OP
hwp
Platinum Member
I am the driveway plow person so I should know that the bollards are there. I intend to use 3 inch schedule 40 steel pipe for the bollards so if something does hit them, they will take quite a jolt without inflicting any damage. Also the bollards will be eight feet long, four feet below grade set in two feet of concrete and four feet above grade so they will be quite visible even when there is a lot of snow on the ground.
Wattage isn't really a problem other than for the motion detectors. RAB make a post mounted motion detector suitable for use on bollards but they are only rated at 500 watts each. I plan to have 20 bollards with a 40 watt bulb in each fixture, which gives load of 800 watts if I have them all activated from the same switches. To get around this I could split the system into two or more zones, but that wasn't my plan. The wiring plan gets more complex with mutiple zones. A two zone system would require at least two more wires for half the run and therefore a larger conduit. However the incremental cost would be quite minimal.
The reason for considering solar units is that there is no need to dig trenches,run hard wires or pay for electricity. If the solar units for Solar Illumintaitons do the job they claim, then all I would have to do is dig the requisite number of post holes, set the posts in concrete and put the bollards on top of the posts. Job done! The lights will come on at dusk and stay on until dawn every night with no cost for electricity. I calculate that a 120 volt hard wired system would cost an average of about $1.00 per night to operate! Solar Illuminations say their units can go from 7 to 11 days with no sunlight whatsoever and that the batteries will completely recharge with one day's sunlight. They say the units are good for 100,000 hours or about 25 years. The solar units are expensive, but the installed costs is not much different than hard wired fixtures - maybe even a little cheaper.
So, I would like to know if anyone has had an experience with these units before commiting a lot of money to uncertain technology.
Wattage isn't really a problem other than for the motion detectors. RAB make a post mounted motion detector suitable for use on bollards but they are only rated at 500 watts each. I plan to have 20 bollards with a 40 watt bulb in each fixture, which gives load of 800 watts if I have them all activated from the same switches. To get around this I could split the system into two or more zones, but that wasn't my plan. The wiring plan gets more complex with mutiple zones. A two zone system would require at least two more wires for half the run and therefore a larger conduit. However the incremental cost would be quite minimal.
The reason for considering solar units is that there is no need to dig trenches,run hard wires or pay for electricity. If the solar units for Solar Illumintaitons do the job they claim, then all I would have to do is dig the requisite number of post holes, set the posts in concrete and put the bollards on top of the posts. Job done! The lights will come on at dusk and stay on until dawn every night with no cost for electricity. I calculate that a 120 volt hard wired system would cost an average of about $1.00 per night to operate! Solar Illuminations say their units can go from 7 to 11 days with no sunlight whatsoever and that the batteries will completely recharge with one day's sunlight. They say the units are good for 100,000 hours or about 25 years. The solar units are expensive, but the installed costs is not much different than hard wired fixtures - maybe even a little cheaper.
So, I would like to know if anyone has had an experience with these units before commiting a lot of money to uncertain technology.
