# Is this feasible?



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I'm putting up some better solar panels and I'm going to have some smaller 100 watt panels left over.
I have a security light on a pole in my front yard that I would like to convert to solar. 
The set ups I'm looking at for the light varies from 12 to about 46 watts depending on which
one I go with. I would like to use a dusk to dawn censer to turn it on and off. If I mount a 100 watt 
panel on the pole and use one deep cycle battery do you think I could get it to stay on all night 
without letting the battery getting so low it would damage it? My worries are about the winter when 
there isn't much hours of sunlight and lots of gloomy days. 

maybe time to run some test? 

Normally I don't let my batteries get below 12.4 volts but what is a good 
safety range to stay in to not damage the batteries?


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

You have to approach this from one angle or another.
You can approach it from the bulb you want, or you can approach it from the equipment you have.
After you decide that, it's just math.

If you want a 500W halogen bulb to light the area, then you start working on the components that can run a 500W bulb on an AC inverter from a battery that will run all night, hooked up to a panel that will fully charge said battery with limited amounts of sunlight during the winter. This may require additional hardware.
or...
If you have a 100W solar panel, and a battery that the panel can fully charge on a partially sunny winter day, then you will need to determine what size wattage bulb the system will support on an inverter for the length of time you want it to run each night. This may limit your light output.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

IS there a good reason for the night light.... if not use the panel for something else


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

try it and find out then come back here and tell us how it turned out.
also 100 watt panel is way big for that application. but hey use what you got I understand.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

I use a 45 watt panel to charge a battery for my light in the wood shed.. kids have left it on and it works great...

it is a LCD strip light


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Maine-Marine said:


> IS there a good reason for the night light.... if not use the panel for something else


 Yes there is a very good reason


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Kauboy said:


> You have to approach this from one angle or another.
> You can approach it from the bulb you want, or you can approach it from the equipment you have.
> After you decide that, it's just math.
> 
> ...


 What you said makes very good sense. The thing that sort of keeps the little voice in my head talking is that 
in the winter we only get about 9 hours of sun and then it's gloomy sometimes. So I'm thinking that a little
over kill with the panel size might not be over kill at all. I guess maybe some testing is in order. 
I was looking at some automobile LED fog lights. They run on a very small amount of electric but they are super bright.
I was thinking of maybe a cluster of them in an old security light housing might look good and do the job.

When I figure out what I'm going to use for a light I'll let you know and you can help with the 
math part so far what I know for sure is that I will be using a 100 watt panel.

I get what you are saying about the winter days


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Medic33 said:


> try it and find out then come back here and tell us how it turned out.
> also 100 watt panel is way big for that application. but hey use what you got I understand.


What size panel would you suggest I use? I need keep a battery big enough to run a bright security light
all night long charged up. Even on the short gloomy winter days.


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