# "experimenting with a solar outside yard light"



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I am going to see what I can do to have a solar powered security light in my yard on a pole,
I have a mercury vapor light now and it's giving me trouble. I would like to have a self contained 
light that has it's own solar cell and battery. And I would like to see if I can keep it at or under $300 
using new stuff. Panel,battery everything. 
60 watt or maybe a 100 watt. First we will do the 60 watt tonight
This is the same used 2009 car battery that was used in the other experiments, Keep that in mind
I'm sure we would get better results with a good deep cycle

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have a battery and a small controller and a volt gauge hooked up to a 100 watt solar panel




I will be using a 12 volt photo cell to turn the light on at dusk and off at dawn it will be supplying power
to a 130 watt duralast inverter that I cut the lighter plug in off of. 

The light will be setting on the roof hooked up to half an alternator for some weight to keep it on the roof
This is a LED bulb it with the inverter should only be pulling a total of about 13.2 watts total


8:15 the light came on battery is at 13.4 volts

It's 11:00 This thing is really bright it has everything lit up for a long ways off

12:30 looking good out side and the battery is at 12.47 volts

1:40 and we have 12.43 volts

Nuts,,,,,,, I slept to long I didn't get up till 7:30 by then the recharge
process had already started and it was back up to 12.63

I had checked on it at 5:00 and it was 12.35

I should have unplugged the solar panel it kept the battery it at it's low so we
could have seen what the voltage was when the light kicked off and this would
also made it easier to time how long to recharge.

If there is any interest in this project I'll try it again and maybe this time I'll use
a good deep cycle battery. But I won't be doing this with a 100 watt bulb
there is no need for it. This was plenty bright.

One thing I do know is that this would make a great security light in a place where you don't
have any electric.

By 11:30 the battery was back up to 13.7

NOTE: I didn't mean to but I lied to you guys the 60 LED bulb is not a cree
it is a Walmart GREAT VALUE about $9

Ok I tried it again this time with a new deep cycle I just got I made sure it was fully charged 
and I left the solar panel unplugged. The battery was down to 12.49 when I got up.
I'm not sure but I think that's still about 90% charged


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

The Variations Of The Bulbs In Led For Spot And Flood I Have Not Seen. For Your Project Depending On What You Are Trying To Light Up. Like Let's Say My Chicken Coop Area. I Would Think A Flood Light Would Be Great But I Have Not Seen Them In Led Just A Goofy Comment.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

On my house all of my exterior lights are wired to a "Dual Bright" motion sensor. It has two light sockets to direct light over a broad area. When it senses dusk (about 7:30 right now) it kicks on at half power for 4 hours. So instead of running 2 100w bulbs it runs like 2 50w bulbs. Then after 4 hours (about 11:30ish right now) they go OFF - no light, so no energy used.

But at any time after dark, if they sense motion they kick on to 100% power. They stay on for 5 minutes at full power and then drop off to 50% for 10 more minutes.

I like this approach because it keep light pollution down, doesn't give my neighbors a sun tan in their backyard at night, and saves energy by only using it when really necessary. It also gives me the advantage of looking out the window and knowing if the motion detector has seen anything lately. And at 100w of power it is a little blinding when it pops on.

So if you get 2 100w Creee bulbs, you would use a total of 36w at full illumination and 18w at half power, and because the light is really only on about 1/2 to 2/3 of the night, you would have additional power savings. And you'd have 1600 lumens per bulb.

Heath Zenith SL-5718-WH 270 Degrees Dualbrite Motion Sensor Light Control, White at PlumberSurplus.com


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

GTGallop said:


> On my house all of my exterior lights are wired to a "Dual Bright" motion sensor. It has two light sockets to direct light over a broad area. When it senses dusk (about 7:30 right now) it kicks on at half power for 4 hours. So instead of running 2 100w bulbs it runs like 2 50w bulbs. Then after 4 hours (about 11:30ish right now) they go OFF - no light, so no energy used.
> 
> But at any time after dark, if they sense motion they kick on to 100% power. They stay on for 5 minutes at full power and then drop off to 50% for 10 more minutes.
> 
> ...


Keep in mind,, 
I been checking the different bulbs with a watt meter and they are usually right on what the package says
but remember you need to ad .2 amps or 2.4 watts for the inverter. I checked 2 different ones and they were about the same.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

alterego said:


> The Variations Of The Bulbs In Led For Spot And Flood I Have Not Seen. For Your Project Depending On What You Are Trying To Light Up. Like Let's Say My Chicken Coop Area. I Would Think A Flood Light Would Be Great But I Have Not Seen Them In Led Just A Goofy Comment.


Yea I been looking at some different LED bulbs and I have only seen different types of lighting like sunlight or soft light.
The LED bulb is a new thing it will be interesting to see where this goes and what kinds of bulbs they come out with.


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## microprepper (Nov 21, 2013)

alterego said:


> The Variations Of The Bulbs In Led For Spot And Flood I Have Not Seen. For Your Project Depending On What You Are Trying To Light Up. Like Let's Say My Chicken Coop Area. I Would Think A Flood Light Would Be Great But I Have Not Seen Them In Led Just A Goofy Comment.


If a motion-activated light goes off on your chicken coop at night, wouldn't it upset the hens to the point they might stop laying? Mainly since animals might trigger it as well as humans? (of course chickens who have been et by coyotes don't lay eggs, either...)


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

GTGallop said:


> On my house all of my exterior lights are wired to a "Dual Bright" motion sensor. It has two light sockets to direct light over a broad area. When it senses dusk (about 7:30 right now) it kicks on at half power for 4 hours. So instead of running 2 100w bulbs it runs like 2 50w bulbs. Then after 4 hours (about 11:30ish right now) they go OFF - no light, so no energy used.
> 
> But at any time after dark, if they sense motion they kick on to 100% power. They stay on for 5 minutes at full power and then drop off to 50% for 10 more minutes.
> 
> ...


I was at Walmart tonight and they have the LED bulbs in flood lights I think about $12


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## Daveman (Jun 26, 2014)

Ezzzz


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Have you thought of using 12VDC lights? Would use alot less power then 120VAC.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

HuntingHawk said:


> Have you thought of using 12VDC lights? Would use alot less power then 120VAC.


Yes I have,,, The way it is right now it takes 13.2 watts to run everything including the inverter. 
All of the 12 volt bulbs I have found take more than that. I have been looking for a 12 volt led bulb but haven't been able to find one.

I have been looking at 12 volt fog/driving LED lights from Auto Zone but I haven't really done much with them yet
I was trying to stay with a "bulb" type set up. I would like to replace the bulb in the mercury light with what ever I
end up using mostly for looks sake. I thought about having more than one light on the pole like the fog lights but
I don't think I would like the looks of it. But we'll see.

Do you know of any 12 Volt LED DC bulbs from anywhere? Right now I'm pulling 13.2 watts for everything
converter and bulb and I have a lot of light. I'm having trouble beating that. 
I found a energy savings bulbs in a DC 12 volt one of the curly looking things but it took more amps to run
than what I'm using now. And keep in mind the inverter only ads 2.4 watts to the total pull of electric

The last test I did using a good deep cycle battery the results were pretty good it only took about 10% of 
the battery to run it all night. And it was charged back up quickly when the sun came up.
But this is summer short nights long sunny days. I'm not sure what would happen the the winter months.
I have thought about using my main battery bank as a back up for it if the battery gets to low.

If you got any ideas I'm listening.

I found these but they pull 15 watts And I don't think they are as bright as the led bulbs
they say 60 watts but there just not as bright as the 60 watt LEDs 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RV-Fluoresc...cessories&hash=item56603fdb9d&vxp=mtr&afsrc=1


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Yes, that is a CFL & not as bright as LED lights.

I think a big factor is if you want to be able to "see" or just bright enough not to trip over stuff. I just use the $2 solar patio lights from the dollar store.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

If I can I want a security light. I like to look out and see everything in my yard. If you are near a city you don't really know
what dark is. You ever notice when you drive by a school or almost any kind of business late at night there is almost always a
security light on? There's a reason for that. (And a lot of people have the mercury vapor lights also) 

I like to watch the deer eat apples at night out of my yard and watch all the different animals.
and the light keeps the coyotes away. They don't like the light they tend to stay in the shadows.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

I'm just thinking of the power loss of drawing 12VDC from a battery & converting to 120VAC. There are 12VDC timers but I've never priced one. 

For light in my storm shelter I have a LED light strip on one wall. For reading light I have a 12VDC bicycle headlight.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

HuntingHawk said:


> I'm just thinking of the power loss of drawing 12VDC from a battery & converting to 120VAC. There are 12VDC timers but I've never priced one.
> 
> For light in my storm shelter I have a LED light strip on one wall. For reading light I have a 12VDC bicycle headlight.


 I didn't think that .2 amps or 2.4 watts was much of a power loss for converting it over to 120 AC I thought it would be more than that.
The 12 Dc volt timer might pull more than the inverter


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