solar energy to light a coop?

[mikecnorthwest]

I use a solar panel on the side of my coop to power three LED lights. Two of the lights are inside the house and the other is outside near the door. You can see the panel in the pics on my BYC page.

 

[jeb251]

neet coop mike

 

[Usingmyrights]

Hi, I'm new here, but do have a few years of experience in the electrical field, so hopefully my advice will help. While good in therory, it really wouldn't be cost effective to run heat lamps using solar power. They draw a lot of power and you would need a more expensive solar system to run it. Plus in the winter the sun isn't as strong so you'd need an even better system since it won't be able to run at peak performance. Now running a small 40watt, or less, is possible on an inexpensive solar system it may not meet your heating needs. You're right about the CFLs not really producing any heat and its the same for LEDs. Hope this helped. If you really wanted to get power out there for heat (and personally, from what little I do know about chickens, I think that over heating or shock would be a concern since a small coop would heat up rather quickly) its pretty easy to run power from an outside recepticle as long as it isn't too far from the power source.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Thanks for your expertise. You're right, there is a difference between lighting a coop for light and using a light as a heat source. Solar relatively easily handles the former, but not the latter (although we have an amazing pizza place here in town that is completely solar powered--they have a LOT of panels). I have a small string of white LED christmas lights powered by a little solar panel. The lights are not very bright and last only a few hours, but it gives about as much as a full moon in the coop for the first couple hours and that is enough to count the birds when I close them up.