"dcbwhaley" wrote in message

I dont think that car headlight bulbs incorporate the side lights.
Anyway the light output from a aide lamp is pretty dim whereas the
headlamp bulbs will give a lot of glare.

Ok, ok, I've been soundly outvoted on the car lights idea g.
I've just been outbid on the ones I was eying up on ebay anyway, so never
mind!

I think you would be better using low voltage fluorescents like these

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search2/b...questid=235723
or
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search2/b...questid=236399


They're not as expensive as I was expecting actually - thanks for the links.
Are they about as big as you get though? I have some striplights in the
crumbly old caravan I use as a feed room and I've been less than impressed
with them, but they're probably as ancient as the caravan and I am running
them off a really knackered car battery, so maybe I will be pleasantly
suprised with some new lights and a tidy battery!

You get a lot more light per ampere-hour so you won't need to charge
the battery as often. Put four of those along the ridge or along the
wall controlled by a master switch and use the switches on the lamps to
control how many you have on at a time.

You could still have a car headlamp bulb wired up with a seperate
switch for emergency use

Any sort of switch rated at over 5amps would suit. I would use any
ordinary mains switch with a surface mount box - readily available in
single or double.

Yup, got a double weatherproof one of them.

The negative wires can go straight back to the battery, no need for an
earth rod. Use ordinary mains flex if you want, but make sure it is
thick enough for the current it has to carry. Fit a fuse in the
positive wire near the battery (an inline car fuse is handy) because a
battery can deliver a lot of oomph into a short circuit and a stable
usually has a lot of combustable material about

That's the second vote for fuses then so I'd better take heed!

The current wouldn't be anywhere near 13A anyway would it? More like about
5A if running 4 x 2 x 8w (64W) - soz, maths letting me down atm.

Thank you very much for your help.