Christmas Lights on Batteries

[apollo66]

Hi Everybody
New to the forum. Just thought I'd throw this question out there. I've been looking around on the net and have seen a few tutorials but I wanted to ask here. Is there something simple I can purchase to plug one strand of normal christmas lights into so that they run on battery power? I've slightly confused as I've seen all these DIY tutorials but I thought there might just be a pack I could buy to bypass all that. Any help?
Thanks,
apollo66

 

[avkid]

We use battery packs like this to run backup lights.
You can then use an inverter to get 120.

 

[icewolf08]

Yup, probably the simplest way to do it is with a car battery and power inverter. In fact, we are doing that very thing in our current show. Works really well, even have a wireless trigger for the inverter so that we can cue the lights when we want them. I can probably snap some photos today of the rig if you wanted to see them, it is very simple though.

I suppose the other option, depending on how much run time you need is getting a UPS that you use for computers, charging it, and plugging the xmas lights into it. YOu may have to disable it's warning beep, but it should last a good while with only one string of lights.

 

[apollo66]

Thanks guys. Most helpful

 

[FatherMurphy]

Or, if you have some wiring skills and want to simplify/reduce the rig, cut the xmas lights apart into strings of 10 lamps, and wire them direct to a 12 volt battery (or enough batteries wired together to get 12 volts). The lamps don't really care if they get AC or DC power, as long as it's somewhere in the 1 to 3 volt per lamp range. The higher the voltage to the lamp, the brighter it will be, and the shorter its life will be.

Obviously, doing this will render all manufacturer's warranties and UL listings null and void, so if that's a concern for your situation, or you just don't want to cut and solder wires, do the inverter trick above.

 

[Chris15]

The lamps don't really care if they get AC or DC power, as long as it's somewhere in the 1 to 3 volt per lamp range. The higher the voltage to the lamp, the brighter it will be, and the shorter its life will be.

WHOA
That's a generalisation and a half and very likely to bite you in the rear.
I've seen many light strings with lamp voltages well above that - 12V in many cases. Only giving them 1-2V is going to produce hardly any light...

 

[gafftapegreenia]

WHOA
That's a generalisation and a half and very likely to bite you in the rear.
I've seen many light strings with lamp voltages well above that - 12V in many cases. Only giving them 1-2V is going to produce hardly any light...

It depends on the number of lamps in a string. 10, 20, 35, 50, 100 and so on.

I once chopped up and spliced together a string a multicolor LED's for a bookcase full of glowing jars. Each jar needed its own color. The entire thing ran on one 12v lantern battery, and did so on the same battery for the entire three week run. It was interesting to note that the different colors operated at different voltages, and thus I need to put more blue LEDs in series in order to keep their output comparable to the other colors.

 

[Chris15]

Hang on...
We're talking about both normal (ie. Incandescent) and LED lights concurrently and they most definitely do not behave the same way and absolutely need to be handled differently if rewiring...

I think it's safe to say that you have to check with each manufacturer and model....

 

[FatherMurphy]

I'm only generalizing in the sense of talking about the ones sold here in the States, typically strings of 35, 50, or 100 incandescent lamps per set. 35 and 50 lamps strings have all lamps wired in a single series, 100 lamp strings are wired as two 50 lamp strings wired in parallel. At 120 vac, 35 lamps receive 3.4 volts each, and 50 lamp strings receive 2.4 volts. Yes, my earlier post suggested voltage was a bit low once you run the math, but it's close enough to rough-figure 2 volts per lamp, especially given that 120 is only nominal line voltage, actuals can range from 105 to 130. Other parts of the world may have different standards available, both in terms of power, and in terms of available xmas decorations.

Most of the incandescent xmas lights in the states anymore are the cheapies from China, 1/4" tube envelopes with a plastic base and bare wire contacts that wedge into a trapezoidal shaped socket. I haven't seen any yet that required more than a couple volts per lamp.