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Battery drop on hog lights?

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    Battery drop on hog lights?

    Ok guys, just got it all set up and it’s super bright, but not for long and I think my lights are drawing to much. It’s run off a single 12 volt battery and the light draws 16 watts. My solar charger has a built in protection mode of 10.7 volts. So what is my run time with a full battery, that is if solar is fully charging it. Thanks in advance, I’m sure I’m Missing something in my calculations, I’m coming up with over ten hours, but that’s just a online calculator, and I think that’s down to zero volts.

    #2
    You need to know what the amp/hour rating is on the battery.. For example, if it's a 9 amp hour battery I believe your runtime would be calculated as such: 12 x 9 = 108 total watts. So you take that total and divide by wattage used by the light 108/16 = 6.75 hours runtime approximately but if it's a lead/acid battery the light will dim as it drains the battery. If you figure out what your battery is rated at and plug that number into the formula in place of the 9 and it should give you the approximate run time.

    Also, be aware that lead acid batteries degrade rapidly if taken to under 20% charge. So if you have a lead acid battery and have used it until the light dies you will be killing the battery rather quickly.
    Last edited by Pedernal; 11-30-2019, 01:32 AM.

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      #3
      In order to run a 16 watt light all night every night, your probably going to need a 60 watt solar panel and a 50AH battery. You have to go oversize to account for cloudy weather.

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        #4
        Oh I thought I put it in there, he battery is 17ah.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Pedernal View Post
          You need to know what the amp/hour rating is on the battery.. For example, if it's a 9 amp hour battery I believe your runtime would be calculated as such: 12 x 9 = 108 total watts. So you take that total and divide by wattage used by the light 108/16 = 6.75 hours runtime approximately but if it's a lead/acid battery the light will dim as it drains the battery. If you figure out what your battery is rated at and plug that number into the formula in place of the 9 and it should give you the approximate run time.

          Also, be aware that lead acid batteries degrade rapidly if taken to under 20% charge. So if you have a lead acid battery and have used it until the light dies you will be killing the battery rather quickly.

          Yep, got all that down, but my circuit protection drops off the light at 10.6. That’s what I’m trying to figure out, how much time it is from full charge, to 10.6 volts, Not zero, because my circuit protection will never let it get that low. Thanks.

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            #6
            Originally posted by saltwater View Post
            Oh I thought I put it in there, he battery is 17ah.
            I can tell you from much experience at using 12V 17AH sealed lead acid batteries from several different manufactures that a lot of them are not even close to 17AH with a lot of them bad brand new. This is why I now use 12V 15AH Lithium LifePo 4 batteries in our feeder lights.

            The only real way your going to know your run time is to fully charge the battery and run the light until it cuts off, keeping a eye on it so you know when it cuts off. You can do all the calculation you want and it wont matter if your battery isn't holding the amount of amps it says it does. Also, if you continually run that battery down to 10.6V, it's probably not going to last a year before it's bad. Sealed lead acid batteries will last much longer if you don't drain them below 12V very often. This is why you want to use a battery that is at least 40AH for your 16 Watt light.

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              #7
              I’m gonna have to change the lights, it’s the easiest fix, go to some milliamperes lights like on my other feeders, this was a new style light, and is so bright I figured it was drawing a lot more that we thought.

              What are you charging lithium batteries with? My understanding is they require special chargers? Or in this case, special solar chargers?

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                #8
                Originally posted by gonehuntin68 View Post
                I can tell you from much experience at using 12V 17AH sealed lead acid batteries from several different manufactures that a lot of them are not even close to 17AH with a lot of them bad brand new. This is why I now use 12V 15AH Lithium LifePo 4 batteries in our feeder lights.

                The only real way your going to know your run time is to fully charge the battery and run the light until it cuts off, keeping a eye on it so you know when it cuts off. You can do all the calculation you want and it wont matter if your battery isn't holding the amount of amps it says it does. Also, if you continually run that battery down to 10.6V, it's probably not going to last a year before it's bad. Sealed lead acid batteries will last much longer if you don't drain them below 12V very often. This is why you want to use a battery that is at least 40AH for your 16 Watt light.
                Do you sell the 15 AH batteries and how much do they run? Do you folks have the IR feeder lights in??

                Originally posted by saltwater View Post
                I’m gonna have to change the lights, it’s the easiest fix, go to some milliamperes lights like on my other feeders, this was a new style light, and is so bright I figured it was drawing a lot more that we thought.

                What are you charging lithium batteries with? My understanding is they require special chargers? Or in this case, special solar chargers?
                Yes if you get lower wattage lights you will be able to run em a lot longer. As mentioned above, remeber that the battery might not be fully charged if the sun did not shine all day. .

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