Using a HF 5000L LED on an inverter, power consumption?

[TheEquineFencer]

I just woke up and came up to the shop.

I just did as I said I'd do.....I went back and bought 4 more tonight as I said I'd do in another thread.( Harbor Freight 4 Foot, 5000 Lumen Braun LED Shop Light?)

The Winterville, NC store was out, so I went to Goldsboro, NC store. I did as OccupantRJ suggested, I looked up the stock number, checked availability and called before I went....then I asked them to hold 4 for me. LOL, the guy said they showed 172 in stock, but he'd "hold" four for me in case they sold out before I got there!

I plan to use them in some "unconventional ways"....who knows how they'll hold up. I plan to power one and see how it likes a Vanner 300W pure sine wave inverter. I plan to install it inside of an outdoor "run-in shed" for the horses. I'll use a rotary mechanical timer wired to the remote on/off circuit to turn the inverter on/off and leave the inverter switched on plugged into the HF 5000 Lumen light. I guess I need to figure out how long to safely run the inverter without "smoking" the battery as it will need to be charged every so often. The Light says 1.1A draw. I'll see if I can figure out what the inverter will require. That'll determine what/which battery/batteries I'll use.

It'd cost a small fortune to run a 15-20A circuit to the building. and I Really do not want to take a $300-$500 set of Solar panels and MPPT charge controller I have to just keep a POS battery charged so she can see how to pick up "road apples" in the dark.

Here is what I know and don't know. The HF light has a nameplate power usage of 1.1A @120VAC, that's 132W. The inverter runs at approximately 89% max efficiency. It consumes 0.15A while the remote is energized. I guess it's time to go buy an AC/DC amp probe. I have a few 300W continuous duty, 400W surge rated Vanner brand Pure Sine Wave Inverters I plan to power it with. The inverter has a remote terminal I can switch it On/Off. I plan to leave the inverter switched on, with the light plugged into it switched on. I have a mechanical remote timer, (1 hour), in place already I'll wire to the remote circuit to turn everything On/Off. I'm "guessing" at best, it'll draw 2Ah from a battery if it runs a hour. From timing my G/F, she might use it 20-30 minutes per night if she's late feeding the horses. But Let's figure 1 hour per day usage.

Low voltage shutdown is at 11.5 VDC preset inside the inverter. The battery will get scheduled to be recharged on a regular basis.

How many Ah battery do I need minimum? I'll use a standard type Flooded Lead Acid. I'm guessing I need to stay around a 70%-80% State of charge for the battery to last a while.

I hope this thread incites some others to "think outside the box."

 

[Shiftless]

Sounds like you’re on the right track about figuring things out. But I would double check that 1.1 amps current draw for your light fixture. Sounds like double what I would expect.

Edit:
I found this on page 5 of the owner’s manual

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Sounds like you’re on the right track about figuring things out. But I would double check that 1.1 amps current draw for your light fixture. Sounds like double what I would expect.

LOL, it's a HF light, my guess is it's close to correct...If I can get the $$$ together, I'll go get an Amp Probe in the morning. I never thought about buying one until now. I usually have a job that supplies one...

Good Point though...TY

 

[Shiftless]

I found specs for that light. HF claims half an amp. See my earlier post.

I took the liberty of using 85% efficiency for your inverter and rounded off some numbers.

So .5 amp at 120 volts is 60 watts. Divide that by your inverter efficiency of .85 and you get about 70 watt draw from your battery. If your battery is delivering 12 volts on average, that translates to 5.8 amps. (Not the 2 you estimated)

With an 80 amp hour deep cycle battery fully charged, you could run it down to 50 % in roughly 14 hours.
Based on these estimates and assumptions, I’d say you could go 2 weeks in between charges.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I found specs for that light. HF claims half an amp. See my earlier post.

I took the liberty of using 85% efficiency for your inverter and rounded off some numbers.

So .5 amp at 120 volts is 60 watts. Divide that by your inverter efficiency of .85 and you get about 70 watt draw from your battery. If your battery is delivering 12 volts on average, that translates to 5.8 amps. (Not the 2 you estimated)

With an 80 amp hour deep cycle battery fully charged, you could run it down to 50 % in roughly 14 hours.

I'd go to the bottom of the page and look at the specs. 1.1A when I get a probe I'll check it myself.

https://www.harborfreight.com/5000-lumen-4-ft-led-hanging-shop-light-64410.html

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I found specs for that light. HF claims half an amp. See my earlier post.

I took the liberty of using 85% efficiency for your inverter and rounded off some numbers.

So .5 amp at 120 volts is 60 watts. Divide that by your inverter efficiency of .85 and you get about 70 watt draw from your battery. If your battery is delivering 12 volts on average, that translates to 5.8 amps. (Not the 2 you estimated)

With an 80 amp hour deep cycle battery fully charged, you could run it down to 50 % in roughly 14 hours.
Based on these estimates and assumptions, I’d say you could go 2 weeks in between charges.

TY, I did go back and look, it does need to be actually tested/checked to see what the actual Amp draw is.

Thanks for the lesson on the Calcs. I'll save that section somewhere on my computers external drive. That's a lot of why I started this thread, so I'd learn something and others would too.

 

[Shiftless]

1.1 amps at 120 volts is 132 watts to get only 5000 lumens. If it’s true, that’s REALLY crappy efficiency. That’s the approximate wattage of modern LED street lights or those super bright high bay warehouse light fixtures.

IMHO, it would be WAY easier for you to get a few screw base 12 volt LED bulbs and put those in porcelain sockets up on the ceiling. Or if you want to get fancy, get any desired light fixture and run 12 volt LED bulbs. Your spring loaded timer should work fine regulating 12 volts DC with such a small current draw.

You won’t need an inverter and you won’t have to waste power running it.
You might be happier with the light spread out a bit more in your stable rather than one bright area and the rest in relative darkness.

A 12 volt, 5 watt screw in bulb gives pretty good light. I use them in sconces on each side of my garage door and run them with the timed landscape lighting circuit.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

1.1 amps at 120 volts is 132 watts to get only 5000 lumens. If it’s true, that’s REALLY crappy efficiency.

IMHO, it would be WAY easier for you to get a few screw base 12 volt LED bulbs and put those in porcelain sockets up on the ceiling. Or if you want to get fancy, get any desired light fixture and run 12 volt LED bulbs.

You won’t need an inverter and you won’t have to waste power running it.
You might be happier with the light spread out a bit more in your stable rather than one bright area and the rest in relative darkness.

A 12 volt, 5 watt screw in bulb gives pretty good light. I use them in sconces on each side of my garage door and run them with the timed landscape lighting circuit.

Well heck, where can I find an A19 base 12V LED light cheap? I think I have some bases somewhere here in the shop. That's a great idea! I was just suing what I had laying around that was I thought cheap. But yes, I think that's a High amp draw for 5000 lumens. I think my Tandem T-8s are actually pulling 1.0-1.1A the last time I checked them. I think they are around 10,000 Lumens per fixture with the 5K bulbs I'm using.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

first google search for "A19 base 12V LED light" turned up:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=12v+led+...886260&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_69mqq0gqdn_b

 

[Shiftless]

first google search for "A19 base 12V LED light" turned up:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=12v+led+...886260&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_69mqq0gqdn_b

I bought mine from super bright LEDs but the type I bought that look like regular household bulbs have been discontinued. I guess people like the old time looking “Edison filament” design. I found these for about 10 bucks each.

6 watts gets you 490 lumens

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...ed-light-bulb-40w-equivalent-490-lumens/3196/

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I bought mine from super bright LEDs but the type I bought that look like regular household bulbs have been discontinued. I guess people like the old time looking “Edison filament” design. I found these for about 10 bucks each.

6 watts gets you 490 lumens

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...ed-light-bulb-40w-equivalent-490-lumens/3196/

LOL, translate that into Ah's needed? How much battery to use them? I know where I can get **** load of brand new 7Ah batteries that come in some Champion 3500/4000W generators....

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I bought mine from super bright LEDs but the type I bought that look like regular household bulbs have been discontinued. I guess people like the old time looking “Edison filament” design. I found these for about 10 bucks each.

6 watts gets you 490 lumens

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...ed-light-bulb-40w-equivalent-490-lumens/3196/

So 6W/12V=0.5A ?

 

[Shiftless]

So 6W/12V=0.5A ?

Yep
You’re catching on to tonight’s physics lesson

So half an amp draw times maybe at least 2 bulbs, right, is exactly ONE AMP.
4 bulbs would draw 2 amps and so forth.

So your 7 amp hour battery has a good chance of running 2 of those bulbs for 3 hours until it’s half discharged.

If you have a pile of those batteries, hook 5 together in parallel and you’ll be able to go a couple of weeks in between recharging. Put all 5 in a wooden box so you can carry them into the garage to hook them to your charger.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Yep
You’re catching on to tonight’s physics lesson

So half an amp draw times maybe at least 2 bulbs, right is exactly ONE AMP.

I guess I get an "at-a-boy" for that one huh?

 

[Shiftless]

I guess I get an "at-a-boy" for that one huh?

You certainly do

(See additional text in my last post)

.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

So I'm guessing if I just wire two of these, paralleled of course through the rotary timer, give a very light weight 7Ah battery with cigarette lighter plug taped/glued/fixed to it, she could probably get a fair amount of usage out of a battery. Maybe a week at best, then switch batteries. 0.5 hour at 1A per hour would be .5Ah, so 0.5Ah a 7days at 0.5Ah per day would equal 3.5Ah of usage?

I'm unsure what the SOC of the 7Ah battery would be after 3.5Ah of usage? 50% maybe?

 

[Shiftless]

That’s a good guess.
You’ll have to wire it up and try it and see how it works out.

Can you positively guarantee that there won’t be an accidental short circuit? If not, I would wire in a fuse. Auto parts store, in line fuse holder with maybe a 5 amp replaceable fuse.

A short circuit might make one of those sealed batteries explode.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

That’s a good guess.
You’ll have to wire it up and try it and see how it works out.

Can you positively guarantee that there won’t be an accidental short circuit? If not, I would wire in a fuse. Auto parts store, in line fuse holder with maybe a 5 amp replaceable fuse.

A short circuit might make one of those sealed batteries explode.

...All my wiring is approved by Undertaker Labs....

 

[Shiftless]

Did you find bulbs yet?
I stumbled upon these (Amazon) with more lumens, diffuser outer shell, much lower price, but you might not want the super white 6000K color temperature.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Did you find bulbs yet?
I stumbled upon these (Amazon) with more lumens, diffuser outer shell, much lower price, but you might not want the super white 6000K color temperature.

I did look also, but I got ******* with a Honey-do-list...By chance do you have a link for this posting?

 

[Shiftless]

Try this...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XZ3CTL/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Try this...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075XZ3CTL/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Thanks!

 

[Shiftless]

As an alternative to wiring up more porcelain sockets, you might want to consider these.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0899V3XB6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[MoonRise]

How about a small solar LED 'shed' flood light. HF usually has something ~$30-$50 or so IIRC.

Motion detector in it might or might not work for your application.

https://www.harborfreight.com/500-lumen-led-solar-security-light-white-64759.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/1160-lumen-led-solar-security-light-64734.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/lighting/outdoor-lighting/36-led-solar-security-light-69644.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/wall-mount-security-light-black-56252.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/lighting/outdoor-lighting/60-led-solar-security-light-69643.html

And as mentioned, the light has a nameplate (stickerplate? ) listing of 0.5 amps. Same as the screenshot of the manual. I just measured one (yeah, I bought a couple too ) with a Kill-A-Watt meter (also is/was ~$30 last I checked, Also available at HF too, at least by me. And it is NOT a HF 'brand'. https://www.harborfreight.com/kill-a-watt-electric-monitor-93519.html ) and it drew 0.48 amps at 116 V.

But some 12V LED lights running directly from a (some) 12V batteries would avoid the unavoidable efficiency loss from taking 12V DC and sending it through an inverter to get it up to 120V (with a possibly 'choppy' not-really sine wave output that some electronics really do NOT like to deal with).

 

[TheEquineFencer]

How about a small solar LED 'shed' flood light. HF usually has something ~$30-$50 or so IIRC.

Motion detector in it might or might not work for your application.

https://www.harborfreight.com/500-lumen-led-solar-security-light-white-64759.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/1160-lumen-led-solar-security-light-64734.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/lighting/outdoor-lighting/36-led-solar-security-light-69644.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/wall-mount-security-light-black-56252.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/lighting/outdoor-lighting/60-led-solar-security-light-69643.html

And as mentioned, the light has a nameplate (stickerplate? ) listing of 0.5 amps. Same as the screenshot of the manual. I just measured one (yeah, I bought a couple too ) with a Kill-A-Watt meter (also is/was ~$30 last I checked, Also available at HF too, at least by me. And it is NOT a HF 'brand'. https://www.harborfreight.com/kill-a-watt-electric-monitor-93519.html ) and it drew 0.48 amps at 116 V.

But some 12V LED lights running directly from a (some) 12V batteries would avoid the unavoidable efficiency loss from taking 12V DC and sending it through an inverter to get it up to 120V (with a possibly 'choppy' not-really sine wave output that some electronics really do NOT like to deal with).

 

[Bigbandguy]

When you get it all in place why not add one of these to the mix? With only an hour use per day, this might keep your battery up enough not to have to bother with moving it for charging once a week.

https://www.harborfreight.com/13-watt-briefcase-solar-charger-68750.html

 

[theoldwizard1]

I guess it's time to go buy an AC/DC amp probe.

IMHO, best bang for the buck !

Uni-T UT210E AC/DC Current Mini Clamp

 

[TheEquineFencer]

When you get it all in place why not add one of these to the mix? With only an hour use per day, this might keep your battery up enough not to have to bother with moving it for charging once a week.

https://www.harborfreight.com/13-watt-briefcase-solar-charger-68750.html

LOL, I have a set of (3) 100W panels and a 15A MPPT charge controller I could install to charge a battery. I also have a background in Electrical, Solar and Conventional Power Generation. I installed the HF solar light in the above video and it's really a **** shoot. I bought three of them, one died, the one I'm dealing with now, inside of 3 months. I'm presently out of work kinda just getting by with what I have for now. I really don't want to waste around a $1000+ worth of parts I have laying around to keep the G/F's shed lit when I can just install a 300W PSW inverter I have laying around and a small battery that she can tote with one hand to recharge once a week. She's a retired Civil Engineer. So she at least has enough smarts to swap out a battery and recharge it. BTW, 13W IMO, "ain't good for squat". But I do thank you for thinking of the problem. Like most GJ members, you care enough to come up with a solution.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

IMHO, best bang for the buck !

Uni-T UT210E AC/DC Current Mini Clamp

I do thank you for the suggestion. But I really need an AMP/Clamp that'll do much higher amperage with both AC and DC for the stuff I've started getting into. I was used to using one that would get into the 1000A+ range on AC/DC at times. It was an add on to a Fluke DMM. Things like a starter draw on large engines, DC power in large commercial DC to AC inverters and solar arrays are what I need the higher rated one for. In the past year I started working on 1500VDC Solar arrays. My small array I'm running off of on this computer has been running 24/7 for the past year or so is only around 90VDC. The 1000VDC + for now are rare unless I go back to work as a commercial Solar Tech.

I'm game for building one if that's possible for limited use.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

IMHO, best bang for the buck !

Uni-T UT210E AC/DC Current Mini Clamp

After thinking about your suggestion, I think I'll check CL and Marketplace, then the pawn shops, if that fails, I may order this one you suggested. It'll do what I "need" for now...