Picture frame solar lighting.

[Hans]

Hi all,

I am making interactive wall sculptures that feature various gold,silver and base metal figurines .

Some of my sculptures have a frame that is built with 32mm x 32mm hollow square tubing.

What I want to build, is a frame that has photovoltaic cells built into the frame itself and then have a battery or capacitor that gets charged during the day and when the light fades led's come on.

I would place the led's inside the frame so that they light the sculptures at various strategic places.

I imagine I would need no more than 10 to 15 led's .

Ideally, I would like to have the led's burn all night and then charge during the day.

The problem that I think I will encounter is that there would not be a massive amount of light in any given room where these sculptures would be hung, so I would rather have to many cells rather than just enough to do the charging.

To give an idea what these wall sculptures look like I have a description here
( the page is not finished yet, so apologies for the slight looseness.)

Typically, I work on a project about 3 months, so I am looking for a very robust system that will last more than five years of operation, preferably longer.

An body got some pointers or circuit diagrams or component suppliers?

I live in Germany, but importing things from the USA is not a problem for me.

Many thanks for reading.

Hans Meevis

Mod note - you can put your link in your profile - not in posts

[Sunking]

Hans physics will make your art ugly and likely impossible. It will take considerable amount of area for a solar panel. Most like much larger than the sculptures and they cannot tolerate any shade from sunrise to sunset. They must have full sun exposure. If not then you need even larger panels. Assuming the LED's are 1 watt and you use 10 of them for 12 hours consumes 120 watt hours, it will take a solar panel about 1 square meter in size. Want 15 LED's add another 1/2 square meter.

[Hans]

Picture frame solar lighting

Hans physics will make your art ugly and likely impossible. It will take considerable amount of area for a solar panel. Most like much larger than the sculptures and they cannot tolerate any shade from sunrise to sunset. They must have full sun exposure. If not then you need even larger panels. Assuming the LED's are 1 watt and you use 10 of them for 12 hours consumes 120 watt hours, it will take a solar panel about 1 square meter in size. Want 15 LED's add another 1/2 square meter.

Low-current: typically rated for 2 mA at around 2 V (approximately 4 mW consumption).

Wikipedia says the above, so I figured maybe I can use the frame which has three sides exposed to "ambient light" enough surface area to slow charge a battery/ cap to power say minimum 4 max say ten led's

The frame is 38mm wide on three sides and anything from 500mm to 700mm long and I could cover it with thin voltaic cells.

I'm thinking maybe the average room lighting would power some leds, like say if it was facing a window.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

How about you go buy a couple of landscape lights and place them in your "ambient light" room about the same location the art work would hang. I think you'll find out that after a couple of weeks the lights will only work for an hour or so each day. Within a year they'll be down too just minites as the battery gets destroyed from under charging.

WWW

[russ]

I'm thinking maybe the average room lighting would power some leds, like say if it was facing a window.

Nope - That will get you next to nothing - no LEDs for sure

[inetdog]

Nope - That will get you next to nothing - no LEDs for sure

Hans would be better off using light pipes or fiber optics to collect room light and channel it to the art work.
There might actually be some value in that in terms of controlling the angle at which the light highlights the work without requiring use of directed lighting in the room.
Could be worth some experimenting.

[Sunking]

Hans any solar panel will require full sun light to operate. Room lights do not work. Like I said Physics will bite your but.

[Hans]

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time

[Sunking]

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time

Did you read the fiber optic idea?

[Wy_White_Wolf]

Hans would be better off using light pipes or fiber optics to collect room light and channel it to the art work.
There might actually be some value in that in terms of controlling the angle at which the light highlights the work without requiring use of directed lighting in the room.
Could be worth some experimenting.

I think he wants the art work to operate as a night light for the room. Fibre would have no battery to operate after the room goes dark.

WWW

[inetdog]

I think he wants the art work to operate as a night light for the room. Fibre would have no battery to operate after the room goes dark.

WWW

And he is not going to get that.