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What type of outdoor solar powered flood light should I get to illuminate my business sign? It has to be visable from approx 500m away, as I’m located in a business park and the nearside road is about 500m away. So Im wondering what power I need from the lights? Also how many would I need for a sign thats 16ft x 4ft.
Thanks in advance,
Aslam
The leaves are all off the trees. My neighbors lights work and don’t get as much sun as mine.
u may have a different kind. trying sitting one out in the sun. and when night comes you will know if having more sun works or it just does not work at all.
I’m curious how old the lights are, or if they used to work or not in their current location. This information would have been helpful.
Solar lights operate by recharging Ni Cad batteries that are inside the unit. The Batteries are usually size AA. The batteries don’t last forever and need to be replaced every year or so.
I would replace the batteries to see if this corrects the problem.
Good Luck!
Batteries or corrosion is usually the two main reasons. Study the lamp to disassemble it without destroying any seals if any and look injside for a white substance on any wire connections and clean it off with a wire brush or scraper followed with a light spray of WD40. Add new batteries and reassemble and they should work again.
I suspect your batteries are bad, or else the connection with the lights themselves are fouled up. Check your batteries, and the internal wiring, and change whatever needs to be changed.
check your batteries, i just replaced 14 solar light batteries. when you put in new batteries, flip the light over and you should have a bright light glowing showing your new batteries are good and properly in place…
batteries or bulbs…
Hello, I’m looking into solar lighting around the house for various fun projects. I actually know next to nothing (sadly) about energy and electricity. How many square footage of solar paneling directed at the sun for how long would power 200 watts and 120 volts (in one light bulb, in this case), for 1 hour? Also, what information can you give me on energy storage methods in relation to solar paneling?
http://www.realgoods.com is a company who has been selling and promoting solar power since the 70′s. They have loads of information there. I know the actually buy the panels, you may find the cheapest place is eBay. There are also many other solar companies online, and sites with lots of information that are a Google search away. You don’t say where you are, but there may be local businesses where you live who specialize in helping folks go solar.
How big your panels need to be depends on how powerful they are, and what materials they’re made from. In recent years there has been a lot of advance in solar technology, and panels are made from a number of materials and in different ways now. The more powerful the panel, generally speaking, the more expensive they are.
If you currently get utility power to your house, a very good system is called a ‘Grid Tye” system where your solar panels collect energy during the day, any excess goes back into the grid (and turns your electric meter backwards) and then at night you get energy from the grid. You do not need to deal with the expense and upkeep of a battery bank then.
If you want to run your house off a battery bank, you’ll either need to loose energy from the batteries converting the power up to the 120-240V that’s standard for household current (and what all your appliances are built for) or invest in 12 or 24 Volt appliances, depending on what kinds of batteries you have.
If you have a 200W light bulb, unless it’s to guide planes in for a landing at night, you should look into compact fluorescent or LED light bulbs. Especially if you’re using solar for energy, toss out the ‘old’ incandescent light bulbs and invest in much lower wattage (for the same amount of light) compact fluorescent or LED lights.
Write the folks at Realgoods with specific questions.
The short answer is not much. But here’s a brief tutorial on solar.
The amount of energy gathered is dependent on a number of factors:
- The capability of the solar panels (there are several technologies for solar power collection and even within categories different products yield different results.
- The amount of sunlight directed at the panels (trees, buildings, length of days and even cloud cover influence the amount of sunlight available)
- The precise positioning of the panels and whether the panel’s position is fixed or dynamic (there is always an optimum direction and elevation for the panels and that varies where you are on the globe, time of day, and season). For example, the further north you are in the northern hemisphere, the more the panels have to angle to the south. Now add seasons and time of day, and you see how direction toward the sun is very dynamic.
- Where, how, and in some cases when the energy is stored. Local laws vary. But most of the time your solar energy is pumped back into the power company’s grid. You essentially earn a credit allowing you to pull power out of the grid later. In most places you can at most zero out your electric bill, you’ll never get a check from the power company no matter how much power you produce. The credit you get may also vary by the time of day, or day of the week when you are pumping power back into the grid. In some cases, mostly when someone is off the grid, you’ll have a system that stores the power locally for later use. Hydrogen power cells, or converting the energy to hot water are two ways this solar energy is stored.
There’s a lot more that can be said, but you get the picture I’m sure.
Here are the quick rules of thumb for Solar sunbelt states like California.
1kW per square meter ~ Insolation (Power density in Sunlight)
15% ~ Typical Solar cell effeciency (What the Solar Cell can extract)
5 peak hours per day. (The effective daily duration of that power)
75% ~ Typical battery efficency (How much you can save in a battery)
What this means is during optium sun on a cloudless day (11am to 1pm) the total power in sunlight is about a kW/m^2.
The typical Solar Panel will convet %15 of this to electricity, i.e. ~150 Watts.
And if you integrate the solar output for a whole day it’s about the same as having 5 ‘peak’ hours.
So 1 square meter would produce. 1 kW x %15 x 5 hours = 0.75 kWhrs/day.
And you will lose about %25 of that if you save it in a battery.
200 watts for 1 hour would be 0.2 Kwh.
/ 0.75 = 266 wh needed.
266/750 = 0.354 m^2 or ~ 4 square feet.
please visit my store http://www.szsolarpower.com
maybe you could see the resolution for your question.
any questions, please contact me at sales@szsolarpower.com
It’s not worth it. Have fun replacing them after a ice storm or something 
I have a chicken house. I need a 100 watt lamp indoor for light and I would very much like it to have a battery to store power. And as long as I am putting down my wish list, I would also like to have an outlet to plug another light or something else into. Any thoughts?
Infrared light may work. It’ll cook your chickens smoking hot.Ifrared is basically light and heat combined to make heatlight geddit…..no..Oh well.
Maybe you can explain it better…do you mean that you want to run a 100 watt bulb and some other things powered by solar energy? And are you asking how you would go about accomplishing this?
There are lots of solar shed lights out there, just google it. But being able to plug something else into it would require a complete system design.
I want to use the top of a solar garden light as a moon light in my 55 gallon aquarium.will i have to keep replacing the batteries in it or will it make energy from the lights in my home?
solar energy and florescent bulbs are different, yes. so you won’t be able to do it that way.
because solar light is way more powerful than household light and because the solar panel itself in the fixture is so fantastically inefficient at converting the light into energy, you probably won’t able to use it to keep the light going for long.
you can try to tinker with it by taking the fixture apart and run long wires so only the panel can be taken all the way outside and use it to power the Rechargeable battery until it is needed at night for your night light.
There are solar or light cells that absorb energy from inside lights like we see in calculators or watches that run on light. There are many more small appliances that also use inside light, but they do not generate much electricity .
Yes, but not nearly as much. Your plan may be quite satisfactory, since you probably want the light for only a few hours rather than all night. A good solution is to move the lamp into the sunlight every morning and return it to your aquarium when you want the moonlight effect. You’ll probably need to cover up the solar cell at that time. It will probably detect enough ambient light so it doesn’t power up the LED, but not enough to charge the battery.
I have been reading on the Internet that it is possible to replace AA batteries with an ultra-capacitor. Is there a how-to article on this? Do I just wire and solder one 2.7v ultra-capacitor in place of the batteries?
Connect it the same polarity as the battery.
Just match the polarity and make sure that the peak voltage from your solar cell doesn’t exceed the voltage rating of the cap. I suspect that 2.7 won’t be enough unless you shunt it with a voltage clamp such as a suitably sized zener diode.
I don’t see the point of it though. AA batteries will store far more energy in a given amount of space and deliver it at a relatively constant voltage until nearly exhausted. Lots cheaper too.
The formula for energy stored in watt seconds in a capacitor is 1/2*C*V^2
A 10 farad capacitor charged to 2.7 volts will hold a whopping 19.7 wattseconds of energy.
A pair of AA NiMH cells might easily have a capacity of 2000 maH at 2.4 volts or 4.8 watthours or 17,200 wattseconds.
Don
I wanted to get those little solar lights to light up my driveway but I read something about them needing solar batteries. Do you know about how much solar batteries for those lights cost?
can twinkletoes answer this for me.. If the sun charges the batteries then what are the solar battery chargers for?
according to the brand and storage. There’s a quite range of costs!
I work for my father who sells high quality and unique solar lights so I feel I can provide you with an informative answer to your question . Yes all solar lights need batteries. These are usually standard Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries, AA size. Cost of these batteries can vary depending where you buy them but they are usually around $14.00 Cdn per package. You will find that some places are selling rechargable batteries that say solar on them, there is no difference between those that say solar and the rechargables just be sure that you are purchasing Ni-Cad rechargable batteries or the rechargable batterries required for your lights.
The purpose of the batteries in solar lighting is this, as the solar panel on the light collects the sun’s rays, it needs somewhere to store this power. This power is stored in the rechargable batteries. The solar panel keeps the batteries charged and at night the light is then powered by the batteries that have stored the sun’s power. You should find that the rechargable batteries should last 1 or more years. We have lights that are still using the orginial rechargable batteries now for 4 years and they are still going strong.
Also note that solar lights will not give you the same light source as hydro. Solar lights are more for accent lighting and dectorative purposes. If you experience a cloudy day or two you will notice that the lights will not be as bright and may not last as long. This is because the lights will use all the power stored in the rechargable batteries and will drain the batteries until it is able to get a full charge again from the sun on a sunny day. Also note that most solar lights need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight to receive a full charge, if you place them in an area that is mostly shady then they will not work as effectively.
I hope this gives you the information you needed. Good Luck and enjoy your solar lights.
There are all kinds of batteries for solar cells. The gel ones hold the charge the longest. Some rigs even have power outlets for plugging in appliances.
Solar power is much more efficient & cheap these days. Definately worth a look.
What would be the materials needed and where would I buy them?
You will need a solar pannel, battery and LED lights. More exspensive than ready made one’s. But could be better.
Our HOA By-Laws state that no “industrial lighting” can be installed on walkways.
Do solar lights along the walkway fall under this category?
Please say yes! 
“Industrial” lighting is lighting in non decorative, functional fixtures. Generally these use florescent, sodium vapor, or metal halide lamps.
It is difficult to say if solar lights fall into the category. If HOA is Home Owners Association, then the definition is probably very arbitrary. It would probably come down to the way the lights are packaged and sold. If they are sold for residential use, then you will have a difficult case. (Sorry)
Industrial lighting is the sort that you might see in large warehouses, or sports field floodlighting.These are generally high powered units (500W or so).
Solar lights along a walk way are unlikely to be industrial lighting
Please tell me any equation by which i can calculate solar intensity just by knowing temperature ? (i.e if it exists lol)
No relationship between solar light and solar heat. Both are part of spectrum having different wavelengths.
Hi Amy; light intensity is measured in W/m^2.
If you have a metal panel 1m^2 mounted so that it is perpendicular to the direction of the suns rays and with a temperature measuring device – eg a thermometric IC – on the back, and another measuring ambient nshade temperature. The panels temperature will depend on the irradiance, the absorption coefficient of the panel, and heat loss from the panel.
Make the absorption cofficient high by spraying the panel with a thin layer of matt black paint.
Mount the panel in a box so that heat loss is minimised, and in particular it is shielded from wind / draughts which would change the way heat is lost. Now heat loss is dependent on temperature difference betwen inside and outside.
Finally mount a reistor on the back of the panel so that by passing current through the resistor you can add energy (watts) to the panel.
This will allow you to plot a calibration graph for the apparatus.
You might be able to build an instrument operating on that principle.
I envision a small, flat, black plate in a vacuum, aimed at the sun. There would be a temperature sensor behind the plate to record the temperature.
A second, identical temperature sensor would be nearby, but shaded from the sun. With the second sensor, you could compensate for differences in absolute temperature (i.e., is the air hot or cold?). In space, the second sensor would not be needed.
However, a smaller, cheaper, more accurate instrument could be built just using a cheap solar cell. The crazy idea above would make an interesting science fair project.
It is related, but temperature is not used for high quality measurements, because the temperature is not only a function of solar heating, but also the amount of insulation and ambient temperature.
I recommend using a solar panel and a volt meter. You can calibrate it by measuring the voltage on a very sunny clear day, with the panel perpendicular to the suns rays. Then divide 1000w/m^2 by that voltage; this is your slope coefficent.
Now to measure solar intensity on a cloudy day for instance, simply measure the voltage on your panel and multiply it by the slope coefficent and you will have your irradiation value.
Hope that helps!
nixonci2000 5:10 am on September 13, 2011 Permalink |
Motion sensor floodlight are best, i have bought some from K-Mart for about $60.00 I hope this helps.
Solar motion-activated security light with 14 super-bright LEDs. Easy installation, no electrician needed. Light automatically turns on when motion detected. Can be used for sheds, steps, porches or anywhere light is needed. Includes solar panel and mounti…Solar motion-activated security light with 14 super-bright LEDs. Easy installation, no electrician needed. Light automatically turns on when motion detected. Can be used for sheds, steps, porches or anywhere light is needed. Includes solar panel and mounting hardwaremore