On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 08:36:36 -0600, Dean Hoffman
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

Do they make 12volt DC Compact Florescent bulbs?
I have not seen them in stores, but that dont mean they are not made.
I am asking because a friend has a cabin and dont have electricity
nearby. They want a fortune to run the lines and hook it up. He is
considering a generator, but for now he put a fixture on the ceiling
in each room, with a switch for each room, and installed these 12V
bulbs made for 12V trouble lights. Then he hooked a 12V car battery
to it the system. It works well, as long as he dont turn on too many
lights at once, but it drains the battery pretty fast. That got me
wondering if they do make the compact florescents. I know they would
last much longer on a battery. Anyone know?

Mark

You might look at camping lanterns and such. An example:
http://tinyurl.com/yz8r77
LED lights would burn longer. I have a light kit from Home Depot
for outdoor use. It recharges with a little solar panel during the
day. Those LED lights don't look like much but put out a lot of light.

Dean

I forgot to ask. Whats the name of that LED kit? Is that like those
sidewalk lights or what? I cant imagine LEDs being bright enough, but
I never really looked at a thing like that. Just the flashlights. My
LED flashlights are fine for what it do, but surely not what I'd call
bright. I'd be interested in seeing a lumen chart (I think thats the
correct wording?). In other words, light output rating, compared to
indecesant and florescent. I run mostly all compact florescents in my
house and garage. They do a decent job. Most are the equivalabt to a
60W or a 100W bulb and only use 13 and 22 watts.
One disadvantage to them, in my garage they take forever to get to
full brightness in winter. I usually change half of them to standard
bulbs when it gets real cold. I dont spend much time in there anyhow
in winter.

Thanks

Mark