Author Topic: CFL connected to battery bus  (Read 5877 times)

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Offline Watt

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CFL connected to battery bus
« on: April 08, 2012, 11:48:30 pm »
We had a good storm last night and our power went out.  I normally have my shed lights hooked to my ups which is powered by my 72v nominal battery array.  This time I had disconnected the lights and hooked them to mains because I had serviced ( and damaged ) my battery bank.  Trying to get ready for the storm, I had got everything hooked back up but forgot the lights.  Anyway, when the lights did go out, I was not able to get to the controller or the panels to trip the panel breakers.  I like to trip the panel breakers just for the extra protection during lightning events.  I do have two Midnite surge arrestors but you know how it is to ' feel ' better.  It took a half an hour to find a flashlight to finally see to do the disconnect.

I decided to try and find a dc power night light or make one.  Here is what I did.

I took an already dead 120vac CFL apart to see how they work.  Well, I sorta got the rough idea of how they work and decided to take a new one out of the package and destroy it.  I connected wires to the rectified side of the bridge rectifiers and then connected the wires to a cord I cut from one of those crappy extension cords which have the three connectors on one end and a two prong plug on the other.  Yes, been trying to get my wife away from using them.  What else is a better way to make use of the wire.  I then clipped the wires into the breaker from the classic for an easy temporary connection to see if it would even work.  It does although, I have no idea how long it will last or how safe it is.  It draws .18amps at 75.4 volts dc but it works. 



The light when used with 120v mains is rated for 13 watts.  It has a current rating on the side at 180ma at that 120v so 21.6 watts.  Used as is, this uses 13.6 watts 75.4vdc.  I just have no way of telling if it's as bright as it would be on mains. 
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Offline bj

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2012, 05:43:05 am »
As bright, or not, looks like a pretty good  light source. ;)
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Offline WooferHound

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2012, 07:34:52 am »
Someone on FieldLines was running CFLs off of 90 vdc without taking the bulb apart and screwing the bulb into a socket.
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Offline tomw

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2012, 09:05:57 am »
Someone on FieldLines was running CFLs off of 90 vdc without taking the bulb apart and screwing the bulb into a socket.

I know Ibedonc was doing that when he realized they had switching supplies in them. Polarity did not matter. Not sure he posted on it but I remember him doing it. He was working on a voltage boost circuit and that was one of the offshoots of it.

Wonder what ever happened to Don? He just kind of fell off the internet one day several years ago.

Tom
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Offline Watt

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2012, 03:59:34 pm »
Thanks for the his name Tom.  I will do some searches and see what he has published.

The light is still burning.  I did notice several breaker trips were required to get the light to do more than flicker.  I did try connecting leads to the base but nothing happened.  I'll leave it on for a while and see what happens but in the meantime, I'll do some research.  By the way, I couldn't get it to light with 48v. 

Another observation, my ammeter changes regularly from .195 amps to as low a zero for a short time then back and back again?  O well, long as I see light reflection, who cares right. 
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Offline ghurd

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2012, 08:31:07 pm »
I did notice several breaker trips were required to get the light to do more than flicker.

I have no explaination for it...
BUT,
I was doing an experiment that needed a small load, or reading current draws, or something like that.
Seemed like my new cell phone with a switching charger in an inverter would be the perfect item.
The combination worked many many times in the truck and cars.  Same inverter, same charger, same phone.

Connected that stuff to a 7AH battery, with a pigtail lighter adapter, and an ammeter.
POOF!
Smoked the inverter.  Fuse was fine.  Not repairable.
As luck would have it, I have a BIG pile of those inverters, so grabbed another (how lucky am I!  ;D ).
POOF!
There went another one (how lucky am I?  :'( ).

The inverters were 50W cont, 100W surge (TRACE on the sticker!  Not a crap orange/black inverter that fits inside the lighter socket.).
The surge from the switcher pulled over 20A (meter's max reading) when the wire losses were low.
Worked fine in a car with that long small gauge wire, but not with short low loss wire.

Had to use a 140W, 175W, or 300W inverter to finish my experiments.  Cnt recall which.

I do not know what is happening in the switchers, but I know the surge is high and long-lived.

Might try a 1 or 2 ohm 1W resistor in series with the bulb?
(BTW, you have a PM)
G-

Offline Watt

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Re: CFL connected to battery bus
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2012, 09:28:52 pm »
Thank you G, you have a PM. 
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