My Solar Powered Coop

[finnfur]

I purchased this motion detector 10w DC lamp. It is on it's way.



I think I might try this alarm and wire it into the back of the light so when the motion sensor kicks the light on, it will also kick on the alarm. It might be simple. It is also 12v DC. It's sold as a car alarm.



The motion sensor lamp was only $12 and the alarm is $9

Should be an easy wiring connection.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Take Care,

Tim

Good research - your a Tim the tool man guy

 

[samnjoeysgrama]

Fantastic! I will be using some of these ideas. My chicken house is far enough from the main elec. supply that it requires 100 ft of extension cord to run out there. It gets covered with snow and makes me nervous. This is much better and nobody will get shocked with the 12 volt. One suggestion that I didn't see (maybe I skipped it) was if you are going to lengthen the girls' day with lights, set the lights to come on earlier in the morning, not stay on later at night.
The problem with setting them to come on at dusk and turn off at midnight or so, is that your chickens won't know it is time to find a perch for the night and the sudden darkness will leave them stranded and blind on the floor of the coop. It won't kill them, but it is stressful. More stress = fewer eggs. So if you use supplemental light, let the girls go to bed at dusk and have the light come on early in the morning. You may be annoyed by the earlier crowing, but that's life with chickens. Of course, you can just leave it on all night and the girls won't mind.
The oil pan heater is a super idea. Now I need a way to keep my horses spring/tank thawed on those really cold days.
I also recommend the red blinking anti-predator light to keep predators away. Not sure why it works, but it does. They sell the light by itself, but I realized my unused solar fence charger has a built in red blinking light. I put it over the door to the coop where the chickens can't get to the connectors and I have not lost a single bird to night predators.

 

[Marvel]

I have wanted to convert my coop to solar for a long time. This answers many questions I have been having. I see the wisdom in using DC and I didn't know that lights and those pan heaters were an option in DC. Very ingenious. Thanks for the step by step info.

 

[knjinnm]

Tim,
Did you consider using 12Volt LED bulbs?

 

[rootes]

I am using 12v, 5w LED bulbs with an E27 base. They look like incandescents, but are much more efficient and can run off the solar panel and battery storage.

My exterior floods are 12v 10w LED lights too. They work great!

It's all been a learning process.

It's been fun too!

Take Care,

Tim

 

[ChickenTV]

Tim,

My concern with the car alarm is that in addition to scaring away a predator, it is gonna scare the pudding out of the chickens, too. If red blinky lights work like someone else suggested, I'd try that first.

I really appreciate all your efforts & thorough posts of the costs & components. We plan to build a new coop in the next year and hoped to have it solar powered. We currently use the 3 & 5 gallon waterers with nipples for our girls. We took the bottom red pan off & put 4 nipples in the bottom of each one, drilled a 1 inch hole in the top to make refilling easier, then added 2 bucket hooks so we could attached it to a chain to suspend from the rafters.]

We use heat tape wrapped with some kind of insulated shiny stuff. I think it is for water heaters. While it works, the girls have pecked the shiny stuff almost completely off so we'll need to find another way to cover the heat tape. The heat tape is plugged into something that turns on when the temp drops to 35 degrees & goes off at 45 degrees.
I'm wondering if, with the size of waterers we use, would we have to use more than one of the heaters for each one?

 

[jsiloran]

where did you buy the solar panel.. I can only find them for 495.00

 

[jimlfergus]

I like your idea. Where did you order all your 12v material from?

 

[RonP]

Any long term data to report?

How are the batteries holding out?

 

[Brother Rooster]

I'm also in Ohio, Coshocton county. I have just had my biggest electric bill ever, November didn't help. I was going to run power to the coop in the spring, instead of a cord. I have 67 chickens now but will only be keeping 8 for layers, that will reduce the brooder electric. I love the solar idea, thanks!