Solar Panel and driveway lights

[Dyldo]

My dad-in-law gave me a challenge that I am sadly failing at. We have a pretty long driveway separated in the middle by a bridge. we're out in the country so no lights anywhere and apart from the headlights on the car there's nothing on the driveway and he wants it lit via Solar energy lights.

He's after a panel and system that can handle 8 x 60w lights; come on at dusk, switch off at dawn; and be powered "off grid" by solar. It appears I'd need a modest solar panel that he'd mount at ground level in the open and run cables to lights. The big thing seems to be the battery system storing the charge.

Anyone got any leads, ideas, forums, know people?

[ryana89]

Are LED's an option?
Thats a lot of energy from one solar panel to collect in one day.

[Dyldo]

Anything is an option, we just need a lighting solution

[dylan8]

i remember when there was a big group of us camping we got those garden lights with built in panels and stuck them at cheap tent door to save carrying torches etc
maybe get a million of those? haha
I'm keen to see to see what you find! good luck

[Dyldo]

yeah those all-in-one jobbies are good but tend to be low light for garden paths and also tend to have a life of 8hours till they shut off. Might not be enough in winter.

[ryana89]

Ok then here's a rough idea.

Outdoor places (like Bunnings) sell mains powered garden lights (LED or Halogen ect).
If you could get say a LED mains powered set-up and then have it run through a set of deep cycle batters.
Now for the power to be useable to the mains powered lights, pick-up a say a 150 Watt inverter (for low current LED stuff) and hook it up to the set (or one) battery.

You can pick-up timed/intelligent solar battery chargers now too for acceptable prices.
Who knows, you may even be able to pick up a package with all these things in it!

Just a thought

[Rybky]

And to save power use some motion sensors to turn them on so they are not on all the time, might reduce your battery capacity requirement?

Adam

[Jarred]

i can see this getting very expensive for a bunch of driveway lights

Solar electricity - Origin Energy Australia

Off Grid & Stand Alone Wind and Solar Power Systems - Energy Matters

I figure you'll need 1 maybe 2 solar panels (depending on size, and how big your driveway is!) and inverter, regulator and deep cycle battery. motion sensors or timers for controlling the lights. I'd just run it on 240V AC, that way standard house hold lights etc will work.

My 2 bob.

[Dyldo]

big thing is dad-in-law only wants solar and doesnt want the hassle of going mains for the lights.

[Jarred]

that's a standalone system

obviously you'd have to wire up all the lights though, to the battery

[Dyldo]

yup, he's fine running wires from lights to batteries, and then battery to the solar panel. but we're not after a roof-full of panels, maybe a good 1x2m panel or something.

[Jarred]

how many lights are you looking a getting?

you need to figure out the wattage of the lights you want, then you can figure out how much power the require (in kWhour) then you can look into a battery that'll provide that amount of kW hour, and then find a suitable solar panel that will be able to absorb/convert that much power on a daily basis, unless you want to run more batteries (good batteries aren't cheap!) remember that in winter, with less sunlight, less cloud cover, that needs to be taken into consideration

[blutopless2]

how long is the driveway?

[maca]

Connect the lights to a generator powered an excercise bike/rowing machine. Not only is he saving on energy bills, but he's also excercising in the mean time

[Dyldo]

Connect the lights to a generator powered an excercise bike/rowing machine. Not only is he saving on energy bills, but he's also excercising in the mean time

Yup, you don't know my dad-in-law he ain't doing any exercise for no-one.

how long is the driveway?

about 80m I'd say, separated by a bridge in the middle. I think he wants lights street-side of the bridge.

how many lights are you looking a getting?

you need to figure out the wattage of the lights you want, then you can figure out how much power the require (in kWhour) then you can look into a battery that'll provide that amount of kW hour, and then find a suitable solar panel that will be able to absorb/convert that much power on a daily basis, unless you want to run more batteries (good batteries aren't cheap!) remember that in winter, with less sunlight, less cloud cover, that needs to be taken into consideration

He is after 8 x 60w bulbs. so how do i then turn that into the requisite kw/hour? I like the logic though, working backwards from the power drain.