LEDS Mains?

[pitchroof]

Heres a quick one for you clever boys...12v LEDS,is there anything funny about their supply requirement? or is it plain old DC?Is it therefore possible to wire one in a room to add a back up?Our grotty old supply goes down once a year, 15 hours was the worst two years back,'came back on just before 'They' had to pay out (creeps)...Apparently because we give our juice away to the french? or they won't give us enough or? ...whatever...That and a whacked out substation that has no intention of handling 200 more homes!
New Zealand anybody...?

 

[aptsys]

If it's a bare LED, it needs a constant current driver. If it already has the driver built in, then yes, just feed it the required voltage.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Buy a small generator.

 

[FDJ]

Heres a quick one for you clever boys...12v LEDS,is there anything funny about their supply requirement? or is it plain old DC?

12v LED lamps are designed to replace halogen lamps and as such are powered from 12v AC transformers. They will also work directly from a 12v battery for emergency lighting.

Frank

 

[pitchroof]

What? ...for the the frogs? ...stuff'em!
Anyway my missus will jolly well draw the line at a rusty old 'zhaust puffin out in front of the (dead) telly! what will the neighbours say?...silly man.
Cheers aptsys I'll have a look out for 'drivers in'.That'll flumox the saturday boy!

 

[breezer]

emergency light?

 

[mattylad]

A 12v light will be of no use in a power cut unless it is battery backed.

Breezers reccomendation of emergency lights would provide the best lighting.

Although if these cuts a short in duration, perhaps some simple push lamps from poundland will suffice?
Oh & complain to the supply co

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Anyway my missus will jolly well draw the line at a rusty old 'zhaust puffin out in front of the (dead) telly! what will the neighbours say?...silly man.

They certainly would say you were a silly man if you ran it indoors....

 

[electronicsuk]

Anyway my missus will jolly well draw the line at a rusty old 'zhaust puffin out in front of the (dead) telly! what will the neighbours say?...silly man.

They certainly would say you were a silly man if you ran it indoors....

Perhaps invest in a battery backed CO alarm, too

 

[ban-all-sheds]

 

[pitchroof]

Oh dear,Its getting all Bishop/Luncheon voucher/News Of The World now.
As for the 'Leckky Bord (or whatever the hell they call themselves these days,I smell CBA.They'd rather fork out a fortune for Aggreko to run a monumental diesel than fix anything proper,gits.
I was thinking if I could bung a fitting under cupboard and (via a Tamiya conn) plug in a 12v gel and Bob would be your.....Uncle/Dad/...Mums new friend?
Unless anyone can point out a specific LED 'bulb',I'll buy some bits ,take meself of to the shed and drink beer until something works,without going pop.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If all you want are a few low-wattage battery powered lights to use when your supply goes AWOL it would be a lot quicker and easier to just invest in a few portable camping lanterns with CFLs in them than fart around installing LEDs, connectors, cables etc.

Not only would they be more flexible, as you could move them to wherever you needed light, they'd do a better job as well.

 

[maltaron]

There seems to be confusion about LEDs here. An Light Emitting diode (LED) is a 2v device with a maximum current requirement. The originals were 20mA max (Higher current are probably available now- certainly high power devices) So to make it work off 12v you need a series resistor to drop 10volts at 20 mA. Using ohms law about 500 ohms. Now the confusing bits are that there are now LED luminaires and lamps that will operate direct off mains.with built in diodes and series resistore. Finally the point about this rant - don't confuse LED with LED lamp.

 

[nozspark]

If you regularly have power cuts like this then why not run your essentials (lights, fridge, freezer, CH, Socket for TV) off another CU supplied from your main CU via a change over switch and have a genny as a back up???

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Buy a small generator.