There was a guy next to me at Granny Groses Buses last week and he had a
string of LED Christmas lights on his Vanagon that were solar powered. They
charged up during the day and lit up at night. That is they way to go.

I would HIGHLY discourage using an inverter to power 120V Christmas lights.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Richard Koerner
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 12:49 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Camping Christmas Lights

Went camping recently, had shore A/C power at the campground, and ran a
string of white Christmas lights outside the vanagon laid on the
ground....just for the fun of it.... but provides just the right amount of
light for illuminating the area.� Girlfriend likes it, too; now, she wants
them all the time, even when out in the middle of nowhere.� 

I have an aux battery per the GoWesty kit.� So one option is to run the
Christmas lights off a 120 VAC inverter.....easy smeasy I guess to do that.�
The other option is to "rewire" the string of lights so as to directly
operate off 12 VDC; my string has 50 bulbs so normally 120V divided by 50 is
2.4 volts per lightbulb....thus need to "group" about 6 or 7 bulbs in series
across the 12 volts of the auxillary battery.� Yes, much more hassle than
simply using the inverter, but probably more electrically efficient, and I
could "derate" the bulbs by putting them in groups of 8 or 9 thus with
slightly dimmer light.

Anyway, I suppose a third option is to buy 12VDC Christmas lights from
someplace....they must be available.� But that takes all the challenge out
of it!

Just wondering if the List has any clever ideas on this; basically it
provides low-cost, pleasant, lighting around the campsite in the immediate
vicinity of the slider door area.� So would candles and a kerosene lantern I
guess.....but candles blow out, and don't want to carry 2 or 3 kerosene
lanterns, too bulky.

Rich
85 Vanagon
San Diego