Solar panel for christmas lights

[thomas0916]

Hi everyone, homeowner in southern Ca

I'm new to this forum and wanted to thank everyone for the replies.

I've been doing some research and wanted to hook up basic christmas lights on a DIY solar panel.

I have about 5 sets of LED lights. 120v with 6.8 watts

am i able to connect that with a 100 Watt Mono Solar Panels, One 30Amp Charge Controller, a 12v DC deep cycle battery and a 1000w/1200w 12v to 110v Inverter Power Supply?

I've tried doing research online to see if the math adds up, but since its all new to me.. it just gets confusing.

Plus, do i have any power left over if i decide to add a few more new christmas lights? or do i need to purchase more panels or batteries?

Please help me impress my wife with this project =) Im new to all of this stuff so any feed backs and guidances will be greatly appreciated.

[Sunking]

Well yes if you only intend to use them 1 or 2 hours a night. You would be well ahead just using commercial power and not worry about how long they run.

[thomas0916]

Well yes if you only intend to use them 1 or 2 hours a night. You would be well ahead just using commercial power and not worry about how long they run.

Im not to sure what commercial power is... is that my regular house outlets i have? if i do decide to do solar, how do i get them to run for at least 4-5 hrs?

another question, can you explain how my 120v lights convert so it works with the 110 v inverter?

[russ]

Im not to sure what commercial power is... is that my regular house outlets i have? if i do decide to do solar, how do i get them to run for at least 4-5 hrs?

Yes - your plug in. Christmas lights are a worst case - operating during short days and lousy weather required additional batteries and panels - an expensive solution.

[thomas0916]

Yes - your plug in. Christmas lights are a worst case - operating during short days and lousy weather required additional batteries and panels - an expensive solution.

i see. thank you for your response.. i wasn't to sure if it was cost worthy, i know my first year it wouldn't be. But i was thinking for the future

[Mike90250]

If you have not bought anything yet, just buy some LED holiday lights. Much less power, last forever.

In the USA, power is generally considered "grid" if it's between 110V and 125V. I've seen all sorts of numbers in-between, and they all work OK.

If you were going to run lights off an inverter, chose an inverter that will be 70-80% fully loaded, that's where they mostly have their peak efficiency. Running a 1,000w inverter for 200W of lights, may be burning 50w of power just to power the huge inverter.

[SunEagle]

Hi everyone, homeowner in southern Ca

I'm new to this forum and wanted to thank everyone for the replies.

I've been doing some research and wanted to hook up basic christmas lights on a DIY solar panel.

I have about 5 sets of LED lights. 120v with 6.8 watts

am i able to connect that with a 100 Watt Mono Solar Panels, One 30Amp Charge Controller, a 12v DC deep cycle battery and a 1000w/1200w 12v to 110v Inverter Power Supply?

I've tried doing research online to see if the math adds up, but since its all new to me.. it just gets confusing.

Plus, do i have any power left over if i decide to add a few more new christmas lights? or do i need to purchase more panels or batteries?

Please help me impress my wife with this project =) Im new to all of this stuff so any feed backs and guidances will be greatly appreciated.

I understand wanting to impress the wife but it may blow up in your face when you look at the costs.

For those 5 sets of lights at 6.8 watts ea you are looking at about 35 watts.
Run them for say 6 hours a night. That comes to 210 watt hours.
So lets say your electric costs about $0.25/kWh.
Then it would cost you about $0.053 per night to run them.

To run them from a solar pv battery system, I would guess you would need about 200 watts of panel, a 12volt 100Ah Deep cycle battery, a 200 watt inverter and a 15amp charge controller. At best that adds up to $400 to $500.

So to save that 5 cents a day you are willing to spend $450?

[thomas0916]

If you have not bought anything yet, just buy some LED holiday lights. Much less power, last forever.

In the USA, power is generally considered "grid" if it's between 110V and 125V. I've seen all sorts of numbers in-between, and they all work OK.

If you were going to run lights off an inverter, chose an inverter that will be 70-80% fully loaded, that's where they mostly have their peak efficiency. Running a 1,000w inverter for 200W of lights, may be burning 50w of power just to power the huge inverter.

thank you for explaining that to me.

I've seen people posting "off-grid" so that means anything out of the range of 110v-125v, correct? if thats true, is anything off-grid more expensive per kw through the local electricty company?

[russ]

thank you for explaining that to me.

I've seen people posting "off-grid" so that means anything out of the range of 110v-125v, correct? if thats true, is anything off-grid more expensive per kw through the local electricty company?

Guaranteed it will cost more than the local POCO - unless you are on a diesel generator in the middle of nowhere - even then it probably will.

[Sunking]

is anything off-grid more expensive per kw through the local electricty company?

At least 10 times more than what you can buy power for. But that is only if you use it everyday and utilize everything that is possible. Used like you want to use it hundreds of times more. You are talking about 2 or 3 cents per day to operate through the 30 day holiday season or about $1 worth of electricity for the holidays. To take that off grid you are looking at $400 to $500 for a one time yearly thing. The battery needs replace every couple of years and the battery will cost you some $200. Save that $400 and $500 for holiday gifts and food. Just hold 1 dollar back to pay the mean ole POCO.

[thomas0916]

At least 10 times more than what you can buy power for. But that is only if you use it everyday and utilize everything that is possible. Used like you want to use it hundreds of times more. You are talking about 2 or 3 cents per day to operate through the 30 day holiday season or about $1 worth of electricity for the holidays. To take that off grid you are looking at $400 to $500 for a one time yearly thing. The battery needs replace every couple of years and the battery will cost you some $200. Save that $400 and $500 for holiday gifts and food. Just hold 1 dollar back to pay the mean ole POCO.

Thanks for everyones replies. everything you guys have mention has made sense and thank you for giving me knowledge in this field. I'll just go with the standard house hook ups for the christmas lights. BUt how cool would've been if i had solor panel christmas lights, talk of the block. thanks everyone.

[Sunking]

Thanks for everyones replies. everything you guys have mention has made sense and thank you for giving me knowledge in this field. I'll just go with the standard house hook ups for the christmas lights. BUt how cool would've been if i had solor panel christmas lights, talk of the block. thanks everyone.

Leave that for those who have more money than they know what to do with or dumber than a rock. In the mean time you know better and can live a lot richer for it. . .