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Topic: 12v LED strip lights - tent battery

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scaryfast

08/7/2020 at 9:48pm
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I've got about 10m of domestic 12V LED light strip hanging around and was hoping to use this to light the inside of our tent.

The site we've booked has no EHU. I'm looking at battery units online, but the price quickly gets ridiculous (£130 gets you about 52A/hrs).

A dimmer switch would be good, but I'm not sure whether the ones I'm looking at are resistive (e.g still draw full power when dimmed).

Does anyone here have any tips/advice (particularly on batteries)?

Many thanks

marg6

09/7/2020 at 7:14am
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yeah first of all a 110amp/hr leisure battery is £94 at go outdoors or you could get a 75amp/hr for £60 which if only for running lights will be more than enough, depending on how long your going for, but these will last you more than 2 weeks holidays, the other option would be to buy the same battery as your car takes and then you can swap then around as needed to recharge it

Pickled Onion

09/7/2020 at 10:57am
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Hi and welcome to the forum.

Dimming LEDs isn't quite as simple as dimming filament lamps but there are some fairly cheap gadgets out there that will do the job pretty well.

I've used a few of these under my overhead lockers to dim LED strip lighting very successfully, plus they are cheap and reliable.

Dave

-------------
Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you on experience.
Mark Twain.

bigmac

09/7/2020 at 12:33pm
Location: North West
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beware that lithium batteries are often quoted as mAh or Ah for 3.7v cells - so running at 12v a 52ah battery would only supply 16Ah.

AFAIK led dimming will be pulse-width-modulated, so dimming should lower the power requirements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation

scaryfast

10/7/2020 at 11:15pm
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Great tips, thank you.

I tested the light setup with a mains to 12V transformer today with the cheapy £3 dimmer I bought on Amazon. Works fine (also has a crazy flashy program that I'll set on my wife when I nip to the loo).

I'll buy a 12v lead/acid leisure battery.

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Paul_B

11/7/2020 at 8:05am
Location: Yorkshire
Outfit: Car & Caravan

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You can get good solar lights that hold the charge for quite a while and can be recharged from the car if necessary.

JANEVANS02

15/7/2020 at 10:34pm
Location: EAST DEVON
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Like the sound of solar lights that can also be charged from car can you please give any info on name and where they might be sold please

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