12 Volt Fluorescent inverter for 20 - 40 Watt tubes

Posted on Jun 6, 2012

This is a low-cost project for 20 or 40 watt fluorescent tubes. However the most efficient is to use a 40 watt tube (or two 20 watt tubes in series). It's a circuit you can put together from junk box components or build from a kit. It's very simple to build and requires no printed circuit board. The transformer is hand-wound on a ferrite rod (from an old transistor radio) and the winding wire can be salvaged from an old transformer. The ferrite core of the transformer is an antenna rod from an old transistor radio. You could use a slab antenna but we have chosen a 10mm diameter rod, 8cm long and the first winding to be wound on it is called the primary. We are purposely keeping costs down to show how cheaply it can be put together.

12 Volt Fluorescent inverter for 20 - 40 Watt tubes

Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

Depending on your stock of parts, the cost could range from $3.00 to about $15.00 and if the wires from the transformer are soldered to the ends of the tube(s), you can create a free-standing light that can be set-up in the garden to illuminate a dark area without the fear of running 240v wiring. The cost of powering the circuit is about 22 watts and this will produce the same light output as a 60 watt globe. With a normal fluoro operating on the 240v mains, a ballast (or choke) is needed in series with the tube to limit the current after the tube has "struck". This ballast dissipates about 10-20 watts for a 20 watt tube and reduces the efficiency of the circuit. If the ballast is replaced with an electronic circuit and high-frequency transformer, the losses are less than 5 watts. Furthermore, if we do not drive the tube as hard as the 240v version we can get even better efficiency. The size of tube, you will need, will depend on the area you wish to illuminate and the battery capacity you have available, however it is important to realise that the higher wattage tubes offer the greatest efficiency. This is because they have a longer length and larger diameter (than say an 8 watt tube) and give more light over a larger area. That's why we have concentrated our design on the 40 watt tube. You can get plenty of circuits and devices that power the 4, 6 and 8 watt tubes but nothing has been done for the 40 watt variety....

Visit page

Leave Comment

characters left:

New Circuits

Zero consumption Anti-theft High power Code Switch for E-Bike Batteries

This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
Ultrasonic distance finder circuit

The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Simple Metal detector circuit with CD4030

Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Fully automatic watering circuit for flower pots

Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
Simple deep searching metal detector circuit

The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
Sub-Harmonic Bass Converter for Electric Guitars

The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
Echo Depth Sounding Sonar for Boats

In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
100W HiFi Audio Amplifier Circuit

This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
Plant-Pot Water Level Indicator Circuit

A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....

Create NOW your QR MENU for your Restaurant / Hotel / Bar / Caffe,

Comprehensive ordering/paying features. fully personalized to suit your Business.

Update Anytime! Easy and Simple!

Popular Circuits

Analog Delay Line (Echo And Reverb)

This circuit uses an SAD 512D (Reticon) chip, which is a 512-stage analog shift register. By...

Schematic Diagram 100W 2x LM3886 Audio Power Amplifier

This audio amplifier designed uses two LM3886 per channel, in parallel circuit, based on the...

Digital visitor counter Schematic Diagram

Digital visitor counter is a reliable circuit that takes over the task of counting Number of...

Misc. Circuits

Included on this page are various small circuits I have created over time. Some are trivial, some...

low noise oscillator design

The overall performance of any rf circuit in regards of it`s phase noise and spectral purity...

surround

The circuits and wiring diagrams below have been tested on several hi-fi stereo systems with no...

Buffer leakage current measurement circuit diagram OPA111 INA117

As shown in FIG OPA111 constituted by the input buffer leakage current measuring circuit. D1, D2...