12/240 volt Invertor - low Watt/energy cabin light?

[pongoglo]

I have a Colvic Sailer (Yes - SailER not Sailor!) 29.5 which I keep on a pontoon mooring in Portsmouth at a reasonable rate but sadly without shore power, which at times would be of really great use - as in now - a flat engine starter battery par example? She winters afloat, and I manage to get down about one weekend a month to do all my maintenance, rolling refit and fiddly bits - as one does. I have a 10 watt solar panel with regulator to keep my batteries topped, but when down rely on on my standard dome type 10 Watt cabin lights, powered by the ships batteries, and backed up by a lamp oil powered hurricane lamp when required. I also have two Invertors which I use occasionally and mainly for my laptop (draws 16 Watts), one a 300 Watt Maplins type, backed up by a 150 watt 'beer can' jobby from Aldi! Recently Ive been running the battery's low however and I believe the cabin lights to be the culprit ( I also have a bilge pump on a float switch, but it comes on rarely). Recently for our flat I found some excellent 1.5 Watt Halogen type spot light bulbs on Ebay to replace the 35 watt conventional type - obviously 240 Volt, and have saved no end of power. Now thinking of doing a jury rig for the boat and running a similar system for the boat via the Invertor - ie using a standard table lamp with a 240 Volt/1.5 Watt low energy bulb. Have tried to find 12 Volt bulbs that would do the same job, but cant find any with anything like the same output in Lummens as my 240 Volt/1.5 Watt Ebay jobs. Anyone any experience or thoughts??

 

[ianj99]

I use Argos led clip lights. They're about £15 and have 9 white leds. Discard the mains power supply and connect direct to 12v so no need for invertors or rewiring.

argos part no. 432/5750

The light is quite directional but bright.

Ian

 

[macd]

Agree with ianj that you'd probably be better running 12V LEDs. The inverter probably draws something like 0.5A just by being switched on.

Intrigued by a laptop drawing not much more than an amp. What the heck is it?

 

[CreakyDecks]

Are you sure about that 1.5W halogen? That sounds awfully low to me.

 

[pongoglo]

Laptop is a somewhat aged Compaq Evo 620C. Just checked. Its drawing between 25 and 36 Watts. Guess youv'e kindof answered my question. how much power do the Invertors draw? Does the 300 Watt Invertor draw more than the 150 (assuming nothing plugged in) or does it depend on the power draw of the appliance alone?

 

[nigelmercier]

I use Argos led clip lights... 432/5750

Clicky

 

[Alpha22]

+1 for LEDs - the way to go ... leave em on for weeks, won't even flatten the batteries....

 

[William_H]

Led lights and inverter

Yes definitely go for 12v LED
http://www.banggood.com/search/LED light/index_0-0-0-2-1-24-0-price-0-0_page1.html
have all sorts of cheap LED lights.
The inverter will draw perhaps .3 amp with no load plus about 20% more than the load draws at 250v. These numbers vary but are a bit inevitable. Keep the inverter turned off. Use a 12v to 18v converter for the computer. (or whatever voltage the computer requires)
More solar power might be a good way to go also. 10w is not much in UK winter. And of course batteries might be cream crackered also. good luck olewill

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Perhaps you should check that those halogens really are just 1.5 watts? It's a very low figure. In any event, running lights through an inverter is just adding innefficiency. With limited power, LED's are certainly the way to go.

 

[pvb]

Perhaps you should check that those halogens really are just 1.5 watts? It's a very low figure.

They're not halogens, the OP has obviously bought LED lights for his home. But the ones rated at 1.5W are only the equivalent of 20W halogens.

 

[the_branflake]

Hello,

I have some of these 1.5w LED GU10 type bulbs in my cooker hood at home, basically for decoration as they aren't very bright at all. You couldn't use them for main lighting.

As others have said get something that runs on 12v

 

[Boathook]

Have a look in Halfords. They do a range of LEDS for cars and this is increasing each month. Just recently they had some 'flat' things (I think that they are interior lights) with 9 or 16 LEDS. Even in the shop they seemed bright.

 

[Adrian Jones]

I have a Colvic Sailer (Yes - SailER not Sailor!) 29.5 which I keep on a pontoon mooring in Portsmouth at a reasonable rate but sadly without shore power, which at times would be of really great use - as in now - a flat engine starter battery par example? She winters afloat, and I manage to get down about one weekend a month to do all my maintenance, rolling refit and fiddly bits - as one does. I have a 10 watt solar panel with regulator to keep my batteries topped, but when down rely on on my standard dome type 10 Watt cabin lights, powered by the ships batteries, and backed up by a lamp oil powered hurricane lamp when required. I also have two Invertors which I use occasionally and mainly for my laptop (draws 16 Watts), one a 300 Watt Maplins type, backed up by a 150 watt 'beer can' jobby from Aldi! Recently Ive been running the battery's low however and I believe the cabin lights to be the culprit ( I also have a bilge pump on a float switch, but it comes on rarely). Recently for our flat I found some excellent 1.5 Watt Halogen type spot light bulbs on Ebay to replace the 35 watt conventional type - obviously 240 Volt, and have saved no end of power. Now thinking of doing a jury rig for the boat and running a similar system for the boat via the Invertor - ie using a standard table lamp with a 240 Volt/1.5 Watt low energy bulb. Have tried to find 12 Volt bulbs that would do the same job, but cant find any with anything like the same output in Lummens as my 240 Volt/1.5 Watt Ebay jobs. Anyone any experience or thoughts??

If you have standard down lights that use a 10W halogen lamp you can replace this with an LED planar disc lamp. You can choose either a 6 or 10 LED version. Both will fit into standard fittings. They are rated up to 2W depending on which product you select. The 6 LED version gives out similar effective light output as a 10W halogen whilst the light from the 10 LED lamp will exceed the output of the halogen lamp. If you purchase a 10-30V lamp the brightness will remain constant at any voltage between 10 and 30V. I would not recommend using LED lamps designed for motor vehicles as they are not regulated and light output will vary with your battery voltage.