Can I convert mains fairy lights to battery powered lights?
I want to make a fancy dress costume lit with some old mains fairy lights (that I have lots of) can I do this? Do I just cut off the plug and fix to a battery. Or will there be too many lights, too dim to see?
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Well now..let's see... By fairy lights, I'm going to assume you mean the mini Christmas light sets.
As I recall, a 50 count set is a single series circuit of bulbs.
At 110VAC (U.S. nominal), the bulbs are 2-3V per bulb
A 50 bulb set is rated for 25W, so 25/110 = ~225mA
That means each bulb will require 2-3V @ 225mA (according to a box I just pulled from my Christmas junk, the bulbs are rated at 2.5V)
Yes, they can be used from a battery. But Lemonie is right. They take quite a bit of power.
For the energy "price" of a half dozen connected in series to a 12V battery you can power five dozen LEDs comfortably..
Now, since I see from your profile that you don't list electronics as one of your skillsets, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are not equipped to take raw LEDs and string them together into something similar to a set of "fairy lights".
What you might do is go to a dollar store and see if they have any battery powered Christmas light sets or look for an LED Christmas light set (Maybe you already have one?) Tough going considering we haven't reached the season yet, but who knows what you can turn up if it's something you want...Ask your family/pals...maybe they have one that can be spared until they flood the stores in a month or so and you can replace the borrowed string...
As I recall, a 50 count set is a single series circuit of bulbs.
At 110VAC (U.S. nominal), the bulbs are 2-3V per bulb
A 50 bulb set is rated for 25W, so 25/110 = ~225mA
That means each bulb will require 2-3V @ 225mA (according to a box I just pulled from my Christmas junk, the bulbs are rated at 2.5V)
Yes, they can be used from a battery. But Lemonie is right. They take quite a bit of power.
For the energy "price" of a half dozen connected in series to a 12V battery you can power five dozen LEDs comfortably..
Now, since I see from your profile that you don't list electronics as one of your skillsets, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are not equipped to take raw LEDs and string them together into something similar to a set of "fairy lights".
What you might do is go to a dollar store and see if they have any battery powered Christmas light sets or look for an LED Christmas light set (Maybe you already have one?) Tough going considering we haven't reached the season yet, but who knows what you can turn up if it's something you want...Ask your family/pals...maybe they have one that can be spared until they flood the stores in a month or so and you can replace the borrowed string...
Its not so much the power, as the voltage - go for Lemonie's LED idea, safer and more practical.
Sep 25, 2009. 3:10 PMRe-design
says:
I second that. No way would I make a costume and attach lights that were plugged into the main power. Even if you build safely how do you know that someone won't spill a drink on you in the wrong place. With it a part of your costume you couldn't get away from it. Better to use low volts and parallel leds.
Pippa is asking about hooking them to batteries, re-design, not connecting to an AC source. There is nothing unsafe about her idea. It's just energy inefficient.
"Do I just cut off the plug and fix to a battery. Or will there be too many lights, too dim to see?"
"Do I just cut off the plug and fix to a battery. Or will there be too many lights, too dim to see?"
Sep 26, 2009. 10:30 AMRe-design
says:
My mistake. I didn't read the question carefully enough. Yes a battery would be perfectly safe.
These take a fair bit of power, you'd have to rewire them and use a big battery. Starting again with LEDs might be better. L
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