Hooked up an 8 foot LED tube from ebay ---I forget the lumen output but it's close to 2 of the 75 watt 8 foot tubes IIRC.

We want to use these because the wattage consumed is ~1/3 -need to verify -the 2 tube 8 foot fixture.


There's an LED outdoor wall light also lit in the picture and it's being powered from the old Trojan battery

I'm running a capacity test on the 2nd forklift [Trojan] battery I picked up for little and have been trying to get restored since Spring with frequent charge discharge cycles using the solar system. SG is  ~1.260 -pretty good considering the battery is ~25 years old. Some cells were shot but I got 7 'good' ones out of the 12.

Process is to run a 100 watt incandescent lamp, and the LED outdoor lamp, with a Xantrex inverter connected directly to the battery.

The 8 foot lamp is running off the barn solar system


You can almost see the glass incandescent bulb, it's drawing about 10.4 amps at 12 vdc. Dim....

The outdoor LED lamp is drawing about 4 amps and it's so bright you can't even look at it.

The long LED is plugged into the system and IIRC, it draws ~5 amps.

Of course the old 2 tube fixture draws about 170 watts with the ballast or about 15 amps at 12vdc...






Incandescent bulb is plugged into the inverter directly with an adapter.

Depending on the outcome of this capacity test the Trojan battery may be retired permanently.

The 15 year old yellow forklift battery behind it is working almost like new ---well worth ~$200 IIRC.

Nice description.
I wanted to see what you were talking about.

PhotobucketFail.




1/10

awesome

I need to get those led worklights.

I put 100,000 lumens of 4' LED shop lights in my new shop when I did the electrical. It's VERY bright. And the LED fixtures were easier and cheaper than hanging FL tubes. I haven't actually verified their efficiency but I suspect the numbers on the box are a bit inflated, they were super-cheap discount lights ($15 X 28 lights = $420 for 100k lumens).

I over-did the lighting because I know cheap LEDs are likely to lose brightness over time. In 15 years when these start to get dim enough that I need more I'm sure we'll be using some amazing new technology that is more than 10 times as efficient and I'll be happy to upgrade.

In 15 years I'll just bang on them with my cane to knock the dust off...

Looks like the Trojan forklift battery will get a reprieve.

I'll likely analyze this in more detail in the solar thread, ---the battery after 15 hours with a 15 amp load [15 amp discharge rate]  has delivered 225 ampere hours ---and the test is ongoing.

It's spec'd at 750 [6 hour rate] amp-hrs at a specific gravity of 1.285 ---to a FULL discharge [per forklift battery mfgrs]

So say half that to a normal working discharge on occasion, is 375 a-h when new.

This battery is ~26 years old, so having delivered 225 A-H over-night and the test is still ongoing, is impressive.


This battery due to horrible corrosion of the positive plates and the connecting straps at the top of the cells, I've taken apart to study,  has very little ability to deliver high currents, over ~40 amps. Normally it could put out 100 amps effortlessly.

This said, in our application in the winter when it's cloudy and not much solar to charge the various battery banks in the barn, this battery seems to be able to be counted on to augment the others.

During these low sun times, I usually [remotely] shut stuff of so the total drain on the batteries is about 12 to 15 amps, and that's to operate a repeater, network stuff, cameras, alarms, a couple very small LED lights, control system. All these things don't take much.

It's cold enough in the barn that the two freezers run very little.

So this battery stretches worst case bad sun days another day at least.


This test will continue until the Xantrex Inverter shuts itself down due to low battery voltage. The inverter will start beeping at 10.5 vdc and shut down at 10 vdc.


Solar thread here...

https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/FORKLIFT-BATTERY-EXPERIMENT---4-HP-diesel-engine--Leece-Nevi12-volt-alter--charging-battery-bank/17-677485/&page=3&anc=bottom#bottom

T +20 and the battery is at  11.7 volts and 300 AH have been supplied at a 50 hour rate.

750AH capacity/15A=50Hour Rate of Discharge


I'll compare this to the original batteries in the next post.

You are so busted.....

Attached File




































Attached File

Lol!

Better than a Crisco sized can of K-Y Jelly

Where is a good place to learn about solar?(website)

Hmmm...

Something fishy is going on...

I did take a bottle of stabil snake oil over to the chain saw when I was going to try to start it.

If it hadn't started I was going to pour some in and see and if it did or didn't, was going to post...

Last night I thought it was mine until I looked at the bottle this afternoon ----and my SO was laughing at me...  

BUT--- the bottle in the picture above can't be mine because mine doesn't have as much in it...

See pix I took this afternoon  below...

Can you post some links to the lights you're using? I know you said ebay for some.

I'm building out a 12v (dual car battery) system for my daughter's tree house, which will have LED lighting and a few cigarette lighter ports for phone charging and such.

GE Lighting 32309 LED Bright Stik 16-watt (100-Watt Replacement),

This is an amazon picture but Target/WalMart/Box Stores are way cheaper

These are 100 watt and very bright, other models are less wattage and might be more suitable for a tree house.  There are various color temperatires.

This 'lightstick' style, is a fairly new model and may have the best technology inside.

I took one apart last week by compressing the plastic cover in a vise until it cracked then pulled it out. The cover has plastic retaining tabs around the bottom and once you figure out where they are, the vice might be necessary, I'll have a look later.

The frosted plastic diffuser attenuates a lot of light. There's a disk of LED's inside that's very bright and acts as a 'point source' and might be used like those big styled columns in computer rooms with powerful white halogen lamps above head level that bounce light off white ceiling tiles for nice overall illumination with no shadows.

The term slips my mind at the moment I think the word starts with a T




Of course any of the recent lamps are good, but require an 120 vac inverter so your battery supply will be inefficient.


So- There are LED 12 vdc track lights in all the box stores with the M16 base and skinny pins. [The track light bulbs that the big stepped pins are for lamps for 120vac.]

Something like these would be great for a tree house and easy to install, tracks and lamp holders are lowest $ on eBay.

There's a selection of flood and spot and various color temperatures.


Here's your answer---

Found this  --12 volt strip light...  Might be perfect, US Seller,  there are tons of LED lights on eBay

Cool white -this model, ~$7 Free shipping   AMAZING!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-72-LED-Tube-Rigid-Bar-SMD-5630-Strip-Light-Cool-White-with-Transparent-Cover-/380808236105?hash=item58a9f08c49:g:0xYAAOSwJkJWlb9p



Specs-

Specifications:
1. Key Features: LED Light
2. Light Source: 72 LED
3.LED Size: SMD 5630
4. Luminous Flux: 1800LM  
5. Output Power: 18W
6. Voltage: 12V
7. Light Color: White
8. Color Temperature: 6000K  
9. Lifespan: 30000-50000hours
10. Material: PC+Aluminum
11. Dimensions: 100 x 1.8 x 1.5cm/39.37 x 0.71 x 0.59inch(L x W x H).)
12. Weight: 6.7oz / 190g


****************

I sometimes expediently solder bulk cheap 16 ga extension cord wire directly to the lamp pins and put a sleeve of tight fitting tubing over each pin to insulate...

If lights are 120vac I leave the plug on.

Update on the Trojan forklift battery capacity measurement.

After 48 hours I stopped the test, the battery voltage had dropped to 10.4v to the inverter, current draw had increase to 16.5 amps approx.

The inverter was beeping at 10.5 vdc and will shut off at 10vdc.


Results-

The 25+ year old battery has lost it's ability to deliver high output current because -from observing 2 cells I disassembled, the positive plate and interconnecting structure have become badly corroded resulting in a high internal resistance. Took pix.


This said--

The old battery can still deliver an amazing capacity at lower current drain. When I first got it in the Spring, and tested it, it seemed this was the case, although I hoped it's ability to output a larger current would improve.

[I figure it's good for about 25 or 30 amps.]


After 48 hours at ~15 A to the inverter and lighting lamps, the battery exhibited a capacity of 48 x 15 = 720 AH and still had reserve juice.


That's pretty amazing, and it can be very useful to help other batteries to bridge the low current demand of  the barn solar system during extended cloudy winter periods.

It in itself, could supply the system for almost 2 days not counting the draw of the 2 small chest freezers.


Originally, this battery is spec's at 750 AH at a 6 hour rate [abt 120 or so amps]

Looking at the Rolls Surrette battery specs for a similar battery, and extrapolating, the load I placed on the Trojan is about a 45 hour rate.

This Trojan would have had abt 2/3 more capacity at a 45 hour rate if charged to a specific gravity of 1.280

That's 1200 AH.

When I started the test this Trojan was charged to 1.255 SG average between 6 of the cells I'm using.

So figure the AH of this battery -new- at the 45 hour rate -is about 15% less or about 1000 AH


The test results when I stopped the discharge -while the battery was still running the lights nicely- of 750 AH supplied, suggest the total discharge to empty might have been about 850 AH, so not too far from it's original capacity, and suggesting maybe 20% sulphation.

So the battery will stay in service with some sort of remote controlled cutout [I have yet to figure out], to protect the rest of the system in the event of its failure and I can't get to it due to snow, etc.


Battery--- The smaller forklift battery I got last year is behind it, it's ~15 YO and performing near new specs..

We found a multiple head floor lamp at a thrift store for a few $, like in the picture below, and installed 2 of the 100 watt equivalent LED lamps with the diffusers snapped out [used Channel Locks to squeeze them] and a 60 watt equivalent in the lowest socket, unmodified.

All I can say is WOW!



I've been using a florescent torchiere near my computer desk and this makes it look dim.

This lamp can point to the white ceiling and the two upper "100 watt" lamps give a nice diffused shadowless illumination that I can adjust. The bottom lamp has the 60 watt equiv and it makes a nice mood light.

All 3 lamps have independent switches.

The round flat LED assembly actually unplugs from 2 pins that can be seen with it installed.

The 100 watt equivalent says 24VDC on the assembly, and I'm nearly blind trying to measure the smaller one, it read 50 vdc.

Of course, eBay has a ton of constant current power supplies to run most any LED array you can think of and some can operate from 12vdc or what I do, some times most of the time anymore since they are so efficient, is use the supply inside the lamp and run it from a dirt cheap 100 watt or so 12vdc to 120vac inverter.

Another thought is to remove the flat LED assembly and maybe or maybe not the power supply in the LED lamp base and reconfigure to installation in any lamp...

Two target lamps are the ones below.  I already modified a torcheire florescent floor lamp,  to take LED bulbs, and a good quality LUXO magnifying bench light to take under-counter LED strips that I separated and put the constant current PS in the ballast enclosure  --- a few years ago ---but these new LED lamps make for a lot of other options.

Have some more LED reviews and some tactical suggestions...

Inside of an inexpensive solar LED motion detecting light. Lithium batteries!

Have a bunch more photographed inside and out and evaluated, incl some 56 or so LED ones...

There's all sort of very inexpensive higher powered LED outdoor lighting with larger integrated solar panels and PIR or microwave motion detectors to switch them on.

We've been experimenting with various units from eBay and these beat the socks of the wimpy path lights.

We glue a magnet or two to the rear of the light and stick them on the metal barn, shipping containers, etc.

We took some of the repurposed hot water heater tanks and placed them on the path between the container and barn and they make great supports to stick the lights to.

More analysis is ongoing. So far I much prefer the microwave detectors for 2 important reasons.

Have you ever had to use that CO2 fire extinguisher ??

most everything in my house was/is CFL, Ive been steadily switching them over to LED, I'm switching everything in my boat to LED also, worth every penny.

Not that particular one.

Years ago I purchased about 12 or 15 NIB of them in a lot on ebay at a super good price.

About the same time frame I bought about 10 Halon's at good prices.

More than 3/4 are deployed in various places, shipping container, stealth trailer, etc.

I had to use one of the Halons [only about 1/2 a pound, it still has abt 10 pounds remaining, need to top its pressure back up w/ N2 to 175psi, but it'll work fine without] in May or June, when I was cutting a Timkin bearing with CBN tooling on a lathe.

Caught on fire and grabbed a Halon and a tiny poof and it was out.

Here's an assortment of LED lamps, if you remove the diffuser, about twice as many lumens become available!

Wow I like that, very nice.

Cool posts and info Expy (as usual).

I'm thinking about trying these 12v LED Van lights inside my building when I get everything together.  I'll just staple them up across the ceiling/walls until I get enough light.  They're cheap and already 12v, so I can mess around with where I put them.  I'm going to try putting the batts and mppt charger near the middle of the building (30' length) to try avoiding voltage drop over the wiring runs.

They're cheap and they seem to review well.  If they suck I'll just pull them back down.lol

12v LED Van interior lights (10 modules) on Amazon for $13.99

Amazon pic:
Attached File


Amazon customer review pic:
Attached File

Sidetrack:  I've been using a couple of the 4', 4500 lumen "shop light" LEDs as grow lights for the last month, and they're doing great.  The baby plants (mostly lettuce, kale and whatnot at this point) really like 'em, and we don't have to constantly change the height of the lamps to keep the seedlings from getting all leggy.  They're doing better under the LEDs than they do under the 8' HO fluorescents that we usually use for bedding plants.

I just ordered a 10-pack of these lights to replace all the lights in the bedding plant/winter holdover area we've got set up in the basement...  three of the dual 8' fluorescents (6 bulbs total) and two 400w metal halides.  I think they're going to perform better, give us more even light distribution, and use a bit over 1/3 the power of the current setup.

Prices of outdoor LED "barn lights" have also been dropping recently.

The local big box stores are still selling outdated, overpriced crap, but there's plenty of better stuff online.

Example #1

Example #2

Example #3

Example #4

Very cool, OP.

Thanks for sharing.

The GE Stick LED lights are not as easy to find now, Sam's Club still has the two pack of the hundred watt equivalence but they got rid of the lower wattage versions.

My local Kroger had the three packs of various wattages on clearance so I picked up several 3-paks for around $4.

I like the tip on removing the case, I might try that with two of the hundred watt equivalent versions I have.

Does anyone have ideas what Infra Red LEDs could be used with the IR and microwave sensing solar-outdoor floodlights posted above, that could be put around for surveillance applications?

Could make a usable and economical IR light solution for a lot of purposes, incl NV.

A heads up...

Over the winter something has happened to various LED/Solar/sensor outdoor lights.

We stuck them at a lot of locations [testing various models and brands] to light up areas we go at night and back and forth.

[We used repurposed hot water tanks as 'standards' along one path and attach the lights w/ glued on magnets from eBay, like the 3 inch round ones in the H_F catalog. Need moar tanks]

Out of ~15, many have failed by having little sensitivity to detect and one just glows very dimly all night w/ 30 LEDs.

Both the microwave and IR sensor models have failed or are degraded.

Don't have time to analyze now, but will, and will report.

Some are working PERFECTLY tho!

That's a good amount of light! Should be plenty for my plebeian shop
Nice setup you've got there...

Here's how a repurposed hot water heater has been put to good use!



The light is one of the microwave ones.

We've put a mix of a couple IR and microwave sensor lights along our path.