running LED's off 12V lantern battery

[jdkno]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience using a 12v lantern battery to per LED lights. I am pretty much looking at like the LED strip lights that usually plug into the wall and run off a 12v converter.

My primary concerne is since the converter steps the 120 down to 12, will they run off of a 12V lantern battery, and what would the expected run time be?

I am trying to use this to light the inside of my safe and I want something self contained that will not have wires running out of the safe to supply power. I would probably need about 15' of LED strip lighting and I can use a rechargable 12V lantern battery and would not have a problem charging it up every once in a while but if its something where I would only get about 20 min of light out of each charge then I will need to look in another direction but if I could get a couple of hours out of each charge then that would work as they would only be used a few min at a time not constantly on.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Most of the 12v lighting strips tolerate automotive-style applications, where RV lighting might see 11.1 to 14.4v. In general, if you hook up a 12v LED strip up to a "12v" battery, you'll get bright light when the battery is fully charged, and dimmer light as the battery drains. It probably won't be much difference between 11.0v and 14v, but check that the LED strips don't get too hot.

A simple reed switch on the door will work adequately, but a lead-acid battery can make hydrogen gas while discharging or charging. This isn't a good thing in enclosed spaces. I've never had problems using them in tight spaces, but that's no guarantee that it won't happen. The actual power consumption of these is low. Two 4-D-Cell holders from Radio Shack in series will give you about ten amp*hours at 12v or so. This should run hours of the lights. An exact runtime will be based on the current draw of the LED string, which at a full reel (5m/15 feet) ranges from 0.1 to 3 amps. Putting a resistor in series with the LEDs will dim them noticeably to give you longer runtime and dimmer light, without complex (slightly more efficient) circuits. And D cells are cheap.

 

[jdkno]

So I would be better off using 8 D cell batteries vs 1 12v lantern battery.

I was not planning on using a door switch on it, primarily I go in it every morning and grab something off the shelf, then before I go to bed I put something back in. No lighting needed for the most part. I was going to wire up the lighting with a switch and only use it when I needed it vs. having it come on every time I open the door.

So assuming the 15' strip of LED's is pulling 3amps, how much run time could I expect off of 8 D cells running in series? Would using rechargable D Cells be worth iT?

I am looking at something like this
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GL5R56/?tag=cpf0b6-20

and for the switch any automotive 12v togle switch should work.