# Emergency solar lighting. 101 ******* style



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

HI,
I'm not an urban dweller but I do have some knowledge about solar that might help you out.
If you don't know anything about solar that's OK. That's what this thread is for. I had heard 
some of you talk about finding a safe place to stay and only come out for gathering food or 
whatever you need. This will be nothing fancy. Just some basic knowledge to get you started.
I wanted to use a 50 watt panel but all I have is a 100 watt so were going to go with it.
As you will see wiring up a basic solar setup is not that hard. Even if you don't anything about it

This is some of the stuff we will be using 
starting with a solar panel

This will give you some light in a dark basement or hiding spot 
with no smoke or smell of something burning. 
and power for radios or what ever.

After shtf don't worry what kind panel you can get..off a Roof ,expressway,roadway sine 
different panels give off different kinds of electric different watts and different amps
don't worry about it. we'll take care of that later



next will be the controller-- This is a $18 one 
Ok this is the part that will take care of that crazy solar panel it will control it to 
give us the kind of volts and amps we need to charge up our car battery

there two basic kinds of controllers a PWM MPPT they say the MPPT will give you up to
30% more power from the same panel. we are using the cheap pwm

POWER FOR RADIOS LIGHTS CELL PHONE CHARGER KIDS GAME BOYS OR WHATEVER



This is the part that will convert the 12 volts into 120 volts. These converters are easy to find in campers
they come in all different sizes for different applications. I have heard that they use up a lot 
the electric that passes through them,,,,,We'll see about that also. 
These are some different wattage inverters a 800 watt 300 watt and a 130 watt 


Next the light bulb this is cree it's as bright as a 60-75 watt bulb but only pulls 0.8amps and 8watts 
you can pick these up at walmart cheap If you install these in your house they only use 1/4 of
the electric of those curly bulb they use about 35watts



next is a on at dusk and off at dawn switch <special use for this



And one old car battery --been using this battery for 2 years for test (how long can it last?



And the old stand by voltmeter to use as a fuel gauge for the battery. 
I'll start on this project in tomorrow We will be starting with a dead battery


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Have you done any computations on the amount of power lost to 12 to 120 conversion. If you're only worried about lighting, how about going straight 12VDC.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

paraquack said:


> Have you done any computations on the amount of power lost to 12 to 120 conversion. If you're only worried about lighting, how about going straight 12VDC.


Most 12v/120v inverters are about 90% efficient. But the much lower energy loss with 120v AC makes it a better choice for longer wire runs than 12v.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I was thinking of going with 12 volt stuff but in a post SHTF scenario most people will using whatever they
can find. this way they will be ready for 12 volt or 120 volt stuff. And some people have never seen a converter
used before. They need to see how easy it is. --some may only have radios, lights and stuff that runs on 120 volt 

And we will check to see how much we lose using a converter.


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

12v lighting radios and some good little motors and pumps are easily found on any vehicle. You could get stuff from a junkyard.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

jdbushcraft said:


> 12v lighting radios and some good little motors and pumps are easily found on any vehicle. You could get stuff from a junkyard.


Or off of your own car it may become useless


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

FoolAmI said:


> Most 12v/120v inverters are about 90% efficient. But the much lower energy loss with 120v AC makes it a better choice for longer wire runs than 12v.


I could see your point if your were talking about long runs of wire, like from house out to a barn. But what the longest run in your house going to be? Most RVs have 12VDC wire runs about 30+ feet. MHO


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Nifty.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I just finished a thread on jerry rigging up a solar set up to run a light or two.
http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/...o-etc/15384-new-solar-sorry-took-so-long.html


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