UK Could someone explain to me what the numbers on bulbs and batteries mean?

[joshboe]

Hello,

Apologies if these are really basic questions, I know next to nothing about electronics and such. I'm quite an outsider here.

I'm looking to build myself a moth trap, and I've found that (especially in today's economy) actinic bulbs running off a battery would be best as it would be cheaper in the long run running it off the mains or using a mercury vapour bulb running off a battery connected to an inverter or a generator.

Anyways, I've found a suitable actinic bulb, the Sylvania 0025706 BL368, which is 20W and 230-240V. Firstly when it says 230-240V, is this how much power is needed to turn it on?

I've been trying to research appropriate batteries and came across a battery size calculator, and inputting the 20W and 240V I got a load size of 0.1A and 2Ah. Does this sound about right? I've been looking at batteries and a lot of them seem to be 12V, and in my mind that seems far too small.

Thank you for reading, and any help would greatly appreciated.
-Josh

 

[SJD]

The Sylvania 0025706 is a mains AC voltage lamp, and would need an inverter to run off a battery (which provides a DC voltage).

 

[Lucien Nunes]

First, please explain the significance of the battery. The following comment is ambiguous and confusing:

I've found that (especially in today's economy) actinic bulbs running off a battery would be best as it would be cheaper in the long run running it off the mains or using a mercury vapour bulb running off a battery connected to an inverter

Did you mean ...'cheaper in the long run THAN running...'?
Running anything off a battery is always more expensive that running direct from the mains.

If this is meant to be portable, then how long do you need it to run on a single charge of the battery? Just to give you an idea, a car battery would power a 20W lamp for about 30 hours via an inverter.

We can look at more specific numbers once it's clearer what you want to achieve.