Battery for l.e.d. Lighting?

[paulyyy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close paulyyy]

G'day guys wanting to set up some led light strips for camping and was just wondering if this battery http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-42AH-...-/281138619673 would be good enough to power it for a few hours a night for up to 3-4 days without recharging? I have no idea with electrical stuff so any help would be great.

[Guest Close Guest]

It will depend how much current your lights will draw. If say 5A for 3hr, that's 15Ah per day. That battery might be good for 2 days.

Also I have bought from that ebay seller before and the battery I got was DOA and I returned it after figuring that surely, the battery should last a lot longer than the stated capacity. He ran some tests on it and exchanged it with a brand new one without fuss.

[paulyyy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close paulyyy]

It will depend how much current your lights will draw. If say 5A for 3hr, that's 15Ah per day. That battery might be good for 2 days.

Also I have bought from that ebay seller before and the battery I got was DOA and I returned it after figuring that surely, the battery should last a lot longer than the stated capacity. He ran some tests on it and exchanged it with a brand new one without fuss.

Thanks on the quick reply mate. I think in a one meter strip there is 60 LEDs. I'm looking at getting a 5m roll so that would be 300 LEDs total. Any idea on total draw for that?

[Guest Close Guest]

They are 0.4A per meter. So 2A total.

[paulyyy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close paulyyy]

They are 0.4A per meter. So 2A total.

Wow that's great economy. So the 42ah batt should be heaps to run a lighting system for camping correct?

[Guest Close Guest]

Yes but allow only 80% of usable capacity which equates to about 30hrs. Totally discharging the battery would kill it.

[paulyyy Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close paulyyy]

Yes but allow only 80% of usable capacity which equates to about 30hrs. Totally discharging the battery would kill it.

Yeah 30 hours is way more than what I'd require thanks so much for your quick replies and assistance amts. Cheers

[MadJak Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close MadJak]

I have some rc batteries that I use on my led light strips. They are 3 cell 11.1v lipo batteries with 5ah capacity. You can get them online for around $20 from places like hobbyking and they are brilliant for putting the 1m or 0.5m led strips out around the campsite. They seam to last forever expecially when you run the dimmers on them with a bonus of being super light weight. I just velcro them to the lightbar and you basically have a very bright portable lantern.

Just a word of warning, you do need to be a bit carefull with them if you dont get the hardcase versions. If you pierce the cells they burn up with lots of nasty smoke.