I got a cool inverter thing to run with my ryobi tool batteries. I’m wanting to use this for lighting, small fans, and phone charging in small outages where I don’t fire up my genset.

What are some good low draw lighting options to light a room or 2? All our Christmas lights are non-led so don’t last too long.

Does that thing have a 12v DC output?

Not the one I got. Has 2 USB (2.4A 5dc) and 120v 1.25A 150W normal wall plug

Tough one. Running LED lights thru an inverter Is a power hog.  Ideally 12 v for
12 v lights.   You are going to be pretty limited off that.

They are 40v batteries so they’re going to be going through a transformer either way.

going from DC to AC adds much more load on the battery.  

He would have better luck with a small 12v battery on a trickle charge for low draw LED lights and a 12v fan.

No they are 18v tool batteries. I have 2 USB ports so that doesn’t seem like it would convert to AC would it?

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There is a tiny 18 to 5v dc transformer in there, USB power.
Also a small 18vdc to 120ac inverter,  that’ll power up a couple led lights and a small fan for an hour or two. Probably less.   Just not much in the little batteries to run an inverter and their load.

There's no free lunch.  Everytime you make a power source go through a voltage change or more so, a DC-AC inversion, you loose efficiency.  

If you want to truely maximize your battery life, you'd be looking at DC LEDs, that run straight off the battery.  That's doable.

(I didn't spend a bunch of time on this, but, for example, you can buy 12-24V DC LED bulbs from Amazon.  You could hook them directly to your battery.)

ETA: I have ran similar bulbs using alligator clips to directly connect to Craftsman and Milwaukee batteries.)

Hard to beat a rechargeable flashlight used as a room light. I've been in 3x multi-day blackouts, and maybe another 4-5 multi hour blackouts, and the 'flashlight lamp' has served me well.

A 3500mah 18650 will light up a room like this for 24hrs between charges at 65lm, bounced off the ceiling. I can't think of any other light source being as energy efficient.





So I'd just use the inverter to charge 18650's; added bonus being you can just charge a bunch of 18650's ahead of time.

This is also more versatile / survivable, as the 18650's can also be charged with a small solar cell, or off a car cigarette lighter, or from your generator.

I could be wrong, but I think what the Original Poster was probably referring to was a backup lighting source. If you're not a tooly, you may not have a shit ton of portable tool rechargeable batteries laying around. In the case of a long term power outage where you do not need to use power tools to make emergency repairs, but your primary battery powered lighting and communication device battery supplies are running out, you would have the option of using stored DC power in your power tool batteries to power lighting and portable communication devices if needed. For 20 bucks for an adapter (available for many of the popular brands like Makita, Dewalt, Ryoby etc), it's probably worth having one on hand. Yes, there is always power loss during a conversion, but if you run out of other power options, it's better than nothing. The $10 USB LED bulbs on Amazon are probably the easiest option.


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A regular LED bulb in a standard lamp? 60W equivalent is like 7 actual watts.

I use Thrunite flashlights in moonlight/firefly mode for this application. Literally get a week or more out of a single battery.

In this case you could use the USB ports to run a AA/AAA charger once a week.

USB light bar
here

USB fan

here
One reviewer posted " I checked the fan's power consumption using a USB tester. At low speed, it consumed from 0.2-0.3 amps, at medium speed 0.45-0.55 amps and at high, between 0.85 and 1 amps" you can math it out for how long it will last on a charge

That's about the best you can get with that set up. Neither will last long on a battery charge

I really like those little UBS thingies you plug into the tool batteries especially if you have a lot of those batteries around for drills, etc.

Could you do something like this for longer run time?  Get a 109 amp hour battery from walmart, deep cycle, around 82 bucks, and add in one of these.  I'd wonder how long that would last for what you want to run, vs those tool batteries, or add in another battery if you wanted extra run time without hooking up the gen set.  

Check SleazyBay for "led strip lights white".

I bought a couple 25' rolls.  

You can cut them into lengths as short as 3" or run the entire 25' length.

I put two six foot strips under our kitchen counters and they look good and are bright.

I've never tried, but I guess you can wire them into a USB plug for easy powering from your power source.

Bill

Just looking at SleazyBay and they are now selling up to 300' rope lights.  

With 300' I could wrap my house eaves for Christmas or run inside through every room by drilling and going through the walls.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/50-100-150-300ft-LED-Rope-Light-In-Outdoor-Cuttable-Flexible-Lights-Strip/143224287128?var=442151236677&hash=item2158d52f98:g:0jEAAOSwkm9ctTDR

The lowest draw lighting I have ever seen is an LED lantern that I have.  It takes three AAA batteries and lasts roughly 11 months of constant illumination on one set of cheap Costco brand batteries.  Provides just enough light to avoid bumping into things in the night...not enough to read by.

Yes, that lantern is a wonder...and defective.  It actually has a small electrical leak in it, so when it's "off", it glows very dimly...just enough to keep you from bumping into things in a small room.  I never even turn the thing on...I just think that it's cool that when it's "off", it gives me nearly a year of constant illumination on one set of cheap batteries.

There are a lot of various 12v dc and even some 24v dc lights available from the various truck lighting companies,  Gorte, Trucklight and Hella. As well as Chinese knock offs

The nice thing about getting 12-24VDC lights is that you can power them with a wide variety of stuff, just using alligator clips.  Basically any common drill battery will work just fine, plus obviously, car batteries.

You might let the smoke out of a 12VDC light hooking it up to a fully charged 18V-20V drill battery.