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Date:         Wed, 6 Apr 2005 04:51:30 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Re: DC party lights
Comments: To: Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <425165D7.3000006@mchsi.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Somewhere out there - a book, on the 'Net, somplace --- is a drawing - a circle I think - that is a representation of the relation of all the aspects of electricity.-- Volts, amps, Watts, Resistance, etc........the old E=IR thing. I haven't found it but I know it exists. You can plug in the numbers for just about anything and calculate for the unknown value -- whether volts, amp, resistance, watts, whatever. There is also some stuff about wire sizing for load.

Just thought I would bring it up!

Regards,

John Rodgers 88 GL Driver Chelsea, AL

Al and Sue Brase wrote:

> BA: > I'm no EE, but I did sleep at a.... > Watts is Volts x Amps. (at a power factor of 1.0, anyhow!) > So, if a 120 watt string of lights takes 1 Amp at 120 Volts, and if you > are lucky enough to find a similar string of lights made for 12 Volts, > it would need 10 Amps to put out the same amount of light. At 10 Amps, > those hair thin wires would be lighting up almost as much as the bulb > filaments. They would need about #16 AWG wire to carry 10 amps. > This is what the classical struggle between Edison and Tesla was all > about. (when was that 1880's?) > And it's called TRANSMISSION. And it IS somewhat related to that thing > under your car. (in principle.) That's why those cross country power > lines have 18 insulators holding each wire - they are 175,000 volts. > Well, you CAN run stuff off your battery, but precious little > without..... MONSTER CABLES! 18 year old boys know this! At least those > that dream of 1000watt subwoofers. > Don't they teach this stuff in school anymore? Like in 8th grade > science class? > Al Brase > > BA wrote: > >> On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 20:00:28 -0400, you wrote: >> >> >> >>> I'm looking to get a string of party lights to hand from my awning. >>> I've seen some that have a DC plug on them but it really cuts down on >>> the selection. Is it possible to just cut off the AC plug and splice on >>> a cig lighter DC style plug? >>> >>> thanks >>> >>> JFF >>> >>> >> >> >> Nope. There are power issues ... I don't entirely understand it but >> that's because I got my EE degree (barely) many years ago, and I've >> forgotten most of it (what I do for a living is software rather than >> EE hardware). >> >> You can buy 12V strings of party lights, They're not cheap - not even >> at WalMart. And as you've noticed, the selection is limited. >> >> If you google, you can find people who have converted AC strings of >> lights to 12V DC. There's something about turning a serial string of >> 120 V AC into parallel strings of 4 lamps each for 12V DC. That >> "sounds" right to my vague EE memory ... >> >> My hero S saved me from having to re-learn enough to do it by >> installing an inverter so I could run standard strings of party lights >> from our aux battery. But as it happens, I just run the party lights >> when we have an electrical hookup. >> >> >> B(&S) >> '87 Westy 'Esmerelda Blanc' >> SoCal >> >> >> > >


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