tbrandwood Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Hi Looking to light up som simple paper globe lanterns - the Ikea type. I want to rig them from an area where poweing individual bulbs from the mains to light internally isnt an option. So, I'm looking for some self contained battery powerred bulbs that light like a household bulb (ie 360ish spread of light) that we can use to light the inside of the lanterns. It will be a reasonbaly dark environment so brighter the better but ideally a cost effective option. This is a decor effect we are looking for so the lanterns dont need to provide the ambient light to the area. They'll need to give light for about 10 hours from rigging to the end of the event. Any ideas? Many thanks in advance!CheersTim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ83 Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Find some cheap LED AA torches and fully unscrew the lens so that just the LED itself is showing. My old LED Maglite use to give a very even spread with no lens and would last for hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt c Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Any ideas? Well, the lamps used in indicators and such on older cars are 21 watts, and have a bayonet fitting. You should be able to pick the lamps up from pennies (I remember hunting for them in a local scrapyard). Fittings I'm not so sure about, though. Daisy chain them all together and run them off a large battery. Take a few batteries amd a charger with you, such that if it starts to die, you can swap them over. If 21 watts is too much, pair them up in series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 12v 5w interior lamp or 12v 21w brake light bulb from the auto spares supplier, the 5w should run off a 12v4ahr battery the 21wat lamp would need a beefier supply. -they'd possibly be too bright too. Look also at all the LED torches and head torches and cycle lamps, though all are very bright along the beam which is narrow. you'd possibly need some diffusion or reflectors to even out the beam but these things seem to run for ever on a set of AA or AAA batteries. Added; Battery electric flicker candles a cluster of three in each if you want light output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Haven't tried one myself, but for a no-fuss straight out of the box solution, what about this - from those masters of solving problems you never even knew you had - JML? http://www.jmldirect.com/Stick-Up-Bulb-PS5265/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbrandwood Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 Thanks very much for all the ideas - The break light idea is great but for sheer simplicity will give the torch idea a crack. JML - they think of everything : ) Ta!Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 MR16s run straight from the battery without a transformer? Did that last summer on a mobile piece of set with no problems and we managed to find small-ish 12v batteries with no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyspark Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 12v 21w brake light bulbI have done exactly this, with success. Kids were carrying the lanterns onstage, each with one 12V 21W lamp inside, powered from a 7Ah lead acid fitted in a bum bag. There were twelve of these on a small set and they cast enough stray light to pick out a few surroundings. The lanterns were then hung up with their batteries tucked out of sight and removed in a later scene. If you want 10 hours light then you would need a 24Ah battery per lamp. You might get more efficient battery usage from the 10W halogen capsule lamps used in decorative lighting, e.g. the popular IKEA cupboard downlighters. For those you might just get away with 12Ah per lamp or 4-5 on a decent car battery Lucien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmxtothemax Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Looking to light up som simple paper globe lanterns - the Ikea type. I want to rig them from an area where poweing individual bulbs from the mains to light internally isnt an option. So, I'm looking for some self contained battery powerred bulbs that light like a household bulb (ie 360ish spread of light) that we can use to light the inside of the lanterns. It will be a reasonbaly dark environment so brighter the better but ideally a cost effective option. This is a decor effect we are looking for so the lanterns dont need to provide the ambient light to the area. They'll need to give light for about 10 hours from rigging to the end of the event.Any ideas? Many thanks in advance!CheersTimWhat about 12v compact floros?lots of light,very little heat,safe,uses little power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidso Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 why not look at LED mr16s the 12v halogen replacements most are less than 2 way and give out a fair bit of light. 2w = 0.17a 10 hours = 1.7 ah battery so a same 12v 2ah battery would last your 10 hours easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 LED MR16 is a fairly narrow beam angle, not near the 360* of light that would be preferred to light up the whole lantern, I'd have thought.... Plus a 2w LED MR16 isn't the brightest thing in the world, certainly not compared to a 10w or 20w G4 halogen burner.That would probably get my vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark M Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 As mentioned above, my maglite lense screws off and works as a "candle" which should do the job nicely with some decent batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frag_Me Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Even cheaper, you can purchase maglite bulbs and 2xAA battery holders seperately... EDIT: Ah, just seen the words "10 hours"... I don't think you'll have much luck getting a standard AA maglite up to that sort of running time... Perhaps if you can cope with the cooler colour LEDs would be the better way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obaka-san Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 could you run it off a transformer and just run out some light cable between them ala fairy lights or are cables out altogether? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I would second the sugestion above to consider 12 volt compact flourescent lamps.These are available from 3 watts upwards and give several times more light per watt than a filament lamp. The use of vehicle lamps though cheap is non optimum.The efficiency of a filament lamp is considerably influenced by voltage, vehicle lamps are designed for about 13.5/14 volts and will be markedly less bright on 12 volts. Be careful when sizing sealed lead/acid batteries, the stated capacity wont be achieved unless the battery is discharged very slowly.A 7 amp/hour battery should supply 0.35 amps for 20 hours, but it certainly wont supply 7 amps for an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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