RE: 12-volt lighting question

[mike4947]

 SactoCampers
Sacto, you ve kinda got it backwards, the Flourescent light fixture is the 12 volt part. The bulb is standard 110 volt one you can but anywhere.
 The fixture has a higher step up transformer than the 110 volt fixture so they can both use the same bulbs.
 
 Buy a 12 volt flourescent fixture, a coiled cord, a 1/4"  plug to fit the ceiling fixture, and some velcro.
 We then put up velcro on the ceiling where ever we wanted to use the light. Over the sink for doing dishes, next to our bunk for a reading light and over the table for card games.
 Trailers with 2 two bulb fixtures draw almost 8 amps. Our two tube flourescent darws about 1.5 amps and gives off IMHO more light.
 
 On cool evenings we fire up the Coleman lantern for trailer light. You be amazed at the heat they give off and they do a good job of keeping the furnace quiet till bedtime.

[SactoCampers]

 mike4947

Sacto, you ve kinda got it backwards, the Flourescent light fixture is the 12 volt part. The bulb is standard 110 volt one you can but anywhere.
 The fixture has a higher step up transformer than the 110 volt fixture so they can both use the same bulbs.

 That s what I was wondering. I didn t know if the fixture cared whether 12-volts or 110volts was running through it. From that point I thought all I would need to do is change the wiring around. Yeah, and this coming from the guy who has a an unused soldering pen sitting in his workbench for the past year. I haven t even done the simple voltmeter mod yet. Too lazy.
 
 What I d like to do is just find a regular 12-volt table lamp. Believe it or not, it s actually hard to find these. We put our 110v AC lamp on top of our sterlite storage bins and the flourescent bulb (25 watts) really illuminates the whole popup. I don t want to plug into my ceiling receptacles because I m trying to run the lamp off the electripac so I can save all my trailer battery power for furnace and water pump use.
 
 Now if I could find a 12-volt LED table lamp (or 12-volt table lamp and LED bulb array compatible with it) with the same brightness I would be in heaven. LEDs are really efficient.
 
 I suppose I could go back to propane lantern but I don t really like the noise, and little mantles are always breaking. I don t think Mrs. Sacto would approve of using it indoors. But now that we have the grill-stove which uses the high pressure bottles and we have to keep those stocked, I could revisit the idea.

[MtnCamper]

 SactoCampers
If you go to your auto parts store, they have 12V bulbs that fit your standard socket. So you can use your lamp on 12V. But the smallest I have found are 50W. They are sold for trouble lights, that connect directly to your battery. But they would work in a standard fixture, you just have to wire up the plug. They are made by Ruff-Lite, p/n RS-12-50-2, cost me $2.99 for 2 bulbs (Advanced Auto).

[mike4947]

 SactoCampers
LED 12 volt lights are available. They make them with bases to fit any of the more common bases. My only problem with them is that they are very directional. We used them is several applications for task lighting like over a sink. They act like a spot light rather than a flood light. With an 8 lamp cluster using less than a 1/4 amp, you can afford to have a bunch of them scattered around.
 And of course I can t find the links for them. One of these days I got to rename a few hundred so I can find things.

[topcat7736]

 SactoCampers
Sacto,
 
 About a year ago we were in an ACE hardware store browsing around. They were selling small lamps with a brown plastic base (which held a 6v lantern battery) and a white plastic shade which detaches. It s about a foot tall and set me back about $5. The neat thing is that the lamp inside it had a standard auto lamp base.
 
 So, I removed the 6v lamp & replaced it with a 12v one with the lowest current draw I could find. Put a dead lantern battery in the base upside down to provide some ballast for the base. Then, I picked up a long coiled cord with rca jack on it at Radio Shack. Drilled a hole in the side of the lamp & soldered the wires to the contacts the battery would have touched. We can plug it in to any light fixture & it gives us a portable 12v table lamp, which can be switched on/off at the neck, suitable for eating or reading with a total cost of under $10.

[SactoCampers]

 mike4947

ORIGINAL:  mike4947
 
 LED 12 volt lights are available. They make them with bases to fit any of the more common bases. My only problem with them is that they are very directional. We used them is several applications for task lighting like over a sink. They act like a spot light rather than a flood light. With an 8 lamp cluster using less than a 1/4 amp, you can afford to have a bunch of them scattered around.
 And of course I can t find the links for them. One of these days I got to rename a few hundred so I can find things.
 

 Don t worry Mike, I know where to find them. I hear you about their directionality, though. But man, they re good lights. And expensive. They should be standard equipment on all automobile brake lights. Once you ve seen them on the back of trucks and buses and how much quicker they are to illuminate, standard incandescent lights look antiquated in comparison. The auto companies instead mess around with the plastic lenses to make them look like LEDs, but it s just a cheap attempt to imitate the real thing.
 
 If I can find a 12-volt light fixture and base, then that would be my best option. I just don t have time to dedicate to it since Mrs. Sacto would say " what s wrong with what we have?" . And I don t have a real good response to that [&:].
 
 Hey Mike, whatever happened with your truck purchase? IIRC, last time you spoke, you said you might revisit that subject in the fall.