PREP Simple 12 volt emergency lighting

Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Here are a few pix of one of our simple emergency lighting rigs. It is extremely simple and anyone could do this at home. There are only a few components. The first is a 12 volt deep cycle battery that I renewed. This came out of a local scrapyard and was dead as a doornail and refused to take a charge, but I was able to save it and bring it back to nearly-new condition. Note that you don't need a deep cycle battery for this type of set up. An auto battery in poor condition which is no longer adequate to start your car, but will still hold a modest charge would work fine.

The next component is is a Harley battery trickle charger and minder. No, you don't need to buy a Harley charger. I only used it because I had it laying around. Battery minders/tenders are available all over the place for $10 to $15. The other components are three standard, outdoor floodlight fixtures and three 12 volt LED bulbs with a standard E27 base. The E27 base is the standard size and screw pattern for all regular household bulbs. You can buy the 12 volt LED bulbs inexpensively through eBay, Amazon and other outlets. The last component is a little wire to tie it all in. I painted some scrap plywood white to act as reflectors for the light bulbs and mounted the floodlight fixtures to them.

It all goes together very simply: The battery charger stays plugged in and connected to the battery and the battery is connected to the 12 volt bulbs. Couldn't be simpler. I keep one of the bulbs lit so that in the event of a power outage we aren't thrown into complete darkness. Yes, of course we have flashlights around the house, but this makes things so much easier.

You will note that two of the bulbs are off. This is the way we usually keep them between blackouts and no switch is required. I just unscrew them until they are off. If the power goes out we'll still be able to see easily because of the one bulb that's left burning and I just screw the the other two back in. Three lit bulbs provides nearly normal illumination in our kitchen and living room. Because they are LEDs and because they're attached to that big, deep cycle battery, they could burn for weeks without needing attention.

The amount of juice required to keep that one LED bulb burning is negligible. Oh, we do have a big generator and other, larger batteries and systems, but this just a very handy, stand-alone, self-contained setup that provides for instant illumination when the power goes out. Hopefully this will help some of you out.

Best
Doc

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Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
On a related note, you could make the rig look a little nicer by building a sanded and varnished plywood box for the battery. I mentioned doing that to my DW and she was pleased by the idea, but I think my procrastination gene will kick in and I'll probably never get around to it - lol. In any case, she gets to enjoy the lighting when the power goes out so I don't think she'll do much complaining about the lack of the box.

FWIW, the power goes out with dismal regularity in this neighborhood and this little rig has helped us out several times.

Best
Doc
 
D

dvo

Veteran Member
How did you bring the 12V deep cycle battery back to life? Just curious. I had one hauled out of here a few months back with a truck load of other junk. If I’d done something like you did, I’d be ahead. Oh well. Life is for learning.
 
db cooper

db cooper

Resident Secret Squirrel
dvo said:
How did you bring the 12V deep cycle battery back to life? Just curious. I had one hauled out of here a few months back with a truck load of other junk. If I’d done something like you did, I’d be ahead. Oh well. Life is for learning.
Click to expand...
The question was not directed at me, but I do have an answer that relates to what we do. Take a cup of distilled water add three tablespoons epsom salts, heat to dissolve. There must be enough room in the cells to take the entire cup equally divided between each cell, if not some must be sucked out. We use a battery tester with those little balls in it to do that.

The battery must be stone dead. We hook a car headlamp to it, and when there is no longer the faintest glow, it is then completely recharged. Then made stone dead again with the head lamp. Recharge to full. Do this about three times.

This only works about 2/3's of the time. We've gotten up to eleven years out of a common car battery doing this.

Common sense says to wear protective gloves and a face shield when doing this. Any spilled acid needs to be flushed away with lots of fresh water. It is not recommended to use baking soda on top of a battery. However adjacent spill areas baking soda will neutralize acids. This should all be done in fresh air with no possible source of ignition to set off any hydrogen that may be generated by the battery cells.
 
Kewpie

Kewpie

Senior Member
I don’t necessarily have the brain power for this. I bought solar lights off Amazon for a few outside areas and my chicken coops. :D

What do you figure the lifespan for this setup would be? It’s pretty cool!
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
WiWatcher said:
On those 12v LED bulbs, are they just wired using the regular connectors but supplied by 12v DC rather then 120v AC?
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If you were to use 12v incandescent you'd need bigger wire to go any distance, but the LED draw is so tiny I think same wire size is fine. But I'm not an electrician.....
 
Illini Warrior

Illini Warrior

Illini Warrior
my 12V emergency system light system - for just navigating around the house - copies my current room switch/ceiling light layout >>> I figure I'll be reaching for that now non-working switch and might as well utilize the memory moves to their best advantage ....

don't need much light for just navigating rooms safely - strings of 100 count Xmas tree lights work just fine for limited lighting - 110V shallow boxes & switches can be temporarily surface-mounted by the existing switches ....

tested 1,000 feet of "twinkle light" strings - works just fine - electric draw is nominal for hours of use
 
N

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
Dea vu all over again!!

We had PRECISELY this discussion back in the Greenspun daze.....Aprox 1998-99.

Basically staring all the same equipment.
 
B

Big Bob

Senior Member
Nice project! In s pinch there are many small bulbs in a car that can be used. Done lights trunk lights ect. A trip to a junk yard for lamps and fuses might be a good idea. Cheap extension cords wire nuts and electric tape can do wonders.
 
C

Chicken Mama

Veteran Member
This is a valuable thread with lots of useful information. Thanks for starting it, Doc1 and to the other posters who added to it. Saving for a near-future weekend.
 
nomifyle

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Here are lights that I have


Powdered by:


this also sits under my table lamp and probably charges it, and then I check it periodicly and charge it with my Jackery


I have a solar panel for the Jackery.

I'd like to get a larger Jackery but it costs money. I've got some USB strings of lights in my Amazon cart, but I keep putting off getting them.

I like Doc1's set up too.

ETA: My Jackery powers my lift chair
 
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colonel holman

colonel holman

Veteran Member
Bank of 12v marine batteries in basement, wired to pop up into living room. Connections to 12V led’s, another to 12V charging station for AAA, AA, C, D lithium recharge batteries, and another to power HAM. Battery bank charged by solar panels just outside basement window, with southerly exposure. Charge controllers to match panels. 150W, 45W, several 15-20W. Need more bigger but that is what is available so far.
 
Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
WiWatcher said:
On those 12v LED bulbs, are they just wired using the regular connectors but supplied by 12v DC rather then 120v AC?
Click to expand...

There's nothing special about the connections and yes, I'm using 120 VAC fixtures with 12 VDC current. The only thing to be careful about is getting the polarity correct. Wire the flood light fixtures so that the contact at the bottom of the fixture is positive and the metal screw threads are negative.

Best
Doc
 
Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I want to emphasize something for you folks on very limited budgets; you don't need an expensive deep cycle battery like the one in my pix. You can do this with a marginal auto battery or even a small motorcycle battery.

Most automotive batteries wind up in the scrap pile while they still have lots of life left. They just don't have enough life left for cranking car engines. Car batteries are designed to crank auto engines. Deep cycle batteries are designed to provide steady current for extended periods, as with golf cart batteries. Then you have batteries which supposedly do both.

When car batteries can no longer reliably start a car, they wind up being traded in at the auto parts store. It takes a lot of energy to turn an engine over to start it. But even "bad" auto batteries are still (usually) capable of taking and holding a significant 12 volt charge.

These "bad" batteries will almost always be capable of taking enough of a charge to keep 12 volt LED lights burning for a very long time. Most people can find a "junk" 12 volt battery somewhere. You or a neighbor might have one lying around in your garage or backyard. Just charge it and see if it will light your LED bulb. If it does, then see how long it will keep it lit. If it keeps it lit for only two or three days, it's probably good enough for this emergency lighting system.

As with a lot of prep ideas, this requires being smart, not rich!

Best
Doc
 
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