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USB powered LED planted tank aquarium light

Anyone know of any USB powered aquarium light?

The best I found is the above but it's not strong enough for a planted
tank.  I have a 55-60L tank.

I wanted to use USB as my energy bills have been very high.


http://www.amazon.com/AquaLighter-Freshwater-Saltwater-Description-Aqualighter/dp/B00NBL9FNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442489727&sr=8-1&keywords=Aqualighter+Nano+Marine
The above unfortunately is not USB-powered or could I adapt it to be
USB powered?
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Kimputer

Using USB is not a reason to save energy bills. You will still pay your energy bill, using USB or not. After all, the USB doesn't magically provide power to you out of nowhere.
Then comes the next part where you think it doesn't provide enough light. That's right, as USB is meant to be low powered only (and that's why it's been a safe solution for so long). Don't expect anything more than 2.5Watts on the USB port (on a laptop or PC), and maybe 10W max for a USB charger that plugs back in the mains (which you probably don't want).
It wants 24 V, 350 mA.  It's possible to step up from 5V 5A, but may not be practical.
Converting from AC to 5V then from 5V to 24 V does not seem likely to save on energy bills compared to converting straight from AC to 24V.
What is the maximum power in watts (W) that you want to install?
Can you provide dimensions of the aquarium LxHxW?
How strong would like the light?
What color?
Do you want it dimmable?

It does not matter from where you take the power, the bill is the same in the end. The main things to consider are:
- too many conversions for the voltage means reduced efficiency as you lose energy at each conversion, meaning you get the same output power for more input power, meaning higher electricity bills. So, one conversion AC-DC and then to LEDs.
- If you think at USB, do not think at USB from PC, but at the wall power adapter with USB connector, as for example iPAD has the white thick one with 2A and 5V, but are other companies with higher current if is needed. The power adapter should be isolated type, with an instillation transformer inside.

By the way, with the indicated LEDs from Amazon you may calculate around 10W/hour for your bill.
If you know how many hours per day you keep plugged in the LEDs on and how much costs 1KWh electricity, them you may calculate easy your bill increase.
USB could be cheaper if you run the lights from the USB on a laptop having charged the laptop at work. You would need an alternative supply while the laptop is out of the house. I would think that any saving would be negligible, as said above, the current draw from a USB socket is very low.
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ozo is correct. I was thinking of something else.
The fact remains that the typical usb port will not supply enough power for the desired light.light
Here is the USB power delivery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Power

If you find one LED light able to deliver under these values, depending what USB port you have, let's say to consume maximum 80% of USB power, to not stress the USB, then you have a USB power solution.
What Thibault suggested, to charge at work and use home did not cross to my mind, but looks a bit as cheating. Under these conditions you actually do not need the laptop, you can have a USB battery pack, some with USB, which you charge somewhere else, at work for example, then you use home, but still cheating is the name of the game. And to really charge the notebook at work and use it home for LED light is not very practical.
Your main concern is using USB to not increase the electricity bill.
Considering the Amazon light pointed out by you, 24V*350mA=24V*0.35A=8.4W. Given the fact that efficiency  is always lower than 90% for these small switchable power supplies, maybe even without power factor correction, let’s consider it worse case 83% efficiency, which means 10W consumption at the input of your power supply used for LED.
Now, you are from Singapore. The internet says that 1KWh costs 22.41 cents since September 2015.
http://www.singaporepower.com.sg/irj/portal?NavigationTarget=navurl://41c8e6a3faf48bb168af2c222faa8ee4&windowId=undefined
http://www.singaporepower.com.sg/irj/go/km/docs/wpccontent/Sites/SP%20Services/Site%20Content/Tariffs/documents/Historical%20Electricity%20Tariff.pdf

Let’s consider that you will keep your 10W LED on all the time. That means 24h for 30 days.
The electricity consumed is 10W/h*24h/day*30days=7200W=7.2KW.
Your increase bill looks like 7.2KW*22.41cents/KWh= 1.61352 Singapore dollar.
The average income in Singapore is over 2000 Singapore dollars.
http://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/Income-Summary-Table.aspx
But I am sure you will not keep the LED on all the time and the entire bill will probably increase with 1 dollar more.
So, if you do not afford to spent 1 dollar more for the electricity bill, then just drop it and forget about a LED light for your aquarium.
That should be a consistent argument to forget about USB power as a good option to save money for electricity bill.
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ASKER

> USB could be cheaper if you run the lights from the USB on a laptop having charged the laptop at work
Yes, I have several external batteries & recently got a few Energizer XP18000A at half price; so why not
charge them at work & rotate them to use at home.  Call it "energy theft" but everyone at work is
doing that, charging their mobiles, tablets at work.

The XP18000A could charge laptops too, so if its USB can't work, perhaps its outputs for laptops?

My tank is 12" width x 24" length x  height 20".
The amazon link I posted has a light for marine tank at 6.5Watt
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> 22.41cents/KWh
I'm not sure if the above is an accurate tariff rate of our energy here, likely a 5-6 times of that
Why do you believe is 6.5W? Because is written on the description from Amazon?
Well, then is wrong and you cannot trust that info.
1) If you take the last part:

Description of Aqualighter Nano (freshwater) LED-lamp AquaLighter Nano is used to illuminate nano freshwater aquariums up to 25 litres. In AquaLighter Nano LED lamp uses light sources, allowed for the majority of aquarium plants. As a source of light in the lamp AquaLighter Nano uses super-bright LEDs company OSRAM (Germany): OSRAM Duris E5 Cool White: 5000-6500K. Power supply LED lamp AquaLighter Nano is safe. Voltage of 12 V. The unique minimalistic design LED-lamp AquaLighter Nano does not distract from seeing the landscape of your aquarium. Feet LED-lamp AquaLighter Nano allows you to place light on the aquarium wall thickness up to 5 mm. Voltage + frequency:AC110~230V (50-60Hz) / DC 12V, 1A; Light temperature, К:5000-6500К; Power, W:4,5; Luminous flux, lm:400; Maximum aquarium volume, litres: 25; Lamp body colour: Black; Ingress protection rating: IP67.

We see here mentioned 4.5W, but in the same time 12V and 1A, which means 12W.
It is clear a mistake somewhere.

2) Let’s take the part above:

Description of Aqualighter Nano Marine (salt-water) LED illumination lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine is used for illumination of marine nano-aquariums up to 25 litres. LED illumination lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine is equipped with sources of light that allow to maintain most species of sea animals. The light sources of LED illumination lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine are super-bright LEDs, manufactured by OSRAM (Germany). Cool-White LEDs with light temperature 6500-7000 K. Blue LED with the length of wave of 470 nm. Verde Green LED with the length of wave of 500 nm. Hyper Red LED with the length of wave of 650 nm. Deep Blue LED with the length of wave of 455 nm. The power supply of LED illumination lamp of AquaLighter Nano Marine is realized at a safe rating of 24 V, 350 mA. A patented technology of protection of LEDs from moisture and splashes with transparent two-component sealant is used in a LED lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine. It is so effective, that AquaLighter Nano Marinecan withstand even the short-term immersion into the water without any damage. First in the world in this class lamps are applied an effective technology removing heat using a composite ceramic radiators. Due to its unique minimalistic design, LED illumination lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine will not distract you from the looking of your aquarium. The leg of LED illumination lamp AquaLighter Nano Marine allows placing the lamp over aquariums up with thickness of walls up to 6 mm. Voltage + frequency:AC110~240V (50-60Hz) / DC 24V, 350A Light temperature, К:12000-15000 Power, W:6.5 Luminous flux, lm:not less than 430 Maximum aquarium volume, liters:25 Size, mm:170x80x50 Lamp body colour: black. Ingress protection rating:IP 67. Aquarium glass thickness, mm:up to 6.

We read here 6.5W and in the same time 24V and 350mA which means 8.4W. And this is only at the output of the power supply. So again it is a mistake.
What are the specs of your energy battery pack in terms of voltage, current,  Ah?
It is important to understand what voltage and current can you provide and for how long time.
If you do not know the specs then specify the batteries type and how many do you have and how can you connect them together.
If you live in Singapore, I am curious how much costs for real the KWh electricity. Do yo mean over 1 dollar for 1KWh? It is hard to believe.
It must be under 30 cents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing
"We read here 6.5W and in the same time 24V and 350mA which means 8.4W. And this is only at the output of the power supply. So again it is a mistake."

The 24 @350ma ( and 12 V @ 1A) is the rating of the power supply. It does NOT mean that that is the current drawn by the connected device
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I have four of those Xp18000A & it's written on it:
For the output port that charges laptops,
  Output DC 16-20V
  Max 70WH

For the USB, it says
   5V - 2.1A
 12V - 2A
 19V - 3.5A (Max)
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The AquaLighter is designated for 25l tank. You might need 2 for your 55-60l tank, but you should try with one first.
Coming back to your battery pack, you have 2 options:
1) You use the AquaLighter as it is, including its power supply and additional buy an inverter as those for car adapter to laptop with their power supply, meaning from 12VDC back to 110VAC/230VAC. Due to so many conversions of energy, the presence of inverter between your battery pack and the power supply of the LEDs, the efficiency of the system will be lower, meaning the inverter will consume also some energy to be functional, but it will work. How much energy you lose and how long time you may use the battery packs? Depends what inverter you find, but with your 18Ah packs you should be good for many hours. We can make a calculation later.
For example here are some inverters:
http://www.trust.com/en/product/15834-230v-power-for-car
http://www.amazon.de/Wechselrichter-Spannungswandler-Inverter-Zigarettenanz%C3%BCnder-Smartphone/dp/B00K7VHZFU/ref=sr_1_sc_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1442990711&sr=8-3-spell&keywords=kfz+inveter
The only problem would be to adapt the 12VDC input plug of the inverter to your battery pack.

2) The second option is to forget about the power supply which comes with AquaLighter LEDs and use instead another constant current LED driver with the same specifications as the original power supply has for output.
For example you may buy something like this and would work:
LDD-350LW:
http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=LDD-L
or LDD-350HW:
http://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=ldd-h
Then you must use the 12V output from your battery pack and you need to adapt the connector for LED lamp, input and output of the LDD-350 adapter.
You may search by yourself another constant current power supply (LED driver) with power 7W minimum and output 350mA constant current, voltage range at least 12-27VDC.
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Gee, thanks very much