3.7 VOLT BATTERY POWERS 56 WATTS

[TinselKoala]

I have an interesting question that someone might answer.  I just bought a 12 volt 30 amp 360 watt power unit.  What 12 volt battery would be its equivalent in amp hours and watts?

You can't really compare a battery and a power supply in that way. The best you can do is to say that they both will put out 12 volts, for a while, into certain loads.
You don't say whether your power unit is a voltage regulated supply. If it isn't, its voltage will droop when connected to a heavy load.

The "Amp-Hour" is a measure of _energy capacity_ of a battery. The nominal voltage multiplied by the amp-hour rating gives "volt-amp hours" which, converted to seconds by multiplying by 3600 seconds per hour, gives the energy in Joules.
Since the power unit will continue to put out power for as long as you have it connected to the wall outlet, its "energy capacity" is "infinite". It won't run down as long as it's connected to the working mains!

Batteries, especially lead-acid types, have very low internal resistance, so the "watts" they can put out can be very very large if the load also has low resistance. Drop a wrench across the terminals and the battery may put out thousands of watts for a few seconds while it welds the wrench in place and then explodes. Connect it to a more reasonable load like a car brake light bulb and it will put out 25 watts, or whatever the bulb is rated for, until it gradually runs down. Your power unit is maxed out at 360 watts (that is, 12 volts at 30 amps, which means into a 0.4 ohm load,  IF it can actually meet its rating)  so you aren't likely to weld anything by connecting it to a direct short.

[magnetman12003]

You can't really compare a battery and a power supply in that way. The best you can do is to say that they both will put out 12 volts, for a while, into certain loads.
You don't say whether your power unit is a voltage regulated supply. If it isn't, its voltage will droop when connected to a heavy load.

The "Amp-Hour" is a measure of _energy capacity_ of a battery. The nominal voltage multiplied by the amp-hour rating gives "volt-amp hours" which, converted to seconds by multiplying by 3600 seconds per hour, ,
Since the power unit will continue to put out power for as long as you have it connected to the wall outlet, its "energy capacity" is "infinite". It won't run down as long as it's connected to the working mains!

Batteries, especially lead-acid types, have very low internal resistance, so the "watts" they can put out can be very very large if the load also has low resistance. Drop a wrench across the terminals and the battery may put out thousands of watts for a few seconds while it welds the wrench in place and then explodes. Connect it to a more reasonable load like a car brake light bulb and it will put out 25 watts, or whatever the bulb is rated for, until it gradually runs down. Your power unit is maxed out at 360 watts (that is, 12 volts at 30 amps, which means into a 0.4 ohm load,  IF it can actually meet its rating)  so you aren't likely to weld anything by connecting it to a direct short.

Hi, Thank you for all your information. I was using an unregulated power supply.
I now bought a ""voltage regulated"" 12 volt , 30 amp, 360 watt power supply.  How many 12 volt seven watt led bulbs can this  power supply light up continuously is my next question because that's my intent.  I had a lot of smaller power supply's pulse the bulbs in the past and would not continuously light them.

[TinselKoala]

To address your problem properly you will also need a good lightmeter so that you can tell the true brightness or light output power of your bulbs in each condition: Lit by straight DC voltage, or lit by your oscillator. You may also need some way to measure or show the power factor when using the oscillator.

It is very difficult to tell the true brightness of a bulb by eye alone, especially if they are bright. So perhaps you can light up 360/7 = 51 bulbs with the straight DC power output of your power supply (assuming it really can maintain 360 watts output at 12 volts), and perhaps you can light up more than that with the oscillator... but will they truly be as bright as the DC powered bulbs?

Of course, since your lighting needs are determined by what your eye can see rather than a lightmeter reading, perhaps it doesn't really matter, as long as you are getting enough light for your needs. But if you really want to do an energy balance measurement you need better instruments than your eyeballs alone.

[magnetman12003]

To address your problem properly you will also need a good lightmeter so that you can tell the true brightness or light output power of your bulbs in each condition: Lit by straight DC voltage, or lit by your oscillator. You may also need some way to measure or show the power factor when using the oscillator.

It is very difficult to tell the true brightness of a bulb by eye alone, especially if they are bright. So perhaps you can light up 360/7 = 51 bulbs with the straight DC power output of your power supply (assuming it really can maintain 360 watts output at 12 volts), and perhaps you can light up more than that with the oscillator... but will they truly be as bright as the DC powered bulbs?

Of course, since your lighting needs are determined by what your eye can see rather than a lightmeter reading, perhaps it doesn't really matter, as long as you are getting enough light for your needs. But if you really want to do an energy balance measurement you need better instruments than your eyeballs alone.

I just bought a new lux/foot candle meter so I will use that and meter the light from a single bulb off a direct connection to my power supply. Will use that reading as a standard for readings later when many bulbs are powered.

[TinselKoala]

That's good! So you will no doubt build a light box and some kind of fixture, to exclude ambient light and to hold your bulb(s) at the same distance from the lightmeter's sensor for every measurement. I'll be looking forward to seeing your results!