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12 volt lighting
muddyjames:
I hope someone can help me with this idea I have.
I like the idea of making my house run off solar pannels but looking into pannels for the roof and making 240volt looks very expensive and ages to get money back off. SO my 2nd idea
Have 2-3 caravan leisure batteries in the shed, solar pannels on shed roof (south facing garden) and wire up 12volt (possibly LED) lights and so all my lighting would come from the batteries. Obviously pc etc would still run off 240volts from national grid.
How easy would this idea be to set up and run? I think it would cost alot less than 240volt solar pannels.
2 110amp hour caravan batteries (approx £70 each) £140
2 solar pannels £200
12volt lights (stab in the dark guess) £200. Can get some reading spots for some areas.
Wire about £100?
So looking at spending about £500 in total to set my house up. I think £500 would be way over estimating. Also it would mean I could take it to other houses if I move and I dont drill loads of holes to install lights. Im thinking of mounting them in boxes and screwing them to walls ceiling etc.
There must be a technician boff out there who can tell me I'm mad and dont even go there!!!
blackbob:
you could get a power converter and run the 240 off the battery system so you can run low ampage stuff like the pc
so you only need mains for the kettle cooker ect
also you would need to run new wirers into the house for lights ect big job
also get a wind generator to keep the system topped up at night and for the winter
easy to set up but time consuming
DaveS:
If you had enough panels and batteries should be possible, use inverters for 240v stuff.
You can get 12v TV freeview boxes etc for caravans/campers no problem.
I assume you have gas or solid fuel for cooking heating!
Sounds like a good idea.
Damonski:
Go for it :)
Ive been playing with alternators as a wind generator to provide 12v power to a wireless repeater to increase the distance to the other barn on the other side of the farm.
12v lighting I have pondered over numerous times and I serioulsy think its very much a reality and not a dream.
Definatley go for it! 12v rocks :)
Mudlark:
I think you're going to have problems - big problems :lol:
I ran a carnival float a few years ago and used 12 volt lighting on it - it worked but we had to overcome a lot of problems to do it.
Firstly I assume you'll be using halogen lights so amp rating will be:
20 watt = 2 amps
35 watt = 3 amps
50 watt = 4 amps
all approximate
say you run lights that use 60 amps in a house you have to get that 60 amps to the lights - start thinking around 10 - 15 mm welding type cable ok you can thin it out as you go down to a single light but at 12 volts you have to take in voltage drop as well remember as the voltage drops on a length of wire so the amperage goes up and heat is produced.
Our first attempt at lighting was to string two bare (insulated each end) steel wires along the length of the float and twist each halogen light to these wires as each light progressed down the wire it got dimmer - while we were thinking about it we left them on to test the time it took the battery to flatten before the battery flattened though we were treated to a firework display and the steel wire burst into flames :shock:
We ended up with 7 x 35 watt lights strung on two lengths of 2.5mm wire in six banks we also had about 20 x 20 watt lights on a roundabout (driven by a 12 volt windscreen wiper motor the lights being fed by four 6mm wires.
To power all this we had 4 batteries with a 500cc subaru engine driving four 100amp alternators to keep the lighting going, if the alternators failed the batteries died within minutes (but they weren't good batteries :wink: )
All I can say is at the end of the day it was fun designing it and getting it to work but we had a lot of problems.
You'll have to work out the output of the panels and make sure they will replace what the lights take out of the batteries each night.
Possibly work during the summer months :lol: :lol:
Any Questions??
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