A car battery is a power source for the car. To use it, you need to connect your headlights and other electrical components. This article will teach you how to connect led lights to car battery in some simple steps.
The best way to connect led lights to a car battery is with jumper cables. If you are in need of an emergency charge for your vehicle, you can use the cables to power up the battery.
This process is simple and easy. If you follow these steps, attach one end of the cable onto your car’s positive terminal (red) and attach the other end onto another car’s negative terminal (black).
Summary:
Connecting LED lights to a car battery is a simple process that can be accomplished with a few essential tools and safety precautions. To begin, gather the necessary components, including LED light strips, a fuse holder, a suitable fuse, a switch, and wiring. Ensure that the car battery is disconnected before starting the installation to prevent any accidents.
First, connect the positive wire of the LED light strip to the fuse holder, and then connect the fuse holder to the switch. Next, connect the switch’s other end to the positive terminal of the car battery. Secure the negative wire of the LED light strip to the car’s chassis or directly to the negative terminal of the car battery. After completing the connections, reconnect the car battery and test the LED lights to ensure they function correctly. Remember to follow safety guidelines and consult your vehicle’s manual for specific instructions related to your car model.
8 Benefits of Connecting Led Lights to Car Battery
1. No electricity bill to pay every month, only the cost of car battery replacement.
2. Permanent installation with no need to constantly turn on/off switch or plug/unplug lights after they are installed.
3. Can be used without constantly worrying about replacing batteries if not used for long periods (i.e. out of town, etc.).
4. Environmentally friendly, no toxic materials to discard after their life is over.
5. Can be used for all types of displays (holiday lights, party lights).
6. Saves space in the home/office by not storing long strings of light sets that are only used once or twice a year.
7. Allows for greater freedom of movement when decorating under challenging areas.
8. Never worry about having too many sets of lights or not having enough.
Things You’ll Need to Connect Led lights:
- Wire
- LED lights,
- Screws
- Wrench
- A car battery!
- An inline connector
Simple Steps on How to Connect Led Lights to Car Battery:
Here we have given the guidelines on how to connect led lights to car battery. So be sure to follow these steps to connect your led lights securely.
Step 1: Determine the Length of Your Lights
Measure the length and the shortest distance between each connecting wire. If you aren’t confident about these measurements, choose a length of wire that would be comfortable for your needs.
Step 2: Cut the Wire
Decide how many lights you’re going to use and cut more wire than you think you’ll need. For example, if all of your lights are 6-feet apart, then get 12 feet worth of wire.
You can always trim more length off later, but it’s harder to add more on.
Step 3: Strip the Wire
Cut off one of the ends of your wire to expose some copper. Then, with wire strippers, just twist the exposed wire around them and pull down.
This will cut through the plastic insulation and strip away a little bit of rubber shielding.
Step 4: Connect the Cable with Terminal Pins
Slip the wire through both holes (positive and negative) of a terminal pin. You can find them at your local hardware store for about a dollar each.
Once you’ve pulled the wire through, tighten down on it with pliers until it doesn’t budge.
Step 5: Connect Each Light to the Cable
Connect one end of the light to the cable. You can use either male or female connectors depending on what you have available, but they both work similarly. Just tighten down on them with pliers.
Step 6: Test Your Connection
Plug another cable into the opposite end of every light you’ve connected so far and connect it to your battery. If everything works, you should see some steady light on each cable.
If it doesn’t, check the connection on both ends. There might be a faulty light or a bad connection somewhere along your line.
Now that you have a line of lights working all at once, you can use another set of terminal pins to connect the parallel wires and run them straight to the battery.
Step 7: Connect the Wires Together
The wires from your lights can be connected directly together by touching one male terminal pin against another.
Of course, this only works if you have at least two male connectors. If you don’t, just use a large piece of wire with a female connector on both ends and insert it between the wires, as shown in the picture.
Now you can test everything by running it all through your car’s cigarette lighter socket and turning on the ignition.
Step 8: Turn Them On and Make Your Light Show!
Now that you have everything running turn out the lights to get a real show of your own. If you’re going for a particular effect, try adding some motion or sound triggers to make it even better.
For example, you could have the lights turn on when you honk your horn or put them in sync with the music.
This article has explained how to connect led lights to car battery. If you don’t want it to be complicated, use alligator clips instead of terminal pins.
Tips to Make Your Car Led Lights Last Longer
1. Always use a resistor with the LED lights to ensure you don’t blow out the bulbs.
2. Use a multimeter to know what ohms your LEDs are or how much resistance they need from the car battery.
3. Use the LED lights on a 12v car battery for longer-lasting car led lights.
4. Use LEDs that are not too bright and too big like an ac light because that will burn out your LED faster and blow your fuse or worse!
5. Always make sure you’re getting the proper amps, watts, and lumens for your led lights.
6. Keep the connection points of the LED wires clean.
Installing LED lights Under Your Car
Installing LED lights under your car can be a great way to add some unique style and flair. Here’s the basic procedure for installing LED lights:
- Start by measuring the area you’ll be working on in order to determine what size of LED light you need for the space.
- Once you have the correct size, use screws or adhesive to secure the lights in place. Make sure they are tightly fastened before proceeding.
- Next, you’ll need to connect the power leads from your LED light to a power source – either a battery, alternator or direct connection from the vehicle’s electrics depending on what type of LED light you’re using.
- Lastly, make sure all connections are secure and then turn on your LED lights to test that they are functioning properly!
Things to Consider When Connecting Led Lights to Car Battery
1. Use old batteries/cells that are just taking up space.
2. Ensure that the battery is not fully charged, as these will harm the LED lights and might even explode!
3. Ensure you know what you’re doing if attempting to connect them yourself.
6. Always wear goggles or other protective eyewear when connecting led lights, especially if you’re using multiple batteries or doing it alone.
7. Keep led lights away from children or those who may not fully know what they’re doing.
8. Don’t attempt to connect led lights when inebriated or otherwise impaired, especially when working with electricity!
How Many Led Lights Can a Single Car Battery Connect?
The average car battery is 12 volts in a series. That means when you connect the positive and negative parts of Led lights in a series, the voltage will add up to 12.
In other words, if you have two sets of red, blue, green, or Clear LED lights (a total of four) connected to a single 12-volt car battery, the voltage will be at 12 volts.
This means you can connect up to eight Led lights to a single car battery.
If you want more, the only thing left is buying another car battery or finding another way to increase voltage, such as making your Power Supply.
How to Extend Your Car Battery Life with Led Lights?
You are probably familiar with the thought process behind car batteries. They provide an electrical charge that allows your car to function. However, all batteries have a limited lifespan, and they will need replacing at some point.
Led lights usually require AC power to work correctly. When you connect them to a battery, instead of AC power, your car has much more energy consumption.
But what if you could power them with your car battery? You can connect led lights to a car battery by using a voltage regulator.
The simplest method is to buy a ready-made device that attaches directly to the terminals of the 12-volt battery. The device regulates current at low voltage levels and has some short-circuit protection.
It is important to know how much power you are using before adding the voltage regulator, as it must match or be greater than the voltage supplied by your battery.
Do not worry if your measurements show less power than what you expected; this may mean that the standard rating of the lights (for example, 20 watts) is too high and that you need to buy a lower-wattage set.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Can You Connect a Led Directly to a Battery?
A: Yes, but only if the battery is 12v. One of the main purposes of a car or boat battery is to give power to devices requiring high amperage for short periods, such as a winch on a truck or boat.
If you were going to use it for lighting, though, don’t waste your time with a car battery. A car battery won’t be able to keep a light lit for more than a few seconds, and it will quickly die out.
It is possible to wire led lights into your car’s electrical system, but the vehicle’s engine needs to be on for this to work. You would need some serious knowledge of wiring to do this, though.
If you’re looking for led lights that will run off a 12v battery, look at solar garden lights or those little lights powered by shaking.
Q: Will Led Lights Drain Car Battery?
A: No, the battery will not be drained by LED lights, because it takes a lot of power to light them up. People think that they drain your car’s battery because you will have to install additional wiring instead of just plugging the lights into one place.
However, installing additional wiring will require larger gauge wires which draw more current, thus draining the battery.
We suggest switching the power supply if you want to install LED lights that do not drain your battery.
Q: What Is a Switching Power Supply?
A: A switching power supply is an electronic circuit with powerful semiconductors to produce high output voltage from small input voltage levels. It’s called “switching” because it can convert (switch) AC into DC and vice versa.
They come with their protections like over-voltage, short-circuit, over-temperature, etc. They can provide a wide range of voltages and often have an adjustable output.
By adding components to the power supply, you can also dim them and change their light color (if they produce different colors like RGB or RGBW).
Final Words
Connecting LED lights to your car battery is not complicated, but it requires some basic knowledge about how the two systems work together.
Now that you know how to connect led lights to car battery, don’t forget the following things. First of all, always keep your batteries charged and stored at room temperature.
Second, use jumper or booster cables for an emergency charge, but only if your battery is not located in the engine compartment.
Finally, be sure to test out any new installation before actually using it so you can identify any issues with wiring beforehand!
These tips will help ensure your LED light system lasts as long as possible without having any problems. If you have any questions or concerns along the way, don’t hesitate to contact us for help!