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

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?

Don't know. But they DO make 12v - 120 v inverters. For a half-dozen
lights, you're only talking about 100 watts, which should cost about $50.

Don't know. But they DO make 12v - 120 v inverters. For a half-dozen
lights, you're only talking about 100 watts, which should cost about $50.

inverters lose or waste power in conversion. they do sell 12 volt
regular fluroscnts for camping and RVs.......

any cabins campsites nearby?

had a fiend with this problem he ran a underground line to the nearest
cabin and connected t them and split the power bill.

there are a variety of possible solutions how much does the power
company want for a line?

I'm sure others carry them, but here is
the place I found:
http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/50-0104_MSTR
Google for more.

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

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?

Good grief. How did anyone ever manage to light his home before Edison and
Westinghouse?

Tell your buddy to buy a few oil lamps.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

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

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

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


Thanks
That looks like something that might work. His wife wont allow any
flame lights such as coleman or kerosene lanterns indoors., but this
looks practical.

Doug Miller wrote:

Good grief. How did anyone ever manage to light his home before
Edison and Westinghouse?

They used whale-oil lamps. Really. Rockefeller, who brought the cost of a
gallon of Kerosene down from $3.00/gallon to less than five cents,
effectively brought an end to the whaling business. If John D. were to try
that today, the government would be all over his butt claiming "unfair
competition" etc.

Wait... Never mind.


Tell your buddy to buy a few oil lamps.

Excellent suggestion. I've got five for emergencies. They burn about 1 cup
of Kerosene in two hours. Five gallons of Kerosene (which NEVER goes bad)
should last for a month.

If he wants to be modern, high-tech, and money is no object, get Coleman
camp lanterns. They put out more light than a piddly 60-watt (or florescent
equivalent) bulb anyway.

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 07:41:32 -0600, Art Todesco
wrote:

I'm sure others carry them, but here is
the place I found:
http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/50-0104_MSTR
Google for more.


Great.....
Just what the doctor ordered....
I didn't think they were made.

Just curious what search phrase you used.
I tried "12volt compact florescent" got nothing but some discussion
group that was useless.

Mark

On 17 Dec 2006 05:31:35 -0800, "
wrote:



Don't know. But they DO make 12v - 120 v inverters. For a half-dozen
lights, you're only talking about 100 watts, which should cost about $50.

inverters lose or waste power in conversion. they do sell 12 volt
regular fluroscnts for camping and RVs.......

I never knew they lost power, but I own one and it's noisy and they
just dont seem to work the greatest. Of course mine was a real cheap
thing. I never tried a light on it, but it barely wont run an small
elec. drill. I dont even know were I put the thing, I was not
impressed by it.

any cabins campsites nearby?

Not even close.

had a fiend with this problem he ran a underground line to the nearest
cabin and connected t them and split the power bill.

there are a variety of possible solutions how much does the power
company want for a line?

I dont know the exact amount but he said it was well over 3 grand.
This is just a weekend getaway a few times a year so he dont want to
pay for the service and pay a monthly bill too. He said his battery
setup is just fine if only he could get bulbs that dont drain the
battery so fast. He has a RV thing that charges 2 batteries so when
he needs a charge he puts the battery in his pickup, and has quick
clip on cables. It really is a decent setup for little money
invested.

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

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

Suggest you and / or your friend visit alt.energy.homepower lots of
expertise there on off-grid living.

Pete C.

HeyBub wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
Good grief. How did anyone ever manage to light his home before
Edison and Westinghouse?

They used whale-oil lamps. Really. Rockefeller, who brought the cost of a
gallon of Kerosene down from $3.00/gallon to less than five cents,
effectively brought an end to the whaling business. If John D. were to try
that today, the government would be all over his butt claiming "unfair
competition" etc.

Wait... Never mind.

Tell your buddy to buy a few oil lamps.

Excellent suggestion. I've got five for emergencies. They burn about 1 cup
of Kerosene in two hours. Five gallons of Kerosene (which NEVER goes bad)
should last for a month.

If he wants to be modern, high-tech, and money is no object, get Coleman
camp lanterns. They put out more light than a piddly 60-watt (or florescent
equivalent) bulb anyway.



If you are talking about gasoline or white gas burning lanterns then I
must disagree. Gasoline lanterns such as the Coleman type are
unsuitable for use indoors. The fuel is flammable as opposed to
combustible.

Flammable liquids give of ignitable vapors at normal ambient temperature
and pressure. Those vapors are heavier than air and will flow along the
floor like water and accumulate in low spots until and ignition source
is encountered. One cup of gasoline can, under the worst circumstances,
generate the explosive power of an entire stick of dynamite.
Combustible liquids must be preheated, wicked, or atomized to make them
readily ignitable.

That difference makes white gas and gasoline a much poorer choice for a
fuel source for emergency use. If you want a brighter liquid fueled
light then consider an Aladdin mantle lantern. Those burn as bright as
a sixty watt incandescent electric light bulb but they are silent in
operation and the kerosene that they burn for fuel is safer to store and
handle. For a pressurized mantle lantern the Britelyt Petromax lanterns
would be the way to go. There are cooking and heating adapters made for
the Britelyt lanterns which adds to there versatility in emergency
situations. There biggest advantage over the gas fueled lanterns is
that they will burn a wide variety of flammable and combustible liquids.
For indoor use Kerosene should be the liquid fuel of choice because
it's lower flash point makes it safer to use and store.
--
Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.

Well, I cheated. Someone gave me the
link several years ago to use the lamps
for shooting video where you need
external light and 110 is not there or
inconvenient.
I just now tried Googling "DC Compact
Fluorescent Lamp" (in quotes) and it
came up with
that company and it looks like others
also.

wrote:
On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 07:41:32 -0600, Art Todesco
wrote:

I'm sure others carry them, but here is
the place I found:
http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/50-0104_MSTR
Google for more.


Great.....
Just what the doctor ordered....
I didn't think they were made.

Just curious what search phrase you used.
I tried "12volt compact florescent" got nothing but some discussion
group that was useless.

Mark

I dont know the exact amount but he said it was well over 3 grand.
This is just a weekend getaway a few times a year so he dont want to
pay for the service and pay a monthly bill too. He said his battery
setup is just fine if only he could get bulbs that dont drain the
battery so fast. He has a RV thing that charges 2 batteries so when
he needs a charge he puts the battery in his pickup, and has quick
clip on cables. It really is a decent setup for little money
invested.

Add a couple marine batteries and if a truck can get to the cabin
charge directly from truck using cables to home.or a generator with
both 12 volt and 120 outputs.

a larger battery bank will have greater capacity. .

In article ,
wrote:

Do they make 12volt DC Compact Florescent bulbs?

http://www.thinlite.com/prod07.htm
--

JR

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 04:39:59 -0600, 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

I believe they do, from what I saw in a catalog. It was a 12v light
designed for 12v RV systems.

Might want to check that route.

tom @ www.Consolidated-Loans.info

In article ,
wrote:

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

It's the kit he http://tinyurl.com/y6wdqm

Maybe they're not as bright as I think they are but they sure seem
bright when one's eyes are adjusted for the dark. I have only 2 of the
3 hooked up.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

You can get 12 volt fluorescent lamps on Ebay. they are made for
mechanics who work on vehicles. Some wiring, and also to mount the
lamps to the ceiling or to the wall. You've got light for awhile,
until the power comes back on and you recharge your battery.

An inverter is also a good idea. And a float charger to keep the
battery charged. Disconnect the inverter when not being used, it may
drain the battery.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

wrote in message
ps.com...


Don't know. But they DO make 12v - 120 v inverters. For a
half-dozen
lights, you're only talking about 100 watts, which should cost about
$50.

inverters lose or waste power in conversion. they do sell 12 volt
regular fluroscnts for camping and RVs.......

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:28:35 GMT, "Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT"
wrote:

HeyBub wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
Good grief. How did anyone ever manage to light his home before
Edison and Westinghouse?

They used whale-oil lamps. Really. Rockefeller, who brought the cost of a
gallon of Kerosene down from $3.00/gallon to less than five cents,
effectively brought an end to the whaling business. If John D. were to try
that today, the government would be all over his butt claiming "unfair
competition" etc.

Wait... Never mind.

Tell your buddy to buy a few oil lamps.

Excellent suggestion. I've got five for emergencies. They burn about 1 cup
of Kerosene in two hours. Five gallons of Kerosene (which NEVER goes bad)
should last for a month.

If he wants to be modern, high-tech, and money is no object, get Coleman
camp lanterns. They put out more light than a piddly 60-watt (or florescent
equivalent) bulb anyway.



If you are talking about gasoline or white gas burning lanterns then I
must disagree. Gasoline lanterns such as the Coleman type are
unsuitable for use indoors. The fuel is flammable as opposed to
combustible.

Flammable liquids give of ignitable vapors at normal ambient temperature
and pressure. Those vapors are heavier than air and will flow along the
floor like water and accumulate in low spots until and ignition source
is encountered. One cup of gasoline can, under the worst circumstances,
generate the explosive power of an entire stick of dynamite.
Combustible liquids must be preheated, wicked, or atomized to make them
readily ignitable.

That difference makes white gas and gasoline a much poorer choice for a
fuel source for emergency use. If you want a brighter liquid fueled
light then consider an Aladdin mantle lantern. Those burn as bright as
a sixty watt incandescent electric light bulb but they are silent in
operation and the kerosene that they burn for fuel is safer to store and
handle. For a pressurized mantle lantern the Britelyt Petromax lanterns
would be the way to go. There are cooking and heating adapters made for
the Britelyt lanterns which adds to there versatility in emergency
situations. There biggest advantage over the gas fueled lanterns is
that they will burn a wide variety of flammable and combustible liquids.
For indoor use Kerosene should be the liquid fuel of choice because
it's lower flash point makes it safer to use and store.

I agree on the gas or coleman fuel. I wont use that indoors. I got
one that I have used outside for both camping and at home when the car
is broke, or a sick animal or building stuff after dark.

I have used kerosene lamps indoors and feel pretty safe with them as
long as there are no cats in the house that could knock it over.

I have heard of those aladdin lamps, in fact I think I saw one once
when camping. But where do you get them. I assume they use kerosene.

Mark

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 09:58:22 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:

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

Suggest you and / or your friend visit alt.energy.homepower lots of
expertise there on off-grid living.

Pete C.

I never knew that group existed. Hope I can get it. Some groups dont
appear on my server. Never could figure out why they dont have them
all.

Yes, I can get it. I just checked.....

Thanks

spake thus:

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?

Another angle to consider: get a small solar photovoltaic panel to
recharge the battery. Should cost significantly less than the 3 grand
you say the power company wants to run power out there. That way, he
could use an inverter to get 120 volts (which does waste some energy)
and still be able to recharge the batteries on sunny days.

One place to check might be Real Goods.


--
Just as McDonald's is where you go when you're hungry but don't really
care about the quality of your food, Wikipedia is where you go when
you're curious but don't really care about the quality of your knowledge.

- Matthew White's WikiWatch (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:25:23 -0600, wrote:

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:28:35 GMT, "Thomas D. Horne, FF EMT"
wrote:

HeyBub wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
Good grief. How did anyone ever manage to light his home before
Edison and Westinghouse?

They used whale-oil lamps. Really. Rockefeller, who brought the cost of a
gallon of Kerosene down from $3.00/gallon to less than five cents,
effectively brought an end to the whaling business. If John D. were to try
that today, the government would be all over his butt claiming "unfair
competition" etc.

Wait... Never mind.

Tell your buddy to buy a few oil lamps.

Excellent suggestion. I've got five for emergencies. They burn about 1 cup
of Kerosene in two hours. Five gallons of Kerosene (which NEVER goes bad)
should last for a month.

If he wants to be modern, high-tech, and money is no object, get Coleman
camp lanterns. They put out more light than a piddly 60-watt (or florescent
equivalent) bulb anyway.



If you are talking about gasoline or white gas burning lanterns then I
must disagree. Gasoline lanterns such as the Coleman type are
unsuitable for use indoors. The fuel is flammable as opposed to
combustible.

Flammable liquids give of ignitable vapors at normal ambient temperature
and pressure. Those vapors are heavier than air and will flow along the
floor like water and accumulate in low spots until and ignition source
is encountered. One cup of gasoline can, under the worst circumstances,
generate the explosive power of an entire stick of dynamite.
Combustible liquids must be preheated, wicked, or atomized to make them
readily ignitable.

That difference makes white gas and gasoline a much poorer choice for a
fuel source for emergency use. If you want a brighter liquid fueled
light then consider an Aladdin mantle lantern. Those burn as bright as
a sixty watt incandescent electric light bulb but they are silent in
operation and the kerosene that they burn for fuel is safer to store and
handle. For a pressurized mantle lantern the Britelyt Petromax lanterns
would be the way to go. There are cooking and heating adapters made for
the Britelyt lanterns which adds to there versatility in emergency
situations. There biggest advantage over the gas fueled lanterns is
that they will burn a wide variety of flammable and combustible liquids.
For indoor use Kerosene should be the liquid fuel of choice because
it's lower flash point makes it safer to use and store.

I agree on the gas or coleman fuel. I wont use that indoors. I got
one that I have used outside for both camping and at home when the car
is broke, or a sick animal or building stuff after dark.

I have used kerosene lamps indoors and feel pretty safe with them as
long as there are no cats in the house that could knock it over.

I have heard of those aladdin lamps, in fact I think I saw one once
when camping. But where do you get them. I assume they use kerosene.



Or you could cut a few strands off a cotton mop, shove them into
a can of vegetable shortening, set said can on a platter,
and set them on fire.

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

Many of the RVs have fluorescents or LEDs. LEDs are kind of directional
and expensive.

For power in mine I have a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries (About
$50 each at SAMS) hooked in series. Gives over 200 ampere hours. For
long battery life I try to limit to 100 ampere hours or less between
charging.


Then I have a small Honda generator to keep it charged. Can also run
some 110 volt stuff off the generator when desired.

Light fixtures:
http://tinyurl.com/yagrug

Try WalMart and RV stores.

In article ,
Rich256 wrote in part:

Many of the RVs have fluorescents or LEDs. LEDs are kind of directional
and expensive.

There are some wide coverage LEDs out there now.

However, cost of LEDs remains a valid issue, especially for wattage more
than just a few watts.

Other LED issues:

1) Although there are now some with as much efficiency (more properly
"overall luminous efficacy") as high as that of most compact
fluorescents, most LEDs are not that efficient.
Meanwhile, LEDs have had all sorts of hype as to efficiency, with a
good bit of this hype being definitely untrue.

2) The more efficient white LEDs have color of "cool white" and
"daylight" shades. These can easily have a "dreary gray" effect when
doing room lighting with illumation level below the levels of near
or over 100 footcandles or 1100 lux common in offices and classrooms.
There are "warm white" LEDs, but so far in my experience they are
dimmer and less efficient than their relatives of "cooler" shades of
white.

3) White LEDs mostly have color distortions roughly in the same direction
as most non-triphosphor fluorescents - making reds and greens darker
and more-brownish (sometimes more grayish). Thankfully their
color rendering is better than that of "old tech cool white"
fluorescents! Most non-dollar-store compact fluorescents have a
triphosphor formulation, and avoid these effects - my main color
rendering complaint of those is that many red objects are rendered a
bit orangish.

However, I am all in favor of LED and other non-incandescent lighting
whenever and wherever it does work! LEDs are advancing but somewhat
slowly!

- Don Klipstein )

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:51:46 GMT, Rich256 wrote:

Many of the RVs have fluorescents or LEDs. LEDs are kind of directional
and expensive.

For power in mine I have a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries (About
$50 each at SAMS) hooked in series. Gives over 200 ampere hours. For
long battery life I try to limit to 100 ampere hours or less between
charging.


Then I have a small Honda generator to keep it charged. Can also run
some 110 volt stuff off the generator when desired.

Light fixtures:
http://tinyurl.com/yagrug

Try WalMart and RV stores.


I was thinking about taking a lawnmower engine w/horiz shaft and
rigging it to a GM alternator with built in regulator. Seems to me
that would be the cheapest way to charge batteries since the ting
could be built from junkyard parts, and requires less gas to run a
small engine than a car or truck. Has anyone ever tried this? As far
as I can see, there is no wiring othert than the ground to the
alternator shell and the hot lead to the battery. The rest would just
be the alternator, engine, and 2 pulleys and a belt. Possibly a belt
tightening clutch too, like on a clother dryer, or ir might be hard to
start the engine.

Mark

wrote:
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:51:46 GMT, Rich256 wrote:

Many of the RVs have fluorescents or LEDs. LEDs are kind of directional
and expensive.

For power in mine I have a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries (About
$50 each at SAMS) hooked in series. Gives over 200 ampere hours. For
long battery life I try to limit to 100 ampere hours or less between
charging.


Then I have a small Honda generator to keep it charged. Can also run
some 110 volt stuff off the generator when desired.

Light fixtures:
http://tinyurl.com/yagrug

Try WalMart and RV stores.


I was thinking about taking a lawnmower engine w/horiz shaft and
rigging it to a GM alternator with built in regulator. Seems to me
that would be the cheapest way to charge batteries since the ting
could be built from junkyard parts, and requires less gas to run a
small engine than a car or truck. Has anyone ever tried this? As far
as I can see, there is no wiring othert than the ground to the
alternator shell and the hot lead to the battery. The rest would just
be the alternator, engine, and 2 pulleys and a belt. Possibly a belt
tightening clutch too, like on a clother dryer, or ir might be hard to
start the engine.

Mark

Should work - OK as long as you don't have neighbors:-). Trying to
charge by running a car or truck engine is a losing proposition. It
takes hours to fully recharge a deeply discharged battery.

The problem I see is that the alternator is made to charge car
batteries that normally do not get discharged deeply. For long life
Deep Discharge batteries need special care.


http://www.batteryfaq.org