Perm House Lighting

[scoutWBL]

looking for advice on fish house lighting options. We are finishing our perm (8x10 skid house) and plan to run 12 volt the majority of the time. Currently we have two 12 volt light bulbs but are unimpressed with the battery life we have been getting. What's everyone else running? Are there good LED options out there? RV lighting? Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I was able to get a 6 to 7 full fishing days out of 1 deep cycle with 2 4' LED tube lights (do a Google search for that term). They are spendy but it is well worth the money.

[zamboni]

I bought some First Ice brand rope lights at Scheels and I am pretty impressed with them.

[JeffB]

Go to a box store like menards and look at the puck style lights for homes. Many of them are low voltage twelve volt lights that are sold with a transformer to use with 120V power, throw the transformer away, plug them in and you have some nice lights.

[scoutWBL]

Thanks for the responses. We have looked at a few LED light tube options, I'll check the pucks out today. Does anyone use the RV style lighting that you find in many manufactured fish houses?

[AndyM]

We used to use the regular 12volt light bulbs. We switched to the energy efficient 12volt bulbs. They look like a pigs tail, screw into the light socket just the same. Saved about triple the battery life. They were about $7 or $8 a bulb.

[scoutWBL]

Thanks. Our house has limited ceiling clearance so I am concerned with bulbs hanging.

[harvey lee]

Yhe Luminator lights in the Outdoor Pro store are awesome for lighting and are very well built. This fall there will also be a longer version that the one listed now.

The Luminator led light is the last one in the link below.

http://outdoorprostore.com/led-ice-fishing-lights.html

[TallPaull]

If you run a dimmer light switch for your lights do you need to have a 12 volt dimmer switch or can you use a regular dimmer switch that you would use in your home?

[AndyM]

You need a 12volt dimmer switch.

[scoutWBL]

I took AndyM's advice and tried the high-e 12 volt. I hooked it up last night and let it run to get see how long it would last.... 23 hours later it is still lit up. This is MUCH better than the regular 12v we ran last year.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Any idea what the power draw is on those bulbs?

[scoutWBL]

I will look into the power draw... what i know is the light lasted over 30 hours... much better than what we were getting last season.I plan on going with the high e lights.

[tonkapat]

I have two standard puck lights and 3 led puck lights in my house. Watch out for the standard puck lights as most of them are small halogen bulbs. Hard on the eyes. Most come with a 20 watt bulbs and can be replaced with 10 watt bulbs. I run 10 watt bulbs in both of mine. The led pucks are great and what i use most often. The leds don't use much power at all. A deep cycle with a good charge will make it all year. Good luck

[AndyM]

I'm glad those lights worked out for you. Some day I will be trying the LED's just because they barely draw anything.