For safety reasons, I would like to install lights near the floor of my small fishing boat. What type of lights can be used with a deep cell marine battery? Can it be connected directly to the battery or would the use of an adaptor/transformer be necessary?
It depends on the battery’s voltage. If you have a 12V system (my boat does) you could just buy automotive lights.
I’d look for something LED based, these will cause far less drain on your battery. RV stores, and autoparts places will have lots of 12V powered options.
If you plan on running them off of the battery then I’d recommend using LED lights. They’ll use less current and your battery will last longer. You’ll also probably want something designed for boat use so that water and corrosion won’t be an issue. Auto lights and such will work, but you’ll have to come up with some sort of housing that will keep the water out of them.
Googling “boat led light” gives a large number of results. If there’s a decent marine supply store anywhere near you they should have some as well.
I agree with the suggestions above, but I would recommend connecting any lights through a circuit breaker and after the main battery switch, not directly to the battery.
Just to add, what the others have said is correct…
What I did for blacklights was to run an additional switch betweeen the deepcycles and the lights so that I could turn them off. I only run these at nite, and I run them off of my secondary (trolling batteries) instead of my primary cranking battery. Most of the “little” lights are not that big of a drain on the system.
You can directly hook most/all 12v lights to the battery, a fused connection is better, a switched/fused connection is best.
these:
or these:
Are good examples of what you are probably looking for… I have dealt with the ebay seller, so no worries there.
What kind of boat? (alum of fiberglass?)
If you need more help, just let me know, I’ve done this sorta thing many times.