Solar panel to run lightbulb

[eggboy]

I want the light mainly for heat but I also do need some source of light, so LED lights don't work for me.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I did miss the part about heat. To produce heat from solar can be very expensive.

Your 100 watt bulb running from a 13.8 volt deep cycle battery will draw 7.25 amps. To run that bulb for 12 hours would require 87 amp/hour battery capacity. Deep cycling a car battery will ruin it very quickly. A good deep cycle 100 amp/hour battery will run you $200. A 200 watt solar panel to charge it will set you back $500 plus another $100 for a small charge controller.

That kind of capacity only gets your light bulb lit after each sunny day. Without any extra storage capacity no sun means no heat that night.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

It would be cheaper to just run power to your coop

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Solar electric is pretty inefficient for heating. Why not use solar heat?

Here is a video about a solar heater made from blackened soda cans connected together under glass. To retain heat overnight you will need to heat some mass during the day.

 

[eggboy]

Chicken.Lytle


Solar electric is pretty inefficient for heating. Why not use solar heat?

Here is a video about a solar heater made from blackened soda cans connected together under glass. To retain heat overnight you will need to heat some mass during the day.

I'll look into that.​

 

[jason_boivin]

Here is a deal I found. Like the ad says just add a battery and inverter and you can run what ever. Lights or heater.
http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-90599.html

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
It's all about the capacity of the system. You can't magically produce energy out of thin air. You have to calculate the energy that your project requires and then choose a system that can generate at least that amount of energy from the sunlight.

The best you are going to get charging a battery with that setup is a 2.5 amp charging current. Let's say you are able to charge your battery for eight hours. 8 * 2.5 = 20 amp-hours into the battery. In using that same energy, his 100 watt lamp would draw 7.25 amps, so we can calculate 20 amp-hours / 7.25 amps = 2.75 hours. His lamp would last 2.75 hours after an eight hour charge from that system.

To last 12 hours, he would need more than four times the capacity of that system, which brings us back to the 200 watt panel and the correctly sized battery that I described earlier.

 

[jason_boivin]

I was only showing the deal for the panel. I was thinking a small light to burn for a short time as the girls go to bed. But my application would be to run a pop door to a non electrictrified coop..

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
That would work then. I wouldn't bother with the inverter though and would use 12 volt devices run right off of the battery.

 

[drewwilliam]

Solar panels can be both homemade and professionally installed. They are quickly establishing to replace traditional forms of electricity.