Lighting options for shed with no electrical.

[JoeBuyer]

what type of roof on it? i have a shed with steel roof and put clear pannels on the roof in 2 spots (shed is 12x30) lets tons of light in. if not steel, i have used a generator to power stuff in a shed with no electricity. loud, but works. could put the generator outside too. the steel roof panels would be the way i would go i think. don't know the set up of your shed, but probably wouldn't take too much to convert it to a steel roof with clear pannels.

I suspect this is a typo, but in the event that it is not, a generator should always be outside to prevent CO poisoning.

 

[Ron JD670]

I have a shed in the back part of my property (about 1,000) feet or more from my house. There is no electrical on that part of my property. The shed is old (but sound) about 12 X 40. No windows and two doors. This is not a typical machine shed, it was build about two feet off the ground with a wood floor. Not sure of the reason for this, but that is what they did.

Looking for options to get light into it, as even in daytime it is fairly dark in there. I know adding windows would add light but looking for other options if there are any. I thought about 12v lights with a deep cycle battery, but not sure how often I would have to charge the battery.

Any thoughts?

I heard about a start up here in S. Oregon called NeoPower a solar power system for lighting using high intensity LEDs. Not sure were they are in development.

Good luck.
RoN

 

[schweizer]

This is a no-brainer for me, but then again, I live off the grid so using batteries and solar panels has become almost second nature. That $799 Costco product is way overkill and expensive for what you want. The Harbor Freight lights are toys. Look at the reviews on that shed light from HF -- terrible. I'd go with maybe a 15-30 watt panel and a small dedicated charge controller. You'll need a small inline fuse rated for the higher than the amperage of your loads. Get a deep cycle battery (i.e. RV or marine battery from Walmart). If you use a small enough solar panel compared to battery you wouldn't even need the charge controller, but the charge controllers for this application aren't expensive. Then just go down to an RV service center and get a 12 volt RV light fixture. Done. If you don't want to deal with finding a solar panel and charge controller yourself, Costco has a kit in a suitcase that unfolds for $279 (?). (I just bought it a few days ago for camping purposes and already can't remember the price.)

Marcus

P.S. Ron JD670, we live only a few miles apart -- I'm in the Applegate.

 

[toppop52]

This may not be right in your climate, but these work very well! After seeing these on line I did a 10 x 20 shed with 8 of them and in the daytime it's almost as light in the building as out and on all but very cloudy nights gives you at least walking around light.
http://ecopreneurist.com/2011/09/14/an-innovative-and-cheap-solar-light-bulb-lights-homes-in-manila/

 

[brokenknee]

This is a no-brainer for me, but then again, I live off the grid so using batteries and solar panels has become almost second nature. That $799 Costco product is way overkill and expensive for what you want. The Harbor Freight lights are toys. Look at the reviews on that shed light from HF -- terrible. I'd go with maybe a 15-30 watt panel and a small dedicated charge controller. You'll need a small inline fuse rated for the higher than the amperage of your loads. Get a deep cycle battery (i.e. RV or marine battery from Walmart). If you use a small enough solar panel compared to battery you wouldn't even need the charge controller, but the charge controllers for this application aren't expensive. Then just go down to an RV service center and get a 12 volt RV light fixture. Done. If you don't want to deal with finding a solar panel and charge controller yourself, Costco has a kit in a suitcase that unfolds for $279 (?). (I just bought it a few days ago for camping purposes and already can't remember the price.)

Marcus

P.S. Ron JD670, we live only a few miles apart -- I'm in the Applegate.

Could not find the kit at Costco online, they had a 100 amp one for 189.99 with no controller. Costco - Grape Solar 100W Solar Panel I searched for a solar controller and the price was all over the place, from $25 to over $700. what would I look for in a controller? I would like to keep this project under $400 as I do not use the shed a lot, just for storage.

 

[brokenknee]

i live where we get rain and snow load. the shed has been there for 6 years and no trouble at all with leaks and holds up to snow load. i forget the pitch, it is steep enough to shed snow when conditions permit, but snow will lay on it as much as a foot thick. mine are plastic pannels made of something special to be real strong. the set up looks like it would never leak. ridge vent over lap on top and runs whole length to soffit/facia/eves. the ticket is if you already have a steel roof, to get the right stlye pannels to line up with your existing tin ribs. very important. my panels are as clear as a window and im am very happy i have them in. they look exactly like the steel roofing, but just clear. screws run through them fine too.

This is something I would consider if building new. Just sounds like to much work / for benifit to retrofit. They do let in lots of light.

heres one way to go
Costco - Coleman 260 Watt Solar Kit

260 watts with inverter. Then you can use regular 100 watt incadescent lights and standard wiring. Problem is its only daytime use. You can add some batteries inline if you can figure how to do it. Personally id run a 110 circuit to the building..but then again im an electrician and i run that stuff for a living ... hehe

$799 is a bit more than I really wanted to spend, but thanks for the link.

I suspect this is a typo, but in the event that it is not, a generator should always be outside to prevent CO poisoning.

I would be pretty sure it is a typo. After all he is still here to post.

This may not be right in your climate, but these work very well! After seeing these on line I did a 10 x 20 shed with 8 of them and in the daytime it's almost as light in the building as out and on all but very cloudy nights gives you at least walking around light.
An Innovative and Cheap 全olar Bottle Bulb Solution Lights Homes in Manila

Would not work in my climate, although an interesting idea, kinda like the solar tupes they sell.

I've used Led strips (basically surface mount LED's on a flexible base) in my cargo van - great illumination vs. power draw. Can't remember the brand - Wally World had them as a multi-pack on sale, so I thought I'd give 'em a try. I went with white LEDs, they were originally marketed to the "bling" crowd, so they do come in other colours too.

1156 conversion LED bulbs are coming down in price, if you go with sockets for these, you can always put in yellow ones for bug season.

If you aren't using the lights that much, you won't need a huge solar panel - start with something like a 15watt panel and you can add panels if needed. My memory is not good enough to reliably remember to manually charge a battery in an out of the way place like your shed.

LEDs will take care of "#*!;?%#@ it, just tripped over something again", and have good output vs. power drawn. If you have an occasional need for high output task lighting in the shed, I'd wire in additional 120vac lights and run a generator as needed.

If you want to try the battery+inverter+120VAC light route, be aware that some (many?) CFL bulbs don't play well (ie. die) when running off an inverter. If I get back to experimenting with this combo myself, next up I'll try dimmable CFLs, as I suspect they'll deal with/survive the switching activity of the inverter better than standard CFLs.

Rgds, D.

Thanks for pointing out the CFL problem, had not thought of that.

 

[meburdick]

Why not look at some combination of things you've already thought about...

A 12v battery and LED lights would certainly give you a lot of light for a low power draw. By and large, you'd be able to "flip the switch" and have what you need.

If you additionally connect a very small Honda generator to that battery with a deep cycle charger, you'd have an easy way to counter the situation where your battery is dead / dies during use. The Honda generators are extremely quiet, and you could use the absolute smallest one to power a deep cycle charger. Additionally, you could wire a 110v light system to use while the generator is on and charging the battery.

Look around on Craigslist for a used one as they do tend to be a little more expensive than the competition, but, again, they are extremely quiet.

 

[schweizer]

Here are the components I just bought for a project -- solar-powered pond fountain and power for laptop computer and lights while tent camping:

50 watt Solar panel -- $128 (price just went up again to $158, I bought it on sale)
Amazon.com: HQRP 50W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel 50 Watt 12 Volt in Anodized Aluminum Frame 10 Years Limited Power Warranty: Patio, Lawn & Garden

Charge controller -- $30
Amazon.com: HQRP 10A Solar Panel Power Battery Charge Controller / Regulator 12V / 24V 10 Amp 150W with PWM Type of Charging plus HQRP UV Chain / UV Radiation Health Tester: Patio, Lawn & Garden

Some connectors -- $10
Amazon.com: HQRP Pair MC4 Solar Panel Connector male & female (M&F) for PV / Photovoltaic System plus HQRP Coaster: Patio, Lawn & Garden

You could use a smaller panel since you only using the electricity occasionally and just for lighting. The price per watt is higher with small panels. Forget about 120 V AC if it's just for lights, unless you really need *bright* lights. You could get a high lumen 12 volt RV fixture for a decent cost. The inverter for AC power wastes some power, and inevitably you forget to turn it off. The small inverters (i.e. car cigarette-lighter type) don't turn off automatically when no load. You can always keep a little inverter out there for when you want to plug something in. Don't forget the inline fuse on the battery output (less than $10 for fuse holder and 5 Amp automotive fuse). I can't see this project taking more than around $300-350.

Marcus

P.S. Oh, I forgot to mention, since our whole house is off-grid we only use CFL and LED bulbs. I've never had any problems with flickering CFLs when running off the inverter, but it is true that the quality of inverters and bulb varies. The little inverters are just square wave output, not sine wave. The large inverters (we use 2 x 3600 watt Outback true sine wave inverters) have much higher power quality than the power co.

 

[schweizer]

Here's the kit they had at Costo:

Portable Solar Systems | Zamp Solar

I can't find it on the Costco website either but it was in their stores a few days ago.

 

[meburdick]

This thread has me thinking about maybe incorporating some of this into my new shed (even though I will have 110 there). I'm wondering whether or not I could install a solar panel that I could run my battery tenders off of to keep the batteries in the sleds and the tractor fresh at all time. And/or, maybe even have some sort of "light" heating system for the shed in the winter to take the edge off. It would be nice to be able to put away the tractor after snowblowing and have everything easily melt off.