LED Lights & 12volt Air Conditioners

The following is a copy of e-mail from Steve. Hello Brian, Nice to see you again... My horse box and 16 hard horse yard panels are on the back now, it is looking like something now... I am sure it will stir some comments on the BOG Site... Now, the latest update in technology for the BOG site.... 1) The LED technology has been of interest to me for about two years now. It has been a bit dear, and the only real practical use was for running lights, that only run when the truck is on and so the alternator carries the load. In short, due to the high expense, and the long lasting bulbs we use, there was not much of a reason to switch over to the LEDs on the running lights... BUT NOW, Europe has come out with the first Quartz Halogen Bulb replacement LED, that fits the Halogen light fixtures, with about 30 LEDs in it.... It produces no heat factor, barely gets warm, and ONLY BURNS 1/10 OF AN AMP.... For the power of running one Quartz Halogen, we could run 20 of these LED bulbs!!! Now this is really exciting, as it brings in the prospect of not only swivelling lamps but also swivel eyes recessed into the ceiling of the vans... I have the first two from Germany for evaluation in my van right now... Right now, I do not know if you can read from one comfortably long-term, I will have to give it a try, but certainly two would do it just fine.... The drawback is right now they cost around $60, but soon I expect them to get copied in China like everything else, and within six months I expect them to get down to the $15 mark... When this happens, everyone will want them, as you can have nearly unlimited lighting for very little power draw... The next step will be a series of exterior lights...!!! I am very excited about this... I will want lights everywhere!!! 2) The second thing I am working on, is 12 volt air-conditioning. This means that during the day it could run off solar during the heat of the day, mind you it would take more panels, but it could also run off the small Honda 1kva genset at night... It runs 40 amps, but it cycles, so the average would be around 25-30 amp hours per hour... Well in reach of our 50amp charger or the solar system for a nap in the afternoon... Two companies are working on it, one unit is roof top about the size of the Electrolux but may not be robust enough as a housing, and one is a built in unit. Right now it is to expensive, but we are working on that as well... We may have something workable by next summer... It will be a rare application, but some might want it. I am always experimenting on the cutting edge trying to do it better.. Steve Gibbs