battery powered lighting

[KennethW]

im looking for a simple solution to add some lighting inside the trailer. Does anyone car to share a simple lighting solution or thread that explains a lighting solution. ill be living out of my cargo trailer during my work week on the ski basin. and just need some lighting in the evening while i cook and drink.

I read some were that you could use those solar path lights. put them outside during the day and bring them in at night.
simple and low cost.

[abqlloyd]

small solar charger...
can you please quantify this?

Sorry I suck at math

A 50 watt panel at 12 volts will, in theory, give you 4 amps at 100% efficiency. Laid flat on the roof and accounting for the loss on a cheap charge controller, you can get 2.5 amps real easy. I tried it.

That's enough to keep your battery topped up forever for simple lighting.

[abqlloyd]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418575780.058989.jpg (181.33 KiB) Viewed 3824 times

This is a small SLA that requires no venting. You can leave it inside to charge. This is a name-brand good one. $70.

There's a guy here locally selling surplus UPS batteries, brand new, same spec, for $38.

[abqlloyd]

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Basic solar. The 100w kit is about $150.

[abqlloyd]

Add some puck lights or just about any RV LED lights and you can light your cargo trailer indefinitely on solar.

[khigh]

Not elegant by any means, but I heart these things and the price is right.

I have so many, when it came time to light the trailer, I didn't even wire it, just put a boxful of these in and turn on however many I want - never had more than three going at once in a 6x12

They take AAAs, but I don't think I've ever replaced the batteries in one. Plus you could crack them open and power them however you want.

[felixx]

So a 20AH cell with a 50w solar cell could (in good weather) keep me running for a couple of LED lights

(if it was going to be wet weather I could put 2 in parallel to power tablet etc due to reduced solar power)

I have several 20AH 12V gel cells for spotlighting (hunting)

[abqlloyd]

12 watts at 12V is one amp per hour. Many of the newer LED lights pull 6 watts, or half an amp. Two lights pull one amp.

A 20ah battery will give you 10ah without killing your battery, or run your two lights for ten hours. The solar panel will charge it full every day even in cloudy conditions.

[Prem]

A 50 watt panel at 12 volts will, in theory, give you 4 amps at 100% efficiency. Laid flat on the roof and accounting for the loss on a cheap charge controller, you can get 2.5 amps real easy. I tried it. That's enough to keep your battery topped up forever for simple lighting.

I get by fine with 10 watts of solar on the roof going into a standard battery, a duplicate of my truck's starting battery should it fail while I'm remote camped.

Lots of summer nights I don't even turn on the interior lights. At gatherings I stay up late over at the campfire and return to my trailer to go to sleep carrying one of these that lights up the whole trailer:



khigh is right on! These things work great. I could've eliminated the wiring, LED fixtures and the solar and just stuck four AAA-powered LEDs to the ceiling with velcro! (That's what my friend Guy did in his teardrop.) But then we don't get to spend money and play electrical engineer. Darn! (See the tricked out solar trailers posted on my thread--esp. the 12V Overkill post just above the blonde on the bed.) And please don't hate me for being a wannabe primitive-minimalist-simpleton.

[Gonefishin]

I use a 30 watt solar panel, with a group 27 deep cycle 12 volt battery, and I run my laptop constantly, a couple overhead LED's, a desk side LED, charge my camera battery, charge my cell phone, charge my Kindle, and run the fan in my heater. Even in October with clouds and minimal sun, I never have run the battery dead. Thinking about getting a 12-volt microwave!

And yes, I've also discovered the AAA battery powered LED lights that just velcro wherever you want them with no wires or switches. They get my vote too, and they're portable for wherever you need 'em.

[OverTheTopCargoTrailer]

I use a 30 watt solar panel, with a group 27 deep cycle 12 volt battery, and I run my laptop constantly, a couple overhead LED's, a desk side LED, charge my camera battery, charge my cell phone, charge my Kindle, and run the fan in my heater. Even in October with clouds and minimal sun, I never have run the battery dead. Thinking about getting a 12-volt microwave!

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Prem]

. . . charge my Kindle . . .

HO! I knewd yu waz edgumacated. Prawbly gotcherself 7,980 bookz ona mycro SD card 2, A?

P.S. Have NOOK will travel.

[Gonefishin]

. . . charge my Kindle . . .

HO! I knewd yu waz edgumacated. Prawbly gotcherself 7,980 bookz ona mycro SD card 2, A?

P.S. Have NOOK will travel.

It do make it easy without having to carry "paper." Easy to buy books and mags. too. And, my Kindle Fire makes a good hotspot receiver and back-up for the laptop. Its kinda like one of those tablet thing-a-ma-jiggies, only its a Kindle too. Oh yea, the wife has one of those Surface tablets too. Tech overload for sure. Smart phone, Kindle, tablet, laptop, . . . But I ain't got no damn boob tube in the trailer! Gotta draw the line somewhere.

So ya, a solar panel and a 12-volt deep cycle battery will probably do most of what's needed in a camping atmosphere if you aren't too over the top.

[Prem]

if you aren't too over the top

.

Jerry has too much solar?

[HsPaap72]

so i need two golf cart batteries

2 golf cart batteries are technically better than a 12 volt marine/rv battery. Mainly because the lead plates are thicker and can withstand deep discharge cycles better. I recommend golf cart batteries over a marine/rv battery because of that.

If the amount of stored energy is not large, as in just LED lights to be powered, then a single 12 volt marine/rv battery could be a satisfactory choice. However, if two 12 volt batteries are used to increase the stored energy, it makes much more sense to go with golf cart batteries.

is the fuse block necessary

ALWAYS have a main fuse or breaker in the + line as close to the battery + terminal as possible. That is the safety device in case of a catastrophic failure of some sort... dead short in a wire... As for a fuse block to serve many circuits... that can be handy if there is ever a failure in some device. If only one fuse protects all the circuits in the event of a failure then everything goes off at once. That can make troubleshooting more difficult.

i don't have a solar set up, what alternatives are there to charging a battery?

Battery charger powered by 120 VAC home or campground power or a portable generator (Honda EU, etc.)

Something like a PD 4045 combines the AC and DC circuit protection and a multi stage battery charger. Iota engineering makes some good quality stand alone battery chargers.


LIght color is a matter or personal choice. I don't like the yellow light of a traditional incandescent for example.

Right on Don! i think most of this can be handled at a decent lighting store in or around Portland, OR area too. solar is off the table for me even on a small scale because i wont be getting much sun on mt hood i dont imagine. although we are still waiting on snow, it could very well be blue bird days all winter. this would result in me not living out of the trailer.

i have been considering a generator just to have as a backup/safety/investment piece. so that might then solve my charging situation.

i do have good experience with the blue harbor freight led punch lights, they withstood the baja 500&1000 in the trophy truck and pit camps, i think they would work good all winter in a trailer as well.