Christmas decorations

[shaun127]

Bet that post title pissed alot of people off.

I need to source some heavy duty outdoor Xmas tree lights for the Village green. They need to be very long cables with lots of large lcd lights or similar on and will remain on the trees on the green throughout the year once put up in place. No leccy Power to Green so was thinking solar powered but not the cheap crap things you see on ebay so looking for something substantial where the lights can remain up throughout the year. attaches to a solar panel which can be removed after the festive season and lights auto come on and go off at dusk and dawn. Any ideas, help, or advice.

 

[kegnkiwi]

Only problem with solar at christmas is we only get around 8 hours of daylight a day. Gets light around 8am and dark around 4.30pm. I had some white solar christmas led lights not doing anything so I've put them in a holy tree and round the end of the garden boarder and they are working well in summer. When I had them out at christmas time they where not very good. Another option is a biggish solar panel and a couple of car batteries and an invertor or 12dc lights to give you more power, but they might just go missing.

 

[shaun127]

Green south facing so will take full advantage of sunlight. very low crime rate area so hopefully they wouldn't go missing but you can never tell. We'd like the lights to stay up all year in the trees (to save hassle of putting them up and taking them down. But any power to them removed and stored safely till next year. Has to be something, its just finding it within budget

 

[kegnkiwi]

Make a little box up, 2 x 12v batteries ideally leisure or car batteries, ask local car garages if they are throwing any away. Solar panel 12v buy from maplins the biggest wattage you can afford and if you can get an invertor = free power. I have 2 x leisure batteries taken from some plant equipment, a very small 12v solar panel and I bought a 2000w modified signwave invertor for £25.00. If my power goes down I can plug in what I want. You could then choose whatever lights you wanted. Just a thought. I used a similar set up when living abroad and when the power failed and it did often I just left the christmas led lights up in my open vaulted roof and when power went I just plugged them in. Used to plug in the modem as well for wifi. Makes a big change when where on the laptop and neighbours are running about with candles.

 

[Mick]

Slightly off topic, But I have a UPS for my router, so at least when there is a power cut we have internet...

But saying that its also nice to actually talk to each other from time to time

But yes do it extra low voltage, I would be concerned if you did it 230v.

Solar is the way to go with a battery backup as mentioned by @kegnkiwi , however be prepared to be disappointed if you do it too cheap. and also in the winter we do not get much light at all...

you also need to calculate the loads then you can work out the amount of solar you need to be producing, I would suggest getting a good idea of the lights you have and what power they will consume. then you can calculate the hours vs the power, and choose the correct inverter and amount of panels, and the amount of batteries you will need.

this is not a house you want to light up a green, this needs calculating!

EDIT:

Dont forget Volt Drop, you will be using 12v then you will need to size the cables correctly.
They can be huge if you start going to far...
if you can get away with 48v lights that would be better, and then 24v after that and lastly 12v.



Mick

 

[kegnkiwi]

Solar power does not have to be difficult attached is a photo of my simple set up. A 4w solar panel 2 x 12v traction batteries and 2000w inventer and it running an oil fired radiator at. 1000w. I have had a 2000w fan heater working but I just use it as a back up.