Solar light system for remote barn

I am looking for practical, experienced advice about a 12volt solar boost lighting system for a remote
stock barn. The lights will be used only for feeding and checking on animals, usually about 20 minutes per night
and only in the winter.

I will be buying all the components new. I plan a south facing solar panel of 20 to 30 w, a deep cycle marine battery
and 3 LED flood lights 25W each. Wire distance about 30 feet.

Will this simple the system work? Any thoughts on what kind of LED flood lights work best in a barn? Do I need a charge controller? Is there a big difference in solar panels? Are the Monocrystalline panels rugged and reliable? Please share your experiences. Thanks

I would wire the lights up with a switch. We have one with a 5w panel and small gel cell battery. It has a real good light but the motion sensor turns it on and off. It is on a lot but never when we need it.

(quoted from post at 12:37:25 11/15/15) I am looking for practical, experienced advice about a 12volt solar boost lighting system for a remote
stock barn. The lights will be used only for feeding and checking on animals, usually about 20 minutes per night
and only in the winter.

I will be buying all the components new. I plan a south facing solar panel of 20 to 30 w, a deep cycle marine battery
and 3 LED flood lights 25W each. Wire distance about 30 feet.

Will this simple the system work? Any thoughts on what kind of LED flood lights work best in a barn? Do I need a charge controller? Is there a big difference in solar panels? Are the Monocrystalline panels rugged and reliable? Please share your experiences. Thanks

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I helped a friend install a similar system in a cabin in the Canadian arctic.

Yes, you need a charge controller. This prevents the solar cell from overcharging the battery.

There are nice complete kits on Amazon for just what you need. Include panel, charge controller, and all wire.

I would highly recommend doing what my friend did and buying 12 volt LED "standard base" light bulbs. These are 12 volt LED bulbs that have the same base as 120 volt bulbs in your home.

The advantage is that you can then use standard electrical components for inside the barn like light fixtures, wire, switches, etc. You don't need to run special 12 volt fixtures.

Grouse

Put a solar system in 5-7 years ago, no power to shed. Works great, go a little larger than you think you need, use a inverter to change from 12 to 110 to eliminate long run loss, can use it for lots of things then. Use larger battery that only costs 10 % more and you can charge cordless drills, use corded drills and saws (smaller ones) and lites. Zinniman

I have a small building at the pond I use for storage. It has one 12 volt, 10 watt CFL for lighting, run from a 12 volt car battery. The battery is charged by one 7 watt solar panel mounted on the south facing wall of the building. I do not use a charge controller since the panel is very low power. The light is only used when I am back there late - to feed the fish or whatever. I installed the system 5 + years ago and it has worked ever since - the battery was a used one I had laying around.

For larger panels (20 to 30 watts) I would recommend a charge controller. I will be installing a 15 watt panel on another out building and will be using the charge controller which came with the panel.

I use amorphous type solar panels since they are advertised as better in lower light (cloudy) conditions. There are other types which should also work fine.

Operating the three lights at 20 minutes per day would consume 23 watt/hrs from the battery. A 20 watt panel would require a little over one hour of good sun light each day to recharge the battery. If you go two days without sun it would require two hours of good sun light for a recharge. You don't want the battery to spend time in a discharged state. I don't know the sun conditions for your area so I won't recommend a panel size.

The three 23 watt LEDs should produce the light output (lumens) of 6, 60 watt incandescent bulbs. LEDs come in warm and cool, light appearance; the "warm" looks yellow to me while the "cool" is a white brighter light that I prefer. I also check the efficiency (light output in lumens to the power used) before buying a LED.

I have a larger solar system in my shop to run the lights.

For outside work lights around the barn, I used some bright 27 watt wide angle tractor work lights. Got them from Amazon for around $20 a piece. These would work nice for a smaller solar system. Just use a flange screw to mount them and wire them up.

I bought a 10W panel and a small charge controller for an electric fencer on the hog pen. Worked well all summer. Plenty of power to run the fencer. Total cost was around $100 for both panel and controller.

I used a small tractor battery, can be bought new for around $35 if you watch the sales. Work fine.

I can share item numbers if interested.

John

Harbor freight has various sized/power/priced solar lights.

I put one down at the hunting cabin. Has it's own solar panel, comes on automatically, and it has a low/high power light.

The light comes on at dark on the lower setting. When you walk close to it, it kicks up to high power for a bit.

It was $20 for the whole set up.

Now, I would want something more substantial and dependable if I was wanting it for the barn, where I wanted to know it would work 100% of the time.

I set another one up about half way down the 1/4 mile lane going back to the cabin.

Thought it might discourage trespassers if they saw the light.

Gene

Son just picked up at Lowes a solar powered LED motion light for his daughter's horse shed. There is a 10 foot cord between the panel and light. He installed it later yeaserday and Last night was the maiden voyage for it so It probably wasn't much good this morning. Time will tell.