12-volt lamps

When you adopt the "let's get small" mentality, you may find that you can bridge a lot of equipment and system gaps by using simple DC 12-volt solutions. We always have three or four deep-cycle batteries lying around, ready to be slung into projects, and keep them charged with a small 15-watt solar panel from ICP.

For example, let's say that you have no AC sockets on the side of a room where you need a light. You don't need the light all the time, and you don't want to bother with the expense of a permanent installation. But you also don't want a wire running across the floor or all the way around the edge of the room, over doors, etc.

We solved such a problem with a 12-volt deep-cycle battery (about $80) and a Gruva light from Ikea ($10) Like a lot of Ikea lights, the Gruva is a 12-volt lamp that uses a transformer to change over to AC power. So we snipped the transformer off (don't get the urge to do this when the lamp is plugged in), bared the ends of the wires, ran them around the back of the bureau that couldn't been seen into without a light, rigged the light on the wall, attached the wires to the battery, and hid the battery in a wooden box beneath a clothes-storage hamper. It works well and doesn't look bad. We charge the battery two or three times a year.

The bulb in the Gruva is a G4 halogen, very hot and wasteful. But we only use it for about 30 seconds a day, so we're not guilt-ridden. If this were a light we needed a lot, we'd use a 12-volt cold cathode fluorescent (CCF) lamp like those made my Taylorbrite (about $56 from Defender Industries).

The photos show the Gruva lamp on the wall and the battery hiding place at the bottom of the stack.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Comments

[practical sailor]

For reading, the folks at Sailor's Solutions http://www.sailorssolutions.com/ have a pretty cool LED, that draws very little current, the Sensibulb. It's not as bright as the CCF lights, but for low-energy light for reading, it does the trick. Plus it's dimmable. If you want to get really fancy, you can hook it up to a wireless remote that Sailor's Solutions sells. Practical Sailor www.practical-sailor.com tested this bulb in the May 2006 issue, www.practical-sailor.com.