Solar Lighting

[dc3085]

I'm not trying to tell specific people what to do. I was just giving general advice WRT a small solar lighting system, as you were dc (by the way, even a 3 or 4 watt LED 12V light can provide enough light for a coop if you get a good efficient one). If you have a 40 or 45 watt panel laying around, it makes sense to use that, but if you are buying one, you really don't need that much to run lights and you can save money by buying a smaller one. Along those lines, your battery will wear out much much faster with a simple cut-off type controller. And, if you don't the right controller, your battery could overcharge to the point where it heats up/starts venting Hydrogen... the car alternator regulator could work, but I would test it very carefully.

I was in Central America for a service trip, and one of the volunteers at the local organization we were partnered with had put together a wind turbine using basically scrap wood, a car alternator, some fins from a fan, and a bleach bottle (the bleach bottle was the turbine housing), and a hinge/weight on a stick to tilt and protect the turbine from high winds. He ended up having to re-wind the alternator to get the right voltage/current characterisics for local average windspeed, but in the end he had a working turbine that generated about 40 watts that he had built almost entirely from junkpiles. Really made me drool.

No worries. I usually use the 40/45w panels for science projects because you can come by them easiest. I find them on CL a lot. I'm assuming from peoples old RV charging setups, and they stock them at orchard supply. I think the regulator will work as long as it holds up to the incoming current (might not take that high of voltage without pooping the bed). Do you know what the lowest wattage 12v LED is that still has a color temp of 5000k +/-?

 

[SunYeti]

Color temperature is pretty much independent of the size of the light. Perhaps you are thinking of lumens?

Lumens are a measure of how much visible light is produced, weighted for the sensitivity of the human eye (we see green best). Chickens/quail probably don't have quite the same sensitivity, but given that their eyes evolved to solve similar problems, it's close enough. An 'ideal source' produces 683 lumens per watt of power supplied (conversion efficiency of electricity to light at 100%). Modern LEDs produce over 100 lumens per watt (and this gets better all the time). For comparision, an incandescent bulb typically does less than 15 lumens per watt.

Color temperature, on the other hand, is a measure of color, more or less. A 'warm' (yellowish) light has a low color temperature, and a 'cool' (blueish) light has a high color temperature (counterintuitive, I know...). It's a bit of a legacy unit, from the time when most light sources emitted more-or-less like a black body (as in black body radiation). LEDs don't really do that. They tend to produce light with some pretty sharp peaks at different parts of the spectrum. If you are trying to use LEDs to stimulate certain behavior in poultry, you should check out the spectral distribution chart for the LEDs, and match it up to desired behaviors on this page: http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/poultrypages/light_menu.html

In short, red-orange light stimulates growth and laying. This corresponds to lower color temperature, but even a light with a high color temperature is likely to have enough of the right wavelengths (remember, color temperature is basically an average). Does that answer your question?

 

[dc3085]

Color temperature is pretty much independent of the size of the light. Perhaps you are thinking of lumens?

Lumens are a measure of how much visible light is produced, weighted for the sensitivity of the human eye (we see green best). Chickens/quail probably don't have quite the same sensitivity, but given that their eyes evolved to solve similar problems, it's close enough. An 'ideal source' produces 683 lumens per watt of power supplied (conversion efficiency of electricity to light at 100%). Modern LEDs produce over 100 lumens per watt (and this gets better all the time). For comparision, an incandescent bulb typically does less than 15 lumens per watt.

Color temperature, on the other hand, is a measure of color, more or less. A 'warm' (yellowish) light has a low color temperature, and a 'cool' (blueish) light has a high color temperature (counterintuitive, I know...). It's a bit of a legacy unit, from the time when most light sources emitted more-or-less like a black body (as in black body radiation). LEDs don't really do that. They tend to produce light with some pretty sharp peaks at different parts of the spectrum. If you are trying to use LEDs to stimulate certain behavior in poultry, you should check out the spectral distribution chart for the LEDs, and match it up to desired behaviors on this page: http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/poultrypages/light_menu.html

In short, red-orange light stimulates growth and laying. This corresponds to lower color temperature, but even a light with a high color temperature is likely to have enough of the right wavelengths (remember, color temperature is basically an average). Does that answer your question?

Thanks I'll check it out. Color temperature was the only measure of what constituted "full spectrum" lighting that I was able to find. Lumens I am more familiar with. Very helpful.

 

[broncomax]

I picked up a small solar panel from autozone. It works great for my needs .I only have two small led lights and a small deep cycle battery

 

[broncomax]

I got the solar panel put up..