There is an increasing number of people touring Australia in a variety of vehicles including vans, pop-ups and motor homes. Power for lighting is usually the first priority. Typically, such vehicles as your A'van have two battery systems on board - one to start the vehicle and the other for the power system. When the vehicle is mobile, the car alternator charges up the second battery. Typically, this battery will have a few days of reserve power to run the lights and perhaps for some other mod cons like radio, television and maybe a portable fridge. If you intend to camp somewhere without power for more than a few days, you will need to keep the batteries charged with solar modules or perhaps a gen set.

Solar power systems have a fairly high initial capital cost so it is important to select efficient lighting. While cost is an important factor, A'vans have the additional constraint of limited space for the modules and batteries. All the more reason to keep things efficient!

Fluoros are the most efficient type of general room lighting. Good quality fluoros are fairly robust and should give a few years of service. Beware of cheap ones sold as automotive accessories or trouble lights. They will often not last very long and may cause unacceptable interference on your radio (particularly AM and CB).

LEDs (short for light emitting diodes) are a new form of lighting that is ideal for certain applications. They are less efficient than fluoros, however they have some interesting advantages.

They draw very little power (typically from 0.2 to 2 watts). The smallest readily available fluoro is 6-8 watts. So if you do not need a lot of light, an LED light might be the answer. A car battery could power one of these lights for some 300 hours before it was flattened. If you are going ‘seriously outback’ where you might be broken down or flooded in for a week or two, a couple of LED lights could prove invaluable! They give a very sharp focused light, which makes an ideal desk light while using a mere 1-2 watts of power. This sharp focus also means that they can be seen from 1-2 kms away, which makes then an ideal emergency signalling light.

Fluoros with their thin glass and ordinary incandescent globes, which have a very fine thin filament, are quite fragile. LEDs are made of very tough polycarbonate and they do not have a filament inside. This makes them virtually unbreakable. LEDs are now being used in some vehicle indicator lights (particularly on large trucks) because they are so robust and have a very long life span.

The lifespan of an ordinary incandescent globe is about 1000 hours; a halogen light is usually rated for about 2000 hours while a fluoro might last 6000 hours.

However, the typical life span of an LED is 100,000 hours.

This makes them ideal for an all night light. So even if they are left on 12 hours a day, they should last in excess of 20 years!
 

Halogen lights also deserve a quick mention as these are used in all A'van reading lights. They have similar efficiency to LEDs and have a very good colour rendition. They are readily available from 5 to 50 watt and a wide variety of fittings are made for them.

To conclude there are many forms of lighting now available. If you are not familiar with their individual advantages, it is worthwhile having a good discussion with someone who knows the pros and cons of the various types, In general use fluoros for general room lighting and halogens are the best type of incandescent lighting. However, LEDs are ideal where you want a very low power light (but still bright enough to read by). They are also very robust and can be used as a very effective emergency light.

Dave Lambert

Rainbow Power Company

The following is information from The LED Light Company - http://www.theledlight.com/