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An LED by itself requires current regulation. Almost all LED 'products' (ie... products with LEDs in them) require voltage regulation.
An LED strip light simply needs the proper voltage and will take care of current regulation itself.
The problem you will run into will depend if you want the car to run or not...
The car battery will rest anywhere in the mid 12V range, and will decrease as it's used.
The alternator in a car will generate 14.4V which is shoved into the battery to charge it. The alternator and other equipment in a car will present a very noisy 12V-14V power source... this noise is a problem, and spikes much higher may be present which is damaging...
Many people do it anyway and they work, but may not last as long as expected.
Thanks for your reply, would a simple voltage regulator like a 7812 work?
Yes and no.
The voltage regulator will not operate properly unless the engine (and alternator) are running.
A linear 12V regulator needs more than 12V input to work properly.
How long is the strip you want to use? You may find that the LM7812 cannot put out the required current for larger strings of LEDs.
Well I was thinking of using four of them, one per one meter piece.and sorry I should have said I would like to do it for my room, with the car battery in a safe weather proof box outside charged by a solar panel. I did realize the regulator is max 1 amp.
Ok, not so much about the noise on the line then... but the voltage while charging will be a little higher.
The regulator behaviour still applies here though... you need more than 12V for it to work properly.
If I were in your shoes I would either:
A) Risk it and use the strips as-is if I had spares and replacements were cheap.
B) Use 1, or maybe 2 Diodes in series with the strips. Each diode will drop 0.7V . It won't regulate the voltage, but it will decrease the voltage a known amount.
In either case... the protection/regulation should only be needed while the battery is actually charging because this is when you would see the higher voltage. You can use the 12V linear regulators as well, they'll do similar to the diodes and simply supply less than 12V.
Okey cool thanks for the advise. I have 4*5 meter rolls so no problem with spares. I'll hook it up to stop charging when I need the lights, during the day, and obviously it won't charge at night.
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