12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95
By alancorey, Section Light Posted on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 04:31:04 PM MST
Just a little utility light really

I found these last night at my local Home Depot.  No, it's not a CFL, and of course there's nothing about it marketed as being anything to do with RE.  It's a silly battery-powered closet light, but it has a jack for an external 12 volt supply connection.  The connector's a typical coaxial power connector as used for many electronic gadgets, about a 5.5 mm (same as the Inchworm PIC programmer).  You could always solder wires on inside if you don't want to use it. The bulb's a 12 inch F8T5, so I assume that means 5 watts.  It's fairly frugal on power though: I didn't see it draw more than 0.46 amps from a 12 volt SLA, but I did have skimpy leads with about 2 ohms of resistance.  It's quite a bit less amperage than a 12 volt 5 watt no-name CFL I've got. It comes with internal holders for 8 AA batteries if you want to run it that way, but I wouldn't expect a set of AA nicads to last much over an hour per charge.  In a few minutes of playing around with it the worst problem I found was that it seems to throw out a bunch of RF trash.  A scanner with its antenna about 3 feet from the light was locking up on a couple different frequencies.  It also got a little warm, so it's not perfect. Still, not bad for $10.95.  Brand name on this is Amerelle (made in China) http://www.amertac.com is the URL on the package.  Model/SKU 73040.  Comes with Velcro mounting, but also has screw holes.  http://www.amertac.com/content/products.nsf/Nite%20Lites%20&%20Specialty%20Lites/Utility%20Lites /73040/p73040.htm It was in stock at my local Home Depot, but I don't know about yours.  There's also a smaller model about 1/2 the length, but I was turned off by the fact that it runs on 6 volts and didn't look at it further.   Alan

12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#1) by DamonHD (d@hd.org) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 12:39:16 PM MST (User Info) http://www.earth.org.uk/

Hi, I have an F8T5 right in front of me.  It's 8W (at 12"/30cm long); the "T5" bit is the connector type I think. Rgds Damon

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#2) by alancorey (alancorey@yahoo.com) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 01:13:32 PM MST (User Info)

OK, thanks.  I thought it was 8 watt originally, but it was only drawing about 5.8 watts so when I looked at the bulb number again I changed my guess to 5 watts.  Crappy leads I guess, cut off a dump-fresh wall wart, plus cheap meter leads that actually stick to a magnet so something's not all copper in there.  The battery voltage was about 12.7 and the current through the loop was 466 MA. A bad picture I wasn't going to use, but it shows the current reading.  Lamp is sitting on the SLA.   Alan [ Parent ]

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#3) by fungus (info@reenergy.co.uk) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 01:18:58 PM MST (User Info) http://www.reenergy.co.uk/

I've had almost identical lights to them before.... Not very good experience with them; I bought one which worked for a while until once I connected it to the battery one time, heard a bang and it stopped working. The other one I bought as a replacement failed after some time, I cant remember how. I reused one of the tubes with a 12v driver and it still works well. (seen here; http://www.reenergy.co.uk/12vfl.php ). 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.'-Albert Einstein Fungus - www.reenergy.co.uk

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#4) by CmeBREW (smke833f@hotmail.com) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 01:26:21 PM MST (User Info)

Thanks. I'll check that out. I would like to make an all 12vdc lighting circuit for all my rooms to avoid the inefficiencies of a power inverter. Just one 13Watt (120vac) CFL wastes about 5 watts thru my inverter. (I usually only run 1 bulb at a time) -That adds up over the hours especially for a small system like mine. That light might be good for my bathroom at night. The CFL I have now in there is so bright its like walking into heaven just to drain the weasel.

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#6) by DamonHD (d@hd.org) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 02:00:32 PM MST (User Info) http://www.earth.org.uk/

My F8 is an "FBT5/D" which means 'daylight' I think.  I'm using it right now (powered by my solar PV) in my study instead of any mains lighting: http://www.earth.org.uk/solar-PV-pilot-summer-2007.html I want at least to try a 'warmer' white, since I don't much like the colour of this.  Also, recent studies suggest that the blue-ish tint makes it difficult to get to sleep afterwards; a redder/warmer tint should be more sleep-friendly when I go to bed after a late stint! Rgds Damon [ Parent ]

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#5) by wooferhound (tim((NoSpamAt))wooferhound.com) on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 01:35:35 PM MST (User Info) http://wooferhound.com

I have 2 of those in the Cargo area of my van. They've been working for 4 years. Also used one on a small 12 watt solar system that I had once. Seems like they will work down less than 9 volts. W o o f -={(

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#7) by stephent on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 04:43:07 PM MST (User Info)

T5 means 5/8ths" diameter across the tube...i.e. one "T"1/8th" T8 one inch across.....T12= 1 1/2" diameter tube. F8=type/wattage ...the F=florescent and 8 watts. F32T8CW (normnal sized 4' florescent lamp) = Florescent/32 watts/T8 (one inch diameter tube)/CW is Cool White light type output.

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#8) by DamonHD (d@hd.org) on Fri Jun 29th, 2007 at 03:22:19 PM MST (User Info) http://www.earth.org.uk/

So 8W/ft then, which is what it seemed like from some diagrams I saw online! Rgds Damon [ Parent ]

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#9) by yuandrew (yu(dot)andrew(at)yahoo.com) on Fri Jun 29th, 2007 at 11:40:16 PM MST (User Info)

I have this same exact light which I bought from Lowes. The "Daylight" tube is a little on the blue side but it can be changed. Changing the bulb though requires one end to be unscrewed and removed. I remember Rite-Aid selling a GE bulb of the same size with a 3000K color temperature. If you take the fixture apart completely (be careful not to lose the two little metal plates at the ends where the screws fasten onto) there is a potentiometer on the right side of the circuit board next to the on/off switch. Use a small flat blade screwdriver to turn it as far it will go counterclockwise. It will draw about 700ma (8.4 watts at 12 volts) turned up all the way and the light will be a lot brighter. The circuit in this light is somewhat interesting as it actually preheats the filiments instead of "instant starting" (note that there are two wires going to each end of the tube vs one in most other utility lights) There's a schimatic of the circuit on a website. http://members.misty.com/don/amtac1.gif "Always under construction"

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#10) by iamdewayne (iamdewayne@hotmail.com) on Mon Oct 1st, 2007 at 12:07:38 PM MST (User Info)

Holy cow!  What a neat site to read through. Here's his start page.   http://members.misty.com/don/index.html luck,   Dewayne

Re: 12 volt fluorescent at Home Depot for $10.95 (3.00 / 0) (#11) by Tony Zara on Tue Oct 16th, 2007 at 06:25:33 PM MST (User Info)

I tried to post this but I think I was pruned. Has anybody played with "emergency ballasts" for fluorescents? They have batteries and inverters built in to keep regular fixtures running during outages. Seems like they could be tweaked to run all the time with off board batteries and you could pick your size and type of fluorescent bulb.

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· http://www.amertac.com · http://www.amertac.com/content /products.nsf/Nite%20Lites%20&%20Specialty%20Lites/Utility%20Lites /73040/p73040.htm · Also by alancorey