Solar Light for Shed

Squall Leonhart

I've a small shed, with no light in it.

I won't be running power to it anytime soon, and thinking that maybe a solar powered battery light would be the job.

Anybody have any experience with the likes of the following;

https://www.lights.ie/solar-light-system-with-motion-detector-69050-ie-en.html

Opinions, advice, suggestions of alternatives?

"Through a powerful 2 W solar module"

BS detector triggered.

Here's one I did earlier.



You can downscale it to 50W solar, 60Ah battery capacity, use a sunsaver 6A controller and lose the laptop business. Buy the controller used, they're fairly indestructible as long as you don't isolate the battery before the PV.

adrian92

Perhaps just connect some LED lights, powered from a car battery. Ok for incidental use. Need a battery charger to ocassionly recharge the battery?
Just an idea, others may have views on this suggestion

PV is a car battery charger.

freddyuk

A very simple system would include an LED 12volt filament bulb in standard E27 batten holder with twin core cable to a solar regulator (5amp). Connect a 20 watt solar panel fixed to roof in clear air with twin core cable to solar regulator. Connect a battery (old car battery would work for this until it dies) to the solar regulator via fused twin core cable.
A switch needs to be incorporated in the light supply cable.

That's it.

Cheap and effective. A motion sensor switch is expensive and needs you to keep moving or it goes out!!
Commercial LED fancy lights can fail prematurely. A bulb can be just replaced easily.

For better working light use an LED 12v tube depending on size of the shed.
If it is for occasional use this will be fine but for extended hours you must work out the average "watt hours" per week and design up from there.
If you can wire a plug you can do this BUT be careful with old batteries - they are dangerous so take precautions.

Cerco

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

"Through a powerful 2 W solar module"

BS detector triggered.

Here's one I did earlier.

You can downscale it to 50W solar, 60Ah battery capacity, use a sunsaver 6A controller and lose the laptop business. Buy the controller used, they're fairly indestructible as long as you don't isolate the battery before the PV.

Very impressive set up there but a bit of an overkill for a shed. Okay I know there are sheds and SHEDS.
ALDI/Lidl often have lamps with solar panel attachment for a garden shed for very little money. There is an option to charge up from the mains or other source if insufficient voltage from the panel.

Cerco

Cerco wrote: »

Very impressive set up there but a bit of an overkill for a shed.

Absolutely but you might also appreciate that making those sortov presentations takes time and the scale that OP is dealing with is not worth my while because it's strictly DIY so it'd be a wasted investment from me.

Car battery is fine....yeah I know wrong application...look it's cheap and cheerful. If you get the use outtov it get the right kind later.

Yurp downscale everything. You can lose the bus bars or go with something smaller. Use blade fuses instead of ANL and switchgear. Lose the master isolator etc....

Re: 20W panels. In my experience 50W will cost the same as 20W. I try to avoid yolks without MC4 terminals because they're usually overpriced gimmicky over-rated trinkets.
Think €1.20 per watt.

Cerco

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Absolutely but you might also appreciate that making those sortov presentations takes time and the scale that OP is dealing with is not worth my while because it's strictly DIY so it'd be a wasted investment from me.
.

I absolutely appreciate the amount of time and effort it takes to design, implement and document such a circuit solution.
Don’t underestimate the benefit of sharing your designs with others, including me, who can learn much about current technology.

Squall Leonhart

Hi all, thanks a million for your suggestions. As someone whose electrical knowledge extends to wiring a plug, I may have been overly ambitious!

daheff

saw this recently...may be of help


https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07847LSCG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A5MJGXAGXST0A

Squall Leonhart

Looks great, for that price couldn't go wrong! Worth a punt

Nobody else find it suspicious that the panel output isn't rated?

Here wanna buy this amount of petrol from me. Bargain..only €20!

Bruthal

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Nobody else find it suspicious that the panel output isn't rated?

Here wanna buy this amount of petrol from me. Bargain..only €20!

Seems to say 1.3w 6v. Would probably want to be very occasional use with that.

Sir Liamalot

That'll power this for 30mins a day assuming no idle current or battery charging losses.

I run my workshop lights which I use most days between 1 and 12 hours from 110Wp.

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

I try to avoid yolks without MC4 terminals because they're usually overpriced gimmicky over-rated trinkets.

tweek84

Nice little pet project you have there, just wondering how much was your solar panel?

Haha, that's the runt system of the litter. Not much to it and far more useful than the 48V system I never got around to finishing.

The panel was free to good home with a 45A charge controller and a meter. So I haggled them up to €100.