120 volt led rope lights to 12 volt?

[uncle sticky]

I bought some rope lights for my MV, and they are 120 volt multi-color.
LED-RLE-2-13mm-1.5-3V-12 120 volt.
I had been told that the led's are really 12 volt, and that the bulb half way down the line is a small inverter to take the 120 to 12.
However, I cut the cord downstream from the little bulb and attached it to a 12 volt battery, and no go.
Am I missing something, or am I mis-informed.
Add on question is that I've always been told by them that running through an inverter will increase power consumption by 10x. So, five amps per hour becomes fifty. Correct?

[digital]

I had been told that the led's are really 12 volt, and that the bulb half way down the line is a small inverter to take the 120 to 12.

LEDs come in all shapes and colors (and voltages). I might be able to help if you are a little more specific on exactly which kind of LEDs you have or a link to the original product.

[You should NEVER hook an LED directly to a battery. Easiest way to fry 'em!]

[uncle sticky]

Model led rule 2-13mm-1.5v-12. 120 volt 60 Hz 0.08 a. Utilitech pro 12 foot multicolor led rope light. Does that help you help me?

[some seeing eye]

Put a meter on the two terminals where the AC plug assembly mates to the rope. Determine Volts and whether AC or DC. Then maybe we can help.

Why don't you plug their 120V AC plug into an inverter attached to your battery? Inverters are very inexpensive. Inverters preserve power - Watts with a little loss. So if the load draws 1 Amp at 120V AC it will draw roughly 10 Amps at 12 V DC (actually it is the area under the sine wave and depends on the type of rectifier circuit, and then you subtract efficiency, usually in the 90s)

[Token]

OK, so from the specs, this thing draws maximum 80mA at 120V AC.

12 ft length with 300 LED elements.

It looks like each LED has a voltage drop of ~ 0.4V which sounds really reasonable, and they run ~ 80mA, which is also reasonable for SMD5050 LED.

120V / 300 = 0.4V

The 300 LED lights are most likely (i.e.cheapest way to do it) connected in series and there is probably a current limiting resistor inline somewhere.

Pro'ly best to toss that back in the Christmas decorations box and splurge on a new $20 rope-light that works with 12V DC.

[digital]

Pro'ly best to toss that back in the Christmas decorations box and splurge on a new $20 rope-light that works with 12V DC.

This. Or 5VDC. Lot'a really cool LEDs @ 5 (WS2812B/WS2811).

[uncle sticky]

You guys are right. Lots of brain damage over an inexpensive setup. I think I got a little myopic.

[Captain Goddammit]

And to address the most gross miscalculation here - NO inverters do not increase power consumption 10x!!!
You only lose a small percentage in the conversion.
I use 120VAC LED rope light on my own MV, running off 12VDC through an inverter. I found LEDs work a whole lot better if you get a true sine wave inverter though, not one of the cheapie "modified sine wave" units.