Solar powered spotlights

[petersonra]

I am treasurer of a club. We have a sign out by the street that is unlit and there is no nearby streetlight. It makes it difficult for people to find the place at night since ithe building is set back quite a distance from the road.


We want to light up the sign but don't want to pay for running electricity out to the road plus the permit nuisance makes it unattractive for us to hard wire the lights.

Several members have suggested some battery powered spot lights that would be solar charged.

Does anyone have any experience with these? Any suggestions for brands to use? Brand to avoid?

Do they last all night?

 

[jbfan74]

Re: Solar powered spotlights

I have some that light up a path in my back yard. They will not last all night and will only last as long as the sun has a chance to charge them. The best I got this summer is about 4-5 hours. Since the time change and less sun light getting about 3 hours now.

 

[petersonra]

Re: Solar powered spotlights

Mine don't work all that well either.

I am thinking the ones with seperate battery back and PV array that can be pointed at the sun might be a better choice.

They are much more expensive though.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Solar powered spotlights

I might have wondered if we were in the same "club," except I know that my "club's" treasurer is named Ray. But we have the exact same problem, including having the building set back from the road. We've had the problem for years, and no solution has yet presented itself.

We looked into having the local utility install a light close to our sign. There would have been a minimum monthly bill, and it would have been far more than the energy used by the luminaire. So that was out. We looked into running a branch circuit from the service panel to the street, and mounting a luminaire on the sign itself. But my quick calculation of the existing load told me we were already too close to the rating of the service panel. I would have loved to see a complete rewiring of the building (it's 30 years old), but that was beyond our means.

My only thought is that you probably don't need more than 4-5 hours of light on any given night. My "club" certainly would not. We rent the place out for weddings and parties, and have our own dinner events to raise money for charity. But the place is usually closed up again by 11:00 pm.

Perhaps you could live with a lower rated luminaire, which would extend the life of the battery pack. If there really is no street sign nearby, then a person would not need very much light on the sign to be able to see the sign.

 

[petersonra]

Re: Solar powered spotlights

We are open 24/7, but I suspect if the sign illumination died off around midnight it would not be that awful.

The members know where we are, but the driveway is fairly easy to drive by in the dark.

 

[mhulbert]

Re: Solar powered spotlights

What about getting reflective street signs made? I'm talking about the nice, highway style ones that will reflect most of your headlights back at you. You could put one on each side of the road, with an arrow pointing to the turnoff, and mount one an 1/8th mile before the driveway, warning the cars to slow down. A camp I do work for uses this aproach, they are in the mountains, so they got brown signs with reflective writing (think USFS style!)

It's not an electrical solution, but it requires little maintenance and it's relatively cheap!

mike