Im looking to get the gear for a light trap to use in the field, so it needs to be powered by a battery of some sort. It can be on the larger/heavier side as I can drive it to locations.
Im thinking of using a 2 in 1 bulb adaptor, so I can have a UV and an Incandescent light running at once against a sheet. Im just struggling to find a quality one for sale.
For the battery, im getting quite confused between all the volt, amps, watts etc specifications. Im in Australia and have used a friends set up that has basically a car battery with a handle and a power socket. I’ve also seen other treads here suggest using a fuel powered generator in Aus.
Could anyone suggest what type/wattage/volt etc battery I should be looking for? Im guessing ill need to match it to the bulbs specifications some how.
Tag me if i forget to reply tomorrow. My partner specialises in portable battery setups. I can come back with a list from him xD
My setup is a small light portable battery and LED bulbs (different color temp and a UV one). Works great and not expensive and easy to carry around.
Questions to help him answer you well:
how long (hours) do you want the light to last?
do you know what lamp/bulbs you are using / want to use, or is this unknown too? If known, link specs so the calculations for runtime can be done.
do you need to be able to recharge in field (ie work with portable solar panels)?
We are way past the day of car batteries jimmied up to work :) rechargable, lifetime for what youre using it for, lightweight, portable, and best of all not expensive is here :)
Thanks, I did see that one, I just wasnt confident to buy my own gear with all the conversion rates and such.
These were some of the batteries mentioned in that thread if any of them are any good.
Apparently it is hard to shop in another location. EcoFlow makes some great options that are available down there but not knowing your budget or such it’s hard but this is what he said:
"It sounds like your most convenient setup would be an standard cheap AC power light tree with several bulbs of your selection to be simple and most straightforward. I’d recommend a medium size solar generator to power it, the size is determined by the combined wattage of all the bulbs you want to use, multiplied by how many hours you want to power it, plus extra 20% for overhead. Keep in mind incandescent is going to be power hungry, you could replace that with a similar spectrum LED bulb for about 1/10 the power which will allow you to use a much smaller power bank. Rough guess is you’ll need something in the 500-1000 Watt-hour range. If you go with 3 LED bulb options, you could size it down to less than or equal too 500 Watt-hours which is going to be far more affordable
A solar generator is a combination battery, charger, and inverter that as a contiguous package which is user friendly, portable, lightweight and flexible for many uses."
Could you send me an example of a light tree? I think I know what you mean but im struggling to find one online, just keep getting results for christmas tree lights haha.
Thanks for the tip with the incandescent bulb, ill swap it for a wide-spectrum white LED one.
Im thinking just two bulbs all up, as a MV one is a little pricey.
My budget would be about $400 AUD / $300 USD.
If I could charge the battery between uses would I still need a solar charger?
I see some nice solar generator packages on EcoFlow but theyre $2000 minimum.
Sorry on the US page but Light tree this type of thing. Freestands anywhere and point to the cloth easily. Cheap AF and will allow various bulb temps and uv you can mix and match. If you have thrift stores there, heck at our thrift stores they’re like $2.
Search UV Blacklight LED bulb at whatever your local store is, like these but not sure AU uses this base type. Tons options.
You’re looking at the huge ones sounds like! You can use just a battery, but you’ll also need the inverter to run the lamp, and a charger at home. A solar generator just puts all those things together in one package, and will ultimately weigh about 1/4 of an equivalent lead acid battery. I personally wouldn’t want to deal with a heavy bulky lead acid setup. And a solar generator has so many more uses for other stuff, especially camping and remote telework and such, and general preparedness. I’d just search for the highest watt-hour you can afford with some general knock off brand available in Australia using that search term. If you find a few candidates you’re interested in feel free to reply back with links and I’ll ask my SO to review them for you, just availability and prices vary so much it’s hard to find them searching from outside the country.
If you were in the US I could tell you exactly what to get that is def within your price, but I don’t know if they make an Australian model as until recently the US was like 95% of the market, it’s only been since the Ukrainian war that they have shifted to making European models for EU spec units (remember, our outlets & voltage are different), so heck even though it would be right voltage it may be wrong plug for you?