Strong solar lighting to operate during the day

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bramwell

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#280871 16-Jan-2021 20:41

Hi, we hold a gazebo market stall each weekend and would really like to light it up as it can become a bit dark and dreary inside the gazebo during the day. Is anyone able to please recommend a system that will hold a charge from solar input during the week and give out a good amount of light for a day in the weekend? Recommendations much appreciated! Thanks

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#2636613 16-Jan-2021 20:55

If you're using a battery why would you charge from solar when charging from mains is cheaper and more reliable? If you're using solar you could skip the battery and just have a solar panel drive some LED lights directly.

bramwell

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#2636616 16-Jan-2021 20:58

Thanks Timmay, we'd prefer not to use batteries and the market we attend does not have power. I may have misunderstood your reply ... I'm easily confused! :-D

timmmay

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#2636617 16-Jan-2021 21:03

You've said you want to hold a charge during the week to use on the weekend, that would require a battery wouldn't it? I don't see a need for a battery, just put a solar panel out somewhere safe and run LED lights off it - you probably need some kind of regulator or something.

bramwell

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#2636618 16-Jan-2021 21:08

We were thinking we could put the lighting solar panel out during the week so it would be charged for the weekend. I really have no idea as to options in this regard. We arrive at the market in the morning so figured there wouldn't be enough charge to just put the panel out on site for immediate lighting. Maybe you could educate me please, if you have time! :-D Thanks for your time

richms

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#2636621 16-Jan-2021 21:19

You could just charge it at home rather than solar, which will be cheaper for a small installation that isnt constantly in use.

You need to figure out how many watts of lighting you need. Ryobi do quite an effective string light set with 3 lights on it, that uses the 1+ 18 volt packs, so you can just charge them during the week and swap them out as they run out over the market time.

Richard rich.ms

bramwell

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#2636623 16-Jan-2021 21:21

Thanks for explaining Richard, I'll take a look at the Ryobi options :-)

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2636717 16-Jan-2021 22:13

Solar panels don't themselves store energy, so there tends to be three options:

You feed the power directly back into the grid and either use it elsewhere in the building or sell it back - this is how most rooftop arrays are set up.
You use the solar to charge batteries, and use power from there. This is normally done for 'off-grid' installs where mains isn't available.
You use the solar directly to run a load. This is pretty uncommon as things like a sudden change in sunlight cause the power available to suddenly change.

I agree that your best bet is probably battery work lights.

Or a clear-roof gazebo, but that could get too hot on hot days.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

timmmay

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#2636720 16-Jan-2021 22:19

If you search for 'rechargable LED lighting' you might find something useful. A quick search found this, which might not be right but might give you a starting point.

Not sure how many lumens of light you need. Very roughtly, a old car headlight is about 1000 lumen, a new one more like 3000, and direct sunlight at sea level is about 100,00 lumen. If you're trying to light up the inside of a gazebo to match sunlight I think you'd need a lot of light. To just brighten it up a little, maybe not so much - still thousands of lumens.

Batteries that are fully cycled don't last near as long as batteries that only use half their capacity, so run them flat and they won't last so long.

I wonder if a small generator and some LED lights might work.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2636728 17-Jan-2021 01:59

'Lumens' are the quantity of light in total; e.g. a ceiling light might produce 1500lm.

Lux is lumens per square meter. Note that you can't necessarily throw in 10k lm in a space of 10m^2 and assume you get 1000 lux, as they won't be evenly distributed and won't all fall on the surface you're measuring.

https://www.rexellighting.co.nz/uploads/attachments/Light-Level-Recommendations.pdf

Daylight is between 1000 and 100,000lux. Recommended retail is somewhere around 500-1000lux. You probably want to be somewhere around the upper end of that, which is going to mean in the vicinity of 10,000 lumens or 100W of LEDs. This is likely impractical for batteries unless it's just for first thing in the morning.

Generators are noisy.

tchart

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#2636748 17-Jan-2021 09:07

Look at goal zero products for a battery and lights. The lights are 350 lumens and are chainable (meaning you don't have wires everywhere). They also have different mounting options.

In my office, which is off-grid, I use these combined with a goal zero battery.

You can run the batteries off a normal 12v battery too.

bramwell

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#2636749 17-Jan-2021 09:12

Thanks so much Someonesomewhere, Timmmay and tchart. You've helped a great deal and it looks like battery power is the way to go. Thanks also for the links - very helpful :-)

tchart

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#2636765 17-Jan-2021 10:35

BTW this is a good price for a battery.

https://www.marine-deals.co.nz/generators/iforway-powerelf-ps500n-portable-solar-generator-500w

Make sure you get 400wh or more otherwise it won't last long with a big load.

And also if you plan to use 220v lights instead, there is an overhead on running the inverter even with no load. So 12v or USB is advisable.

bramwell

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#2636766 17-Jan-2021 10:40

Thanks Tchart. Actually we're looking for a more portable option and currently looking at these:

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/building-renovation/electrical-lighting/lights/other/listing/2934505111?bof=lxAPLQhx

They're rechargeable, 1440 lumens LED 18W. I think this should do the trick within our 9 square meters ... any thoughts?

tchart

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#2636767 17-Jan-2021 10:50

Yep that doesn't look too bad.

BTW If I need to boost my light in my office I use one of these;

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/ozito-pxc-18v-cordless-led-worklight-skin-only_p0136011

But I do already have batteries for Ozito PXC. It's quite handy since I can just swap batteries if it dies. They also sell a good fan if you need something to cool you down.

These give a very nice light. They have a two lamp one too with a stand but the single ones can be mounted by a hook etc.

timmmay

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#2636769 17-Jan-2021 11:01

A single light will create dark shadows, a string of multiple smaller lights would probably work better. Similar concept to photographic lighting, which I did for many years. If you got those large lights you might need 3 or 4 of them for light quantity and direction.

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