one lasted 20 minutes before packing in, despite all its built in protections, they all seemingly failed.

Turns out the sinewave produced in an inverter is not good enough unless you invest in a proper pure sinewave model. A regular inverter just uses a form of square wave to match a sine wave *roughly*.

This in turn I've discovered is not working with the lights ballast, which was scorching hot, the square wave was being compensated for by the ballast, which tries to correct it. This causes the inverter to get a bit excited so it packs out more voltage and fries itself.

Took it back to halfords as they said it was meant to handle this sort of thing, not impressed. Money back on that!

But the solution it turns out is simple.

I suggest using a 75w inverter with a bunch of LED bulbs.

You probably think an inverter will causes losses and it does, but it's not enough to be a problem when you're running less than 50W of lighting.

I have a 10W LED, and 2 4W LED bulbs in the post, rated at 1500 lumen, and 200 lumen each.

I stumbled on the idea in my bedroom where I have a 4w LED bulb, lights the room adequately when I'm reading so 2 just for my work bench will provide decent lighting.

The 10W is a replacement for a 100W incandescent, at 1500 lumen I'm quite impressed, I will likely run another one or two through switches so I can illuminate the garage well.

[Guest]

i got mains power in my garage, but only a twin plug socket.. no mains powered lighting..

But what i do for 12v power.. Is ive got an old 750w pc power supply that i didnt need anymore..

so modified it with binding plugs on it, to power 12v tools etc..

since a pc psu runs 12v, 5v and 3.3v via the ATX 24pin socket..

i fitted binding posts on the front of it, two for 12v source, 2 for 5v etc..

so i can run multiple items at once..

oh, also i fitted a front panel twin usb port onto it too, using a car 12v cigarette lighter socket..

so that i can charge my phone out there

[Pete]

Sounds trick, but where'd you plug the PSU into? If it's one of the mains outlets, couldn't you just have plugged a 4 way extension lead into it?

[Fozzie]

i got mains power in my garage, but only a twin plug socket.. no mains powered lighting..

But what i do for 12v power.. Is ive got an old 750w pc power supply that i didnt need anymore..

so modified it with binding plugs on it, to power 12v tools etc..

since a pc psu runs 12v, 5v and 3.3v via the ATX 24pin socket..

i fitted binding posts on the front of it, two for 12v source, 2 for 5v etc..

so i can run multiple items at once..

oh, also i fitted a front panel twin usb port onto it too, using a car 12v cigarette lighter socket..

so that i can charge my phone out there

 

I'm trying to think of a 12v tool, I know of 12v battery powered tools!

Wouldn't you just do as above, run an extension lead and attach relevant chargers? They do all the stepping down/up for you so you don't have to resort to such measures!

[Guest]

yeahh, well i know my way isnt the simplest

I just already had the PSU sitting around, pre-modified to a degree, to power my Lipo Chargers for my RC cars..

So i just put it to use..

I use 12v clip lamps in my garage, so it really comes in handy there..

Ive also got a 18v cordless drill that has failed battery packs.. So i just soldered some leads to the terminals and croc clips on the ends..

its not 18v, but works just fine..

I am not paying £30+ for a replacement battery pack, when you can pick up a new drill for the same price..

And yeah i did go with a 4 plug extension lead at first.. But sadly, When powering my Arc welder.. it used to fry extension leads..

Even fitted real thick guage wires to it.. Still done it..

So just have the two sockets... But its plenty enough

[Chrissb6]

A couple of these should do the trick

http://www.ledhut.co.uk/home-page-bests ... price.html

I would forget about the inverters Tango you would be surprised just how much power they consume themselves before offering any mains output.

[Tango]

A couple of these should do the trick

http://www.ledhut.co.uk/home-page-bests ... price.html

I would forget about the inverters Tango you would be surprised just how much power they consume themselves before offering any mains output.

I've got mains in my garage Chris.......