Battery Amps for LEDs?

[toughguy]

I have found 12 Volt batteries with 5 Ah and 8 Ah. What's better for running LEDs for a longer period of time? Or is there another amp that I should look for?

[Scott K]

The higher the Amp Hour rating the longer the charge will last.

[minndonn]

The amps is how much power it can deliver. The higher the AH (amps) the longer it will power the lights.

[toughguy]

That's exactly what I needed to know. Thanks guys.

[jwhjr]

FWIW I've had my led lights running on a 5ah battery for close to 24 hours and they were still bright. They don't draw much power at all.

[ib_jigged]

5ah means 5amps per hour. LED's draw very little and will last a long time on that battery.

[fishwater]

5ah means 5amps per hour.

5ah means 5 amp hours - 5 hours pulling 1 amp.

[MNbrewer44]

I posted this once before last year but ill post it again to help people understand thier electronics and battries

The difference between 7 AMP-HOUR batteries and a 9AH battery is the capacity of the battery. The capacity of the battery is measured in AMP-HOURS. A 7-amp battery will deliver 7 Amps for 1 hour. The number of AMPS you draw depends on how many things you have plugged into the battery. I.e. A light rated at .5 amps will be able to run that for 14 hours. Each hour your light will draw .5amp. So after 1 hour you battery would have a capacity of 6.5AH. Now more then likely the lights you are going to install are going to be rated in mA (milliamps) or W (WATTS). So if you want to estimate how long your battery will last under a given load you are going to need to do some conversions.

1 AMP = 1000mA

9AH battery = 9000mAH

Eq 1.

Hours = (mAH of battery)/ (total mA draw of equipment)

(9000mAH)/(500mA) = 18 hours

Now depending on what kind of lights you use they may also be rated in mW or milliwatts.

Eq 2.

To convert mW to mA use this formula:

milliamps = milliwatts/Volts or mA=mW/Volts

So if your light is rated at say 400mW

33.3mA = (400mW/12V)

Use the mA load you calculated in Eq 2 and plug it into the Eq 1 to determine the duration of this light.

*Unfortunately AMP-HOUR is not always a good way to determine the length of how long your equipment will stay on. Manufactures are not required to and do not all use the same duration of time when measuring the discharge. It is usually right around a hour however companies can vary by large amounts. So one 9AH battery may last longer then others. So if the batteries you are looking at are from the same manufacture they will be measured on the same time duration. For this reason the above equations can only be used as an estimate. Only trial and error or a specific amount of time the manufactured used to rate the battery will give you a precise answer to how long your equipment will stay on. Also age of battery will affect this. The temp on the ice will also change how long you can run your lights. The colder it is the less energy your battries will have.

I know this isn’t exactly what you asked but I thought it might help you see the difference between the two batteries.

Hope this helps