Let Your Light Shine Before Men--With Less Power

Boondockers--those who by definition "camp in the boonies," away from utility hookups--have to be careful of their precious resources. One of the biggest pains is "running out of power." Lighting up the inside of the rig can consume a lot of juice in a short period of time. Take a minute and add up how much power you use:

A typical incandescent bulb light fixture, sometimes called a "pillow light" by its shape commonly uses an "1141" bulb. Each 1141 bulb consumes 1.5 amps per hour, and produces a pitifully small amount of illumination. At least that's what our aging eyes tell us. So we turn on another one or two, and pretty soon, we're happily munching away at the "house" battery.

In comparision, the typical "double tube" fluorescent lamp produces gobs of light for just two amps per hour. Wow! What a difference technology makes. Now compare the "latest technology" light fixtures that produce light with light emitting diodes. Super-efficient, they produce almost no heat (hence no waste), and use power measured in "milli-amps," or thousandths of an amp.

We use all three types of lighting technology in our rig. Turning on an incandescent light to fish something out of a dark corner doesn't take much power because we keep the use short. Fluorescent lighting is our "mainstay" giving us plenty of light to keep us working and safe at night. The pricier to install LED technology is perfect for a reading light. The latter may take you some time to get used to, as the "color" of the light is different, and it's best used as a highly directional light, but when your power comes from solar panels or precious gas-fired generators, you surely want to keep your power consumption way down.