Cutting lighting costs with leds and a single solar panel.

[SpaceOddacy]

Just for education sake please entertain me.

All hypothetical

Say I have a house, I have a 100watt panel and a few La car batteries from wherever. I wire the house with LEDs
*note the leds wont be on very often and not at all during the day.

The battery bank and solar panel is wired to the lighting circuitry of the house.
House "is"
2 bedroom, 8 light sockets total -4 a room
1 entertainment room - 4 light sockets
1 kitchen - 6 light sockets
1 bathroom - 1 light socket

Say I make bundles of 10LEDs for each light socket @ 1.7v a piece so it would be 17volts per bulb.

with all this being hypothetical could you effectively cut lighting costs by doing this type of a set up? ONLY using the lighting at night when needed and installing sky lights in each room?

[Mike90250]

Well, yes, but very costly to add solar & batteries and string new wire.

Changing 100W bulbs for 35W CFL's is more effective.

[SpaceOddacy]

Really just using 1 solar panel and used batteries 'think junkyard special'
I mean I know it wouldn't power all the lights all night long but that's not what I'm aiming for with this idea. Even so you think that just changing over to CLF's would be a more efficient thing?

[Mike90250]

Really just using 1 solar panel and used batteries 'think junkyard special'
I mean I know it wouldn't power all the lights all night long but that's not what I'm aiming for with this idea. Even so you think that just changing over to CLF's would be a more efficient thing?

Well, free is less than $3

[SpaceOddacy]

Well, free is less than $3

I'm confused.

[john p]

17v is a strange voltage as it too high for 12v . so you would need to run 24v and use dropping resistors..why not just buy 12c replacement LED lights ?
I dont know what Mike means either well free is less than $3.. I dont think he ever does any practical experiments.
I use Cree 12v 1 w leds in MR16 holders,, they work well and only draw 1.68 w.. 6 will do a room about 14ft x 12 ft.

20 of them will only draw 2.8 amps so in 5 hrs total draw. less than 15 ahr.. no problem for 2 good car batteries. a 100 w panel will recharge them in less than one hour .get a 10a charge controller.. just a cheap simple one .. dont even think about the useless advice about losses by not using a MPPT one.

[SpaceOddacy]

17v is a strange voltage as it too high for 12v . so you would need to run 24v and use dropping resistors..why not just buy 12c replacement LED lights ?
I dont know what Mike means either well free is less than $3.. I dont think he ever does any practical experiments.
I use Cree 12v 1 w leds in MR16 holders,, they work well and only draw 1.68 w.. 6 will do a room about 14ft x 12 ft.

20 of them will only draw 2.8 amps so in 5 hrs total draw. less than 15 ahr.. no problem for 2 good car batteries. a 100 w panel will recharge them in less than one hour .get a 10a charge controller.. just a cheap simple one .. dont even think about the useless advice about losses by not using a MPPT one.

If I could have found 1.2v LED's when I started this thread I would have used that figure instead of 1.7v leds. I'm glad to find out that what I purposed wasn't a bad idea per say but would need quite a bit of foresight in building plans of a house\garage.

I love the wealth of knowledge you guys\gals have on this stuff, it really does fascinate me. I'm glad the community is active in discussion and not to much flaming occurs.

[offthegrid]

Great ideas spaceoddacy, that what this site seems to be all about.

Since being bitten by the solar bug and energy reduction, I too have been looking to LED lighting and 12v lighting options. Here are some of the things I have found.

LED's individually aren't powerful enough ... even the 10mm 20,000 mcd ones. Several together might provide enough light, but we need to condiser time invested and the cost. The round end LED lights cast a very directional light. There are other options - flat top and ones that difuse a bit more. You will also need diodes to restrict the voltage as some leds operate on 4 or 5 v.

Ebay has some good LED light options for your standard 110v sockets that draw only 1 to 3 watts total. Much less that even the cfl bulbs, but the lumens just aren't there yet. So if you are fine with dim lighting in the eves, you are golden. I have purchase several for my own testing and have found a few that I like. Most LED lights cast a blue tint, some have that warm white feel of a regular bulb.

If you are looking into 12v lighting options, and need those lumens, try the 1157 auto bulb or the equivalent single filament bulb. In my tests they seem to cast the best light but the overall draw I am not certain.

I have even gone one step farther and purchase LED drivers to convert an existing ceiling light that uses MR16 halogens (3 x 50w) to use the LED MR16 equivalent and a fraction of the energy 3x 2 watts, Im guessing a bit less light ... but I am more concerned about the energy drain.

Cheers !

[SpaceOddacy]

Personally I like indirect lighting.
If I ever strike it rich I want indirect lighting throughout the house as well as 2+ Skylights a room. As long as there is enough light to read by I'm happy .

I prefer indirect lighting because it has a more 'natural' flow to it as apposed to something being bathed in light. I like the way surroundings bounce light around naturally. (Not a tree huger but I do have some things in common with them) =-)

[stephenkain21]

Ambiance....

Well what you are saying is ambiance, isn't it? creating an atmosphere of solace and mystery.... and a touch of elegance to your home..: now who would not want that?

[johnnybrown786]

Is there any such thing free or cheap solar panel exists. I was just searching online for solar panel spy cam and found out this thread which was saying to install solar panels at cheap rates. They were talking about 100w in 1000$. Do you think company can survive by installing solar panel at these cheap rates. Mine is 1kw and they took around 8k$.

[russ]

10$ per DC watt - not attractive at all as they are far too expensive - depending on how long back you bought yours how bad you got screwed.

[Naptown]

Little systems when permitting electrical costs etc are figured in can run upwards of $8 a watt DC.
The cost per watt goes down dramatically as system size increases.