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Hazelton, Kansas | Daren,
Why not just buy a few 12 volt LED vehicle lights? And power them with a 12 volt solar trickle charger and a vehicle battery?
It’s not for light, but I have such a system rigged up in my chemical shed to run chemtote pumps. I have an ~$80 solar panel trickle charger (I think 20 watt) on the roof, feeding a group 31 truck truck battery. It powers 3 different tote pumps. I pump from 30 to 90 gallons total of chemical into my nurse trailer tanks in about 10 minutes, while I fill the trailer with water. Admittedly, the days are longer during spray season than calving season, but I’ve never run short of battery capacity for the pumps.
Lets run a few numbers. A fully-charged Group 31 is supposed to be good for about 100 amp-hours. A pair of 18-watt Nilights sells for less than $15. They should pull less than 2 amps each. So, IN THEORY, a single battery should power four of the 18-watt lights through the night. The lights are rated at 1200 lumens each. Recommendations for farm shops are from 50-100 lumens per square foot. But I wouldn’t think you would need (or even want) that much light for calving. If 20 lumens per square foot is enough, the 4 lights should be good for about 250 square feet of calving area. And 20 lumens per square foot may be overkill for a calving area. Dunno.
Your mileage may vary.
MDS
Edit: looks like Larry types faster than I do, but the general idea is the same.
Edited by crowbar 1/21/2025 08:43
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Solar Power set up for lights
