Permanent house lighting suggestions

[varmithtr]

I am mid build on an 8X10 permanent house. It is built on an old frame that I had from previous fish house. The old house had 12 volt with ineffeciant bulbs and long wires to hook up to the truck battery. That house was built before houses were out before trucks could be.

I am going to stick with 12 volt, as I don't like a generator running, and I put it close enough to home where I am not going to be staying over night. I like the thought of LED for less power consumption.

Suggestions?

[crothmeier]

i used 12v flourescent fixtures, energy efficient, worked well in the cold, and plenty of light. i paid around $30-$40 a fixture from arizona wind and sun or something like that a number of years back off the internet.

[Grainbelt]

Warm white LED's are the way to go. During the bow/gun deer season I used my LED lights for 12 days on one size 31 deep cycle battery in my fish house. When I went to charge that battery (auto charger 25 amp)it ran at half power. LED's are the same brightness at any temperature. They have low power draw so you can get by with small gauge wire.

[tsande00]

I second the LEDs. Warm ones, as mentioned, are the ticket because they don't have that obnoxious "interrogation glow", yet they still make the house bright.

[Tom7227]

Whatever you use consider doing the basic wiring with standard 14 gauge wire, boxes, switches etc. That way if at some point you want to move to 110vAC you'll be ready to go. I don't think that will screw up using 12vDc lights. Did that deer shack this way years ago so if power ever gets run out there all we have to do is change the light bulbs.

[travlingypsy]

Warm white 9 led lights. Great lights

[MJ1657]

Warm white 9 led lights. Great lights

Where did you get them?

[varmithtr]

Thank you much for the ideas. A couple questions:

Are most LED lights, such as the 9 led ones above, fine with 12 volt, or do you need speical bulbs.

ALso, are you using standard canisters, or are there special ones for 12 volt?

I'm sure these are dumb question. The old house system was just simple ceramic base with regular light bulbs. Worked fine, but sucked battery power fast.

I truly can't see wiring for 110 unless they create a silent generator for around $300.

[MinnGuy]

You might take a look at RV style lights. Mine are not LED but work well. And inexpensive online. I figured if my motorhome used them they must be decent.

[travlingypsy]

Superbrightleds

They are a self contained unit and just clip in.

[MnIceman]

I bought a 12 volt flourescent that screwed into the base for the old bulb last year and really liked it. Brighter and used way less juice than the old 12 volt incandescent. I have 3 of the rope LED lights in there but are not bright enough for me to see to tie knots. So I use the LED's and turn on the flourescent when I need it. It's a b---- getting old and have to use bi-focals to see that little stuff. The bulb only cost $6 last year. Even bought a spare. I got them at my local M------.

[JeffB]

Thank you much for the ideas. A couple questions:

Are most LED lights, such as the 9 led ones above, fine with 12 volt, or do you need speical bulbs.

ALso, are you using standard canisters, or are there special ones for 12 volt?

I truly can't see wiring for 110 unless they create a silent generator for around $300.

I have ones like the ones in the pic. Many of the led and zenon puck lights, and track lights sold are 12v lights, but they are sold with a small transformer to bring them down to 12V from 120V. You just through the transformer away and wire them up. I have both zenon and led lights in my fish house that were sold as 120V lighting.

[Grainbelt]

Here is another option, you said you had 12v already. It is common to have regular auto tail light sockets like the 1156 in older fixtures. You can get bulbs like this to plug into your existing sockets. The amount of light produced by different bulbs is in measured in lumens. The type of light (color) is measured in kelvin. The higher degree of kelvin produces more of a blue spectrum, the lower produces more red like warm white.

[BuckyBadger]

Here's a photo of the inside of my hunting "shelter" a place we built to get out of the weather on our property. This photo (no camera flash) shows the light in side with 3 LED light strings on the ceiling. They are the warm white ones, all hooked up to a single 12Volt 9amp battery, most of the time we only have 1 or 2 strings on at a time, they put out a lot of light.

[KrashR]

travlingypsy, It looks like you used the RLF-WW9SMD from superbrightleds I'm curious why you didn't go with the 12 led lights (maybe they weren't available at the time?) How many of those do you think it would take to sufficiently light a 7'x14' plus 5' v nose house, I was thinking 5? Also for those that use puck style lights does it spread out the light well or is it fairly centered?

[varmithtr]

Guys, I really appreciate the suggestions.

What I decided to go with was a pretty simple set up. I am going with a version pretty close to the old house, with simple porcelean sockets with pull switches, and will use E27 6W 12V 120 LED White LED Light Bulb, as the bulbs. These will be directly wired to battery storage area.

It's not overly bright, as it will basically be 2 50 watt lights in the house, so I am also adding hole lights to each hole, all wired off one switch.

Again, I appreciate the suggestions.

[travlingypsy]

KrashR, I would say you wouldnt need more that 5. I was happy enough with the 9 led lights they cover really good they are not spot lights they are more flood.