Shack Builders and Modifications

[papadarv]

Summer is a great time to improve on you shack and make life on the ice a bit more comfortable. Share you ideas to give the rest of us time to plagiarize the great ideas of yours.

 When I finished my wheel house last summer, I desired more light than was given off with 2 RV/trailer overhead lights. Each light had a single iridescent bulb produced 27 watts of light but with a yellow hew inside the house. They are inexpensive to buy about $9 each so I could have added additional lights, but would need to re-wire.
than found some LED lights on a reel containing 300 each 5050 SMD Cool White flexible light that could be cut every 3 LED’s without damage. They come out of China, so it take about 20 to 30 days to arrive, but the cost is under $10 for the entire reel. The strips are pre-glued with a plastic backing. eBay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/161371445377?lpid=82&chn=ps

The light fixture

I first striped the light socket out of the fixture and added a strip of aluminum in a convex curve and secured with JB weld glue. I painted a coat of clear nail polish to add electrical insulation.

I cut the LED’s into 6 light segments. Removed the blue backing and self-adhere glued them to the aluminum strip. 7 rows of 6 lights each for a total of 42 LED’S.
I soldered a solid small wire to each + (positive) tab and another wire to each – (negative tab) tying all the lights together. Connected the on/off switch wires to the respective + and – tabs.

Installed lights in my wheel house.

 

Results:
Light is measured in lumens, each led produces 19 lumens so each light fixture has 798 lumens or 60 watts of light. Power consumption is 0.24Watts per led or 10.8 watts per fixture. The two LED fixtures consumes less power than one of the original single bulb fixture. And the best part they have a 50,000 hour life.

Edited August 11, 2015 by papadarv

[picksbigwagon]

how long would these work off say a 12v 9a battery?  the cabin in Iowa we deer hunting has the old gas lights and making something like this to run off a deep cycle battery would be great.........

[papadarv]

how long would these work off say a 12v 9a battery?  the cabin in Iowa we deer hunting has the old gas lights and making something like this to run off a deep cycle battery would be great.........

Calculation for Battery Life is:

(10xAH) / Watts

The LED’s I used were 5050 Bright White. Each LED uses .21 watts.

My light fixture has 42 LED’s producing about 55 watts of light.

Your 12 volt battery, 9 amp hours calc. would be

10x9=90

42*.21=8.8 apms

So 90/8.8=10.2 hours of burn time on my light sample.

A deep cycle 12 volt usually has 300+ amp hours.

10x300 = 3000

3000 / 8.8 = 340 hours or should run for 14 days 24 hrs per day.

 

[papadarv]

Correction to my Deep Cycle amp hours. The number I used was Cranking Amps.

Car battery typically as 48 amp hours

Deep Cycle has 85 to 150 amp hours depending on how much you spend on the battery. You can get one up to 280 amp hours but they are really pricey. If you want more amp hours buy two batteries and connect them in parallel. 2 ea. 100 AH batters becomes one 200 AH.

Car battery:

48 AH X 10 = 480 watts / 8.8 light draw = 54.5 hours of light.

Deep Cycle:

100 AH x 10 – 1000 / 8.8 light draw = 113 hours.

2 lights will last ½ the time (56 hours)

3 lights will last 1/3 the time (38 hours)

[Naturboy]

Nice shack there Papa!

[rl_sd]

On 9/22/2015, 10:37:32, papadarv said:

Correction to my Deep Cycle amp hours. The number I used was Cranking Amps.

Car battery typically as 48 amp hours

Deep Cycle has 85 to 150 amp hours depending on how much you spend on the battery. You can get one up to 280 amp hours but they are really pricey. If you want more amp hours buy two batteries and connect them in parallel. 2 ea. 100 AH batters becomes one 200 AH.

Car battery:

48 AH X 10 = 480 watts / 8.8 light draw = 54.5 hours of light.

Deep Cycle:

100 AH x 10 – 1000 / 8.8 light draw = 113 hours.

2 lights will last ½ the time (56 hours)

3 lights will last 1/3 the time (38 hours)

Not trying to start something, just need clarification... How come you are converting from AH to Watts? - And why are you using 10 as your multiplier instead of the voltage (12)?

 

 

10.8 watts draw = .9 Amps per fixture so a 9 AH battery would run a single 0.9 Amp fixture for 10 hrs IF you discharged it 100%. Most batteries only discharge to roughly 50% so 5 hrs would would be the max for 1 fixture.....

[papadarv]

18 hours ago, rl_sd said:

Not trying to start something, just need clarification... How come you are converting from AH to Watts? - And why are you using 10 as your multiplier instead of the voltage (12)?

 

 

10.8 watts draw = .9 Amps per fixture so a 9 AH battery would run a single 0.9 Amp fixture for 10 hrs IF you discharged it 100%. Most batteries only discharge to roughly 50% so 5 hrs would would be the max for 1 fixture.....

"How come you are converting from AH to Watts" You can go either way. I converted the AH to watts because the LED's are stated as watt.

I also used 10 verses 12 thinking someone might take a 9 AH battery that is several years old to test a set of lights. 10 understates the actual AH power. (I actually did this using my 3 year old 12VDC 9AH battery. It ran for about 11 hours on one of my lights.) "My Bad" should have used 12

Amp Hours are determined by the manufacture. A 9 AH battery will indeed run 1 amp of energy for 9 hours or 9 amps energy for 1 hour. My understanding the battery discharge of the ion battery is down to 80% of voltage which is 9.6 volts. Most 12 volt electronics have a rated operating range of 10 to 15Vdc as does the 5050 LED.  AH standard is based on starting at 12.4 volts and dropping to 9.92 Volts which is 80% of a 12 volt battery.

Correct Calculation 9 AH 12VDC battery running 8.8 watt light

8.8 watts (42 LED's at .21 watts) = .733 amps at 12 Volts

9AH /.733 Amp  = 12.27 hours

9 AH = 108 watts. 9 amps x 12 V = 108

108 battery power / 8.8 led power = 12.27 hours.

48 AH car battery

48 / .733 = 65 hours