12 volt lighting

[zacharoo]

Can regular wiring and fixtures be used with 12 volt bulbs? Thinking about a house boat.
Zacharoo

[geezerbiker]

There are 12v bulbs that screw into a regular socket like 110v bulbs do.  These are meant for 12v drop lights.  I got my drop light from Snap-On a long time ago but the last bulb came from a local auto parts store.  I hope this helps.

I'm planning to add 12v wiring to my home during a remodel but I will be using non standard sockets for power and auto LED bulbs.  I plan to rewire some lamps to use this type of bulb.

Tony

[blind ear]

There are 12v bulbs that screw into a regular socket like 110v bulbs do.  These are meant for 12v drop lights.  I got my drop light from Snap-On a long time ago but the last bulb came from a local auto parts store.  I hope this helps.

I'm planning to add 12v wiring to my home during a remodel but I will be using non standard sockets for power and auto LED bulbs.  I plan to rewire some lamps to use this type of bulb.

Tony

-
Geezerbiker, what will be the goal and advantage of your plan. I don't know anything about it and am interested in learning a little. "Thank you, Thank you very much".  ear

[charles p]

Like someone said, there are 12V bulbs made to fit 110V fixtures.  We used to use them when we went flounder gigging.  They are now obsolete due to much higher output LED lighting that runs on lower voltage.  I would suggest you research the low voltage LED products since they use less energy and provide much more light.
 
LED flounder gigging lights use multiple small batteries like AA or AAA and do not even have an on and off switch.  The conductivity of the salt water turns the lights on when submerged.
 

[Lloyd Smale]

yes and no. A 12v bulb can be run on the same wiring as your 120 vt stuff but at a much smaller wattage. thats why most 12v bulbs are low wattage bulbs. 12 vt stuff requires 10 times the amperage to do the same work as 120v. and requires much larger wire. Now if your going to use 10 watt bulbs it isnt going to be a problem.

[bilmac]

I don't think there will be any problem as long as the loads are very low meaning LED lighting and very few outlets per circuit.
I'm doing a cabin that I may enlarge someday to a house that we would live in. I'm going to wire it as if for 110 use, but until we want to live there I will be running it on 12 volts and solar panels. All circuits will go to a standard breaker box, but until I change the box will be full of 12V fuses.
 
 I haven't decided whether to use standard 110 V light fixtures yet or just hook up LED fixtures and change out to 110 standard later, depends on the comparative cost. You can buy LED bulbs that have 110 type bases, but I think they are pretty spendy.

[geezerbiker]

I'm planning to add 12v wiring to my home during a remodel but I will be using non standard sockets for power and auto LED bulbs.  I plan to rewire some lamps to use this type of bulb.

Tony

-
Geezerbiker, what will be the goal and advantage of your plan. I don't know anything about it and am interested in learning a little. "Thank you, Thank you very much".  ear

First off LED lights put out a lot of light for the little power they draw.  I'm planning to have a couple solar panels and maybe a small wind generator to charge the battery.  For me it's all bout emergency preparedness.  I also plan to have an inverter to power the electrics in my gas fireplace.  I also expect to use the LED lights most of the time.  Why, mostly because I can...

Tony

[tacklebury]

Good LED lights are also rated up to 100,000 hrs depending on quality.  LED's use a lot less energy, but are susceptable to power spikes and over-voltage.  Make sure your system runs with a battery and voltage regulator to buffer output to safe levels. 

[geezerbiker]

Good LED lights are also rated up to 100,000 hrs depending on quality.  LED's use a lot less energy, but are susceptable to power spikes and over-voltage.  Make sure your system runs with a battery and voltage regulator to buffer output to safe levels. 

It's more of an issue of not letting the battery overcharge and boil over.  I suppose a high wind on the generator could be a problem but I work with charging systems for a living and I already have a plan in place to deal with this...

Tony

[Cornbelt]

  You can also use LED lights to plug into a phone jack. There was a thread about it here somewhere a year or two ago.

[don heath]

We had ALOT of accidental fires when the mains electicity started failing and folk started trying to switch to 12v. I have always used a 12v flourecent lamp mounted above the stave (and connected to the car parked outside) as a back up - but, having seen just how hot the wires get when you are trying to rank out any decent sort of light output - nope. When I re-did my outlaws house we used an Inverter and stayed with 220v (standard here). Using LED's gives a very long run time in the house using a standard car battery- and if you actually normally recive power from the mains or run a generator then you don't need two sets of wiring.
 
If you are going solar- 12v is a good option, just need to make sure the wires can carry the amps and are not in a plastic case that can catch fire if the wires short/melt. Remember that your normal 100Ahr truck battery has more than enough Ams to weld or cut steel by 'sparking' it accross the electrodes (we were taught to weld at school doing this as a field expiedient) There is one hell of alot more fire potential with unregulated 12v from a car battery than from the mains.

[efremtags]

12v lighting is a waste of time in anything bigger than a 10x. 10 tool shed.


If your wiring a small remote cabin/ trailer, invest in a small ac inverter. You can get a hefty light duty modified sine wave unit pretty cheap. This way you can wire everything to standard ac code which anyone at homedepot can help with.


 Most electricians I've met do not know how to handle dc well in terms of proper wiring and circuit protction. Forget weld, I've seen batteries melt box wrenches. 10,000s amps of short circuit potential in good deep cycle batteris!


Led bulbs re not magic, and they are not the most efficient, actually, compact fluorescent is th best deal going. The main Appeal for led is life and lack of hazardous metal, not efficiency. Curret led bulbs cost >>10x anything comparable and run 10% less efficient than the best. cFL. Why do you think they need to build led bulbs into huge heats sinks.


If you wire for ac, your options are much broader all around, and you can always back up using a genset directly.




People believe if solar, you are automatically limited to 12vdc, on the contrary, 12v dc is impractical above about 200w. Wire solar for 24 or 48v and use an inverter.

[jbtazgrabber]

I built our house with standard wiring,,,normal conventional house.  but added 12 v to every room, only for lighting purposes. Conventional switches with 12 v, 50 watt lightbulb recepticles. ran all wires to a automotive fuse box. The box contains the old glass fuses. 10 amp fuses. The input side of the fuse box has large automotive type wires that go from fuse box to battery, 20 ft away. During emergency outages and 13 year old who thinks he saving me money using the 12 v. It has worked out fine. but it is not on for long periods of time, nor on a daily usage. Have no solar panels or wind power going to battery as of right now. Just use a battery charger to charge battery when needed.

[Bugflipper]

If you want to wire for standard 110 fixtures maybe these search terms will help. e25 12v led
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=e27+led+12v&_sacat=20697&_odkw=e27+led&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&_osacat=20697

Socket converters from e25 type to led should be mixed in with that search as well. Led is low enough draw that you could wire with normal copper romex. I think I ran 12 ga throughout, then 2 ga for the shop going to 10 ga for individual runs and a 6 ga for the welder. It was 12v until I saved up enough to do 48v and an inverter.

[KansasPaul]

There has already been a lot of good information shared on this topic and I'll be as brief as I can.  I've played around with 12v, now moving to solar and wind.  What I've learned is that 12v does not produce enough light and you lose amperage quickly when making wire runs.  In fact, loss is significant even at short distances, say 20 or 30 feet unless you use heavy gauge wire to reduce power drop.
If it were me, I would install a couple of solar panels, a small wind generator (do some research, you can build one at home) a power regulator, a bank of deep cycle batteries (4 should be ample for a houseboat) and an inverter that will meet your peak load requirements. Four to six deep cycles should be enough to reliably power lights, radio, a small fridge, TV, microwave.  A good friend of mine powers a 2200 sq. ft. house using wind/solar and he can run everything with the exception of a washer/dryer (those require the use of a generator).  His set-up uses 10 deep cycles.

Paul

[keith44]

Paul, is he using a single inverter or multiple inverters?  How big??

[BBF]

Ten good quality Deep cycle batteries can run up to 1000 lb !! How big of a houseboat do you have.?
 
Best bet for a long live deep cycle setup  are 6 volt golf cart batteries running two in a Series connection.
 
For 12 V dedicated systems  IE panels, regulators, switches, gauge required etc check out West Marine.

[KansasPaul]

Keith, the inverter is a single inverter.  Xantrex SW.  If I could ever figure out how to post a picture, I'll get one up.

Paul

[Bugflipper]

I think there are different ways to post pictures. The way I do it is:
Click on reply. Under the box you type your message in there is Attachments and other options in blue. When you click on that you will see a drop down.
Click the Choose File button. That will open a window to find the picture on your computer. Usually you click on pictures. Then choose the one you want by clicking on it. Then click Open on the same box. If you want to post more at the same time click on (more attachments) in blue.
Have a good day.