Christmas light wattage

[Rusted Iron]

I did a bit of 2 AM online research. It'd be shame not to share it.

Wattage of random Christmas lights:
mini lights are about .5 watts
c-7 lights, (old fashion bulbs) are 7 watts

a set of 50 mini lights pulls about 24 watts.
a set of 25 regular bulb lights uses 120 watts.

Rope lights use 5.5 watts a foot
"specialty" rope lights use between 5.5 to 8 watts per foot
"Low Voltage" rope lights use 2.52 watts a foot

Net lights are 105 watts per string
Icicle lights with 100 bulbs are 40 watts
Icicle lights with 150 bulbs are 60 watts

I found globe lights rated at 25 watts per 15' (number and space of lights, of course, will alter that.)

I couldn't find any hard (or squishy) figures on LED christmas lights but a common figure was a strand with 100 lights used 5 watts.

I can tell that some rounding of numbers has been done, but it still looks like a useful, if somewhat rough, guide.



Rust

[geekster]

TAP plastics in the SF Bay area also has LED rope lighting. I can't find it on their catalog website but I could swear they had it in their Mountain View store.

[gawul]

wow! thats exactly the info i have been looking for! thank you :)

do you (by chance) know how many watts it uses per amp? maybe i'm asking that wrong....if i have a 120 amp deep cycle battery, and 2 24 watt strings of lights, how long can i expect the battery to last, AND since i bought a 15 watt solar battery charger that charges one amp per hour, can that charge the battery enough to use for a whole week

there. i've been dying to know, but have no one to ask, and i've read a lot about it, but it's not sinking in

:)

g

one more thing, what are christmas led lights? sounds like a deal, watt-wise

[Elemental666]

do you (by chance) know how many watts it uses per amp? maybe i'm asking that wrong....if i have a 120 amp deep cycle battery, and 2 24 watt strings of lights, how long can i expect the battery to last, AND since i bought a 15 watt solar battery charger that charges one amp per hour, can that charge the battery enough to use for a whole week

Amps = Watts/Volts

assuming these are wired for 120VAC wall outlets as most are:

Amps=24/120=.2A

how long you need to burn them, say 10 hours/night: .2 *10= 2A/night

How many days, say 7 days = 7 *2A=14 Amp/Hours per string for the week.

How many strings? yuo said 2, 2*14AH = 24AH Total draw from your battery for the lights.

k, now how much usable light do you get a day? remember the effectiveness of that charger varies from dawn to dusk, usually only getting 4-6 peak charging hours a day (I'm not sure exactly about on the playa, just going off what I understand of PV stuff).

lets assume 6 hours of charge time. that's 6 amps per day
again for 7 days, = 7*6=42AH for the week, you'll make more electricity than your usuing at this point and you battery should maintane a near full charge the whole week.

You'll have to come up with a more exact charging time else where. And it would be great for someone to check my math and process as I'm just going by rote and could be forgetting something...

[gawul]

:) i REALLY appreciate that, thank you so much

i guess i didnt even have to buy that solar charger then, but i was worried about the battery dying out there. i'm sure we can find a way to use that extra energy, like for the raido instead of d cells, and other such stuff :)

thanks again
g

[diane o'thirst]

Regardless of the wattage, I'd go with the LED lightstrings simply because they're tough. They'll last you through more Burns. Better to spring $20 for one string of LEDs than buy a new set of something else at how many dollars (even on sale) every year for — how long? And the LEDs won't break and become a fire hazard hanging in your Playa domicile.