Solar powered LED lights for chicken coop?

[title town chickens]

I just finished my first coop and would like to light the coop to keep the chickens laying in the winter. I am considering using a solar powered LED light. How many lumens do I need for a 3' X 4' coop? Will an LED provide the proper wavelength?

 

[elkfriend]

Hello Folks,

I think I figured it out, it works awesome and does not break the bank. Here is how you do it:

1) Find a 12v battery, deep cycle (like an old RV battery or a boat battery)
2) Get a cheap 12 v inverter, these are the ones that plug into your cigarette lighter in the car, they put 120v out. I found one for 8$
3) Get a light fixture for regular bulbs 2$
4) Get a 120v LED bulb. I use a 2w LED ceiling fan bulb, it was 12$ and puts out the equivalent of 40w
5) Get a cheap timer 4$
6) Get a solar panel, can be a small one anywhere from 20$-100$

Setup:
Solar panel charges car battery.
car battery feeds 12v to inverter.
timer sits on inverter plug and controls the early morning light.
inverter feeds 120v to Light bulb.

It has been very reliable for me and because the bulb only consumes 2w and is only on from 4 am - 9 am or so, the power consumption is very small and the solar panel can easily replenish the power.

The most expensive piece is the battery and the solar panel. but for the whole installation you can get away with well under 100$.

GOOD LUCK!


Note:
My set up works so well, that I hooked up a second battery and will start feeding a small heat lamp in the winter time to keep the water from freezing. Mind you, I got a pretty large solar panel (150w). But for light only, you can get away with a 10w panel.

 

[ange92040]

we only use light at night because I read they shouldn't be in total darkness at night and we use about three lawn solar lights, we took of the spikes and hang them they work great and plenty of light to check on them and we have one that likes to prowl the run at night so she can find the door and find her way out and do her prowling.

 

[liz4green]

We are looking for a solar-powered (or solar charged) light with a timer to use in the chicken coop to enhance laying in the winter months, but don't have $300+ to spend. Has anyone found something cheaper that's not lighted all night like simple solar yard lights? We are just trying to reach the recommended 14 hours a day, hence the request for a timer. Thanks!

 

[elkfriend]

Hey, a charge controller is good to have, especially if your panel is larger or if your climate is sunny - it prevents the battery from overcharging and also indicates low battery status. There are a ton of websites about this topic.

For just the light with low wattage and a small panel, I started without a charge controller, it worked just fine. (but now I have one, because I upgraded the panel to 150w and expanded my setup to now include a battery bank to also run a heat lamp and christmas lights).

The car inverter will have the cigarette lighter male end, which screws open and you can jam a wire in the tip. THE TIP OF THE CIGARETTE PLUG IS THE POSITIVE END + and connects to the positive battery lead.

The sidewalls are negative (ground) and connect to the minus pole of your battery. You can just bend a wire around it and connect to the negative.

Recommendation: try and really isolate those wires, using electrical tape, soldering or what have you, since a short circuit between battery poles can heat up quickly and let the sparks fly.

In my initial setup, I did not have any fuses and monitored it very closely. Since then (in my involved version), I have added some resettable fuses in all the positive lines, for safety reasons.


Note: theoretically, another (simpler) way to make this whole thing work, without the inverter, is to just get 12v LED lights (or LED car lighting chain), however I could not find 12v timers anywhere (to me the timer was important, to control the light), which is why I went the 120v route (with the benefit that I now have extra power outlets for other things).


Another question was where I have all the stuff. Initially, I took a big rubbermaid box and put it all in there, with lid on top, just a few wires coming out. Since then, this has evolved too and its now in my garage, with the added benefit that the batteries are not out in the cold (decreases battery efficiency).

good luck!

If you are interested in the solar topic, I highly recommend some googling.

I really like jeffrey yagos solar 101 series, it starts here http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago87.html

 

[notahobbyfarm]

haha! That's so funny! We have those bright orange extension cords running from our house all the way up the hill to the barns and from the barns to the chicken coop for power Once the grass starts growing we never see the cords except for right at the buildings, the trouble is remebering where they are so you don't cut them on accident with the mower!

 

[UtePassChickens]

okay plugged in solar lights just about a month ago and we got our first frozen winter egg yesterday!....so back to the daily routine of egg collecting I do hope!. I ended up having to place the solar panel between 2 large pine trees, in order to block the sun light most of the day, so lights would only stay on for about 4hrs before flickering out!

 

[UtePassChickens]

well been happy with my solar lights, all my chickens are back to laying! Now the lack of having a timer for the solar lights, I had to attach the solar panel in between two trees, so it only collects the solar energy for a couple hours in the morning. They kick on as soon as it gets dark outside and run out of power by 830pm.

 

[Rob Tof]

I bought three sets of solar lights at harbor freight 12.96$ per. Not super bright but enough light to extend there light to keep them laying. Birds stop laying in winter because the days shorten if your lights go on and stay on a few hours your golden. I also bought a solar panel from harbor freight and hooked it to battery's to a inverter for my fan. My coop is green

 

[CelticArche]

I have my kids old powerwheels battery in my coop (4x4x4) with 3 individual white led's inside and 3 flashing reds outside. Paid maybe $5 for the lights on ebay, and have a cheap solar panel hooked up to it. I don't know if it's bright enough to promote laying, mine are still little, but it does provide some break from the darkness. The flashing red led's on the outside can be seen from pretty far and still scare me half the time.

What are the red lights for?