solar lighting

[josh1e]

I had an idea & wanted some feedback. let me know what ya think?

We have a really dark hallway / staircase. A couple of times i've not bothered to put the light on & forgotten the bottom step & gone a** over t*t on the hard tiled floor at the bottom...

concerned my kids might do the same or my good looks won't hold out , i thought of putting in led lighting on the staircase. I would like to have them solar so i'm not paying an electric bill for them or worrying about batteries every couple of weeks.

the staircase is on an exterior wall, could i buy something like the packs of 60 solar led fairy lights, mount the panel on the wall outside & then run the cable through some small conduit? the led's could maybe be hot glue gunned to the conduit so they shine out the side or bottom?

i didn't want to drill into the staircase & i'm not sure about any electrical regs as they wouldn't be connected to the mains at any point...

i've seen existing staircase lighting & it's really really expensive & i've not seen any solar powered....

here's some as an idea...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WHITE-60-LED-...14&_trkparms=72:1686|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318


constructive critiscm welcome

 

[il78]

The principle is there though may look a bit ugly from outside, LED lighting wouldn't cost much to run anyway.....

Be interesting to see when your done...

 

[breezer]

Nice idea, but there is not enough / long enough sunshine to charge the batteries enough for the lights to work for over an hour

look at a solar garden light, "lasts up to 8 hours" note the words up to. I have tried various ones just for the fun of it, longest is about 1 1/2 hours

below is a review of similar lights to what you want

"These were purchased for an outdoor Christmas tree. Does the company not realise what few hours of sunlight we have during those very short days of December? I thought they had found a solution to that problem and that is why they were selling them in UK. For the approximate 3/4 to 1 hour of lighting time they were beautifully bright but then my poor tree was in total darkness! Perhaps they are only meant for sale in the soutern hemisphere."

Truth is not enough sun in the UK or solar panles not good enough, your choice.

 

[josh1e]

Hi Breezer,

thanks for the info. i too saw the review.

I've got some led solar lights in the garden already. tesco's pack of 4 for £1.99 in a sale they last brilliantly & give at least 6hours light...

with more bulbs that maybe why thre reviewer said they didnt last long. there is also a need to charge the panel / built in battey for 24hours before using it, which people forget to do, in there haste to plug em in & see them running... might just have been user error?

for a tenner, i might try it anway, if it's just a case of making it charge a motorbike battery for example, i might be able to work something out... maplins do quite cheap 12v low wattage panels & i have a spare 12v bike battery kicking around... maybe i could use it in conjunction with the existing panel / battery?

 

[AndyPRK]

PIR sensor which triggers half way down the stairs ?

 

[breezer]

josh1e, motor bike battery will probably require a lot of current to charge it up, something which most solar panels can not do. You would also need a voltage regulator. But that aside it would work for say a week, but when the bike battery gets too flat..................

by all means try it, it will be interesting

 

[sm1thson]

I like DIY projects like this. but before you go any further calculate how much it will cost you to power the lights directly off the mains without the solar.

(also another problem with solar leds lights is the way the batteries are charged they dont like it and their capacity reduces rapidly with time so the batteries still need replacing every year or less)

 

[Steve]

PIR sensor which triggers half way down the stairs ?

This is a good solution. I'd go with something similar myself. PIRs top and bottom, controlling both upstairs and downstairs lights. Delay set at maybe 30 seconds to a minute. Do away with normal switches, just have an override keyswitch.