EL Wire questions from a newbie

Components & Accessories LEDs
1

I am planning some projects where there will be two lengths of EL wire spaced about 4 inches apart, and running parallel. I haven’s decided whether to use 2 separate wires, or just one in a U-shape, with the bend wrapped in electrical tape. The runs will be variable, from 24" to 48".

Here’s my questions:

  1. Is it possible to power the wire using a 25,000 MaH battery bank (commonly used as a Cell Phone backup) instead of AA batteries? This would provide longer running times, is USB rechargeable, and doesn’t require opening the casing and swapping out the physical battery. These typically output 5v and 1 to3 Amp through a standard USB port designed for the charging cable of a cell phone. What kind of illumination time can I expect between charges?

  2. What kind of heat generation can I expect from the inverter? Does it require ventilation?

  3. Can EL wire be dimmed?

  4. Are there varying noise levels with different models of inverters?

Basically, I want to design a product with a battery pack and inverter encased, with literally no ventilation, and the only exterior interface would be a rotary on-and-brightness dial, and a micro USB port, to which a standard 120v charger can be plugged in.

2
  1. Is it possible to power the wire using a 25,000 MaH battery bank (commonly used as a Cell Phone backup) instead of AA batteries?
Probably not with our inverter, it's designed to work with a 3 volt input rather than a 5 volt input. Those extra 2 volt could damage the inverter.
  1. What kind of heat generation can I expect from the inverter? Does it require ventilation?
Shouldn't get too warm at all and doesn't need ventilation.
  1. Can EL wire be dimmed?
Yes, however we don't carry an inverter that supports dimming.
  1. Are there varying noise levels with different models of inverters?
For the inverters we carry, it really comes down to luck. Some are louder than others even along the same model. The noise comes from eddy currents in the transformer that's used to step up the output voltage and some are louder than others due to variances in how they were manufactured. The eddy currents in the transformer cause the transformer to vibrate slightly and that's causing the noise you hear.

While we don’t carry them, you could probably find a inverter that works with 5 volts and would run off a power bank just fine. If you can locate a inverter that has it’s insides potted in resin, those would probably be a lot quieter than ones that are not potted. The resin would muffle sound as well as encase the transformer keeping it from vibrating as much as an unpotted one. Check with [That’s Cool Wire, they may be able to help you out with an inverter that works best for your application. :-)](https://thatscoolwire.com/)