fuseo Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Hi raiders, I have been thinking lately about putting some bright LED floodlighting at the bow of my boat and potentially some other lighting in the seated area as well. My question is what sort of regulation would be required to do this? Or maybe a better question is how much can/should you run off the main battery supply without draining it to oblivion? Should I have a secondary? Any info will be greatly appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locodave Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Hi mate, It depends how many watts they are and how many amps they draw. I had a boat with two Hella marine LED flood lights, led strip lighting cabin and rear and LED cabin lights running off the 1 battery and it was fine. But I didn't run them all night. Just when I needed them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuseo Posted October 6, 2014 Author Share Posted October 6, 2014 That sounds very similar to what I would like to setup so that is a good bit of info to know that you were fine in your experience mate. Thanks for the reply! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) Hi mate, It depends how many watts they are and how many amps they draw. I had a boat with two Hella marine LED flood lights, led strip lighting cabin and rear and LED cabin lights running off the 1 battery and it was fine. But I didn't run them all night. Just when I needed them. locodave is on target here.You need to know what you are working with. LED Flood lamps I have seen recently range from 10Watt to 50 Watts which equates to somewhere from 700 lumens to 4500 lumens. A reasonably bright personal headlamp is in the order of 100 lumens so this gives you some idea how bright a 4500 lumen flood lamp will be. A typical 12 Volt boat battery is capable of 80 ampere hours which basically means that in theory you can drag 80 amps out of it for 1 hour or 8 amps out of it for 10 hours before it is flat. But of course you shouldn't run it flat if you want to start your engine. A little more electronic theory here... Power = Voltage X Current and Current = Power/Voltage. This means that 50 Watt LED Food Lights draw about 4 Amps out of a 12Volt battery So... in theory you could run a 48 Watt LED Flood lamp for 20 hours on your 80 Ampere hour battery until it was dead flat. This also means, theory that you could run it for 10 hours and your battery would be half flat. I have to point out here that this is all theoretical and the actual size of your battery, the condition of your battery, how easily your boat motor will crank over with half a battery charge etc really impacts the actual practical application. When you are talking about boat reliability you should always be over cautious. A lot of this depends on your budget. You could connect the intended lights up to your boat battery just in the driveway with out installing them and leave them on for 10 hours. Then try and start the boat a few times as a test. Personally, I would install a second battery and a battery switch and run the accessories off the second battery when are anchored for long periods because otter factors will come into play down the track such as the age of the batteries, the current state of charge of battery, a motor that is a little harder to start for some reason on the day and all of sudden you are stuck with a flat battery. Hope this doesn't add more confusion. Feel free to PM me if you want more specific help. Cheers Jim Edited October 6, 2014 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 good reply Jim heres how i have set up a couple previous boats just using low power LED strips along the inner windscreen u wire it up to a switch so u turn it off while driving, as u anchor u sit facing the back of the boat well i do so it works perfect and i think it used around 1amp or 12watts of power for around 1.4 meters of LED strip, these lights are so bloody bright it lit up the whole 4.3m and 5m boats and i often ran them all night never had a flat battery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaClH2OK9 Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 (edited) As has been said you need to balance what you have to work with against what you want to light up. I'm after deck lighting and spoke to Ian bat from road runner last week and he was a wealth of information. He quoted eBay prices but for kit you could trust. I'm not trying to blow smoke for him. But he was the first to say 'you only need this' which is cheaper. Looking forward to checking out the lighting on Wednesday at the sonar social. Edited October 6, 2014 by NaClH2OK9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boattart Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Depending on how much night fishing you do you could consider instead of installing a separate battery just running it off a jumpstarter if it's only for occasional use.They are easily rechargeable and separate to the boat batteries so not problem with your primary batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batfishing Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Read Jim's post and comprehend it. We see a lot of people who think LED, no power draw, and just have not realised that some of the lamps now draw as much power as an old Halogen work lamp. Depending on what your trying to light up, a couple or more strip lamps or courtesy lamps with seperate switches will normally achieve what your after. The deck mount flood lamps, I would think if you mounted you would not want on all the time, unless your searching for something 20M out from the boat Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuseo Posted October 6, 2014 Author Share Posted October 6, 2014 Great length of info Jim. Thank you to everyone who has replied. I will do some research into exactly the products I will use and find spec info on the voltage draw. I should grab an alarm battery and do some load testing on that to see how long I would get. Thanks again for the wealth of responses and info posted . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameldownunder Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I have a small 4Ah ( = 48W ) battery, used for bait tank or lights. Which at the end of the session I take with me and charge at home, on my battery charger. Just an idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 fuseo, 3 of these just arrived in the mail i paid $16 for all 3 with free delivery, they are flood lights i just connected them, one or two would do a boat perfect to cover a large deck area they also use 10watts each im sure the site sponsor would sell something similar if your interested also if keen to see how they work i can upload a picture tonight when i run these lights inside of my gazebo these are 12 volt waterproof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuseo Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 Very nice mate. I am looking forward to seeing them in action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 they light up ok might be ok on a boat but for my use there crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batfishing Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I'm glad you posted that Gazza, saved me offending by saying they are not something I would stock Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I'm glad you posted that Gazza, saved me offending by saying they are not something I would stock Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD yeah Ian they are pretty average i would need 2-4 50watters to be of any use i reckon LED strips are the go as in my first pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batfishing Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I have seen lamps, where one would do it. Though I think you would probably still need 2, one at each end, to prevent shadows Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuseo Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 I think for the purpose of changing rigs and looking for gear on the baot at night it would suffice. I was aiming for a small amount of light to just make things a little easier than using a flashlight but to be honest the amount of night/ealry morning fishing I do could probably only warrant the cost of some d cell batteries for the torch after all. Glad I posted the thread as it seems a few people have really gone all out to explain how and why the voltage issue is such a critical one to think about. Thanks again to all who have contributed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolongeramember Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I prefer to use a head lamp then turning on the lights on the boat to re- rig, bait or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuseo Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 I prefer to use a head lamp then turning on the lights on the boat to re- rig, bait or whatever. Do you know what, I will regret typing this but I just thought to myself that I have a great headlamp that I was given as a present so i could just use that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Do you know what, I will regret typing this but I just thought to myself that I have a great headlamp that I was given as a present so i could just use that.... if it works mate lucky you i use to use one while fishing off wharfs etc.. they work great and the batteries last a while and no need for recharging just buy new batteries when needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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