12V DC CFL Lighting

One of the most gratifying things a horse owner can do is to install a simple 12v  lighting system into the stable block allow maintenance routines to be carried out throughout the year in complete safety. It is amazing the difference a couple of well placed low energy fluorescent lamps can make. Even a small 12v 7 Watt cold cathode compact fluorescent lamp will provide illumination similar to a regular 40 watt incandescent lamp, so as you can see, this is going to be Very useful light!

For some horse and pony owners, it can be a little disconcerting to be working perhaps a mile of more from the nearest homestead and perhaps in failing light conditions. Usually, one will of course have a reliable torch to help guide the way. However, wouldn’t it be a lot better if the areas you need to work in were brightly lit? Of course it would, but How?  Take a look at the diagram below.

As the diagram below illustrates, for installations requiring long cable runs, there may be a slight voltage drop as power reaches the final or last lamp in a chain but providing quality cabling is used and the length is not too long, there should not be any problems.

Unless using multiple cable runs, one should not exceed the recommended maximum amperage for the chosen cabling. A 7 watt CCFL lamp can be considered as using around .6 of an amp so using four will equal around 2.5 amps which will be just fine for an average application with up to around 20 meters of distributing cabling. Regular domestic 2.5mm ‘twin & earth’ from a local DIY store will be just fine. However, one may need to consider damage from rodents and of course be sure to install a simple car style blade fuse of say 5 amps (in the example here).If at all possible, it is of benefit to install a modest solar PV panel of around 40 watts or more to keep your battery in good health and to ensure power is available at all times.  Of course, if you were planning to be a little more extravagant and use more or larger lamps than in the illustration above, one would require a larger PV (photovoltaic panel) of perhaps 80 watts or more; assuming an hour or two an evening using your lighting circuit.

Many things can effect the potential to collect and store electrical current: One may need to consider their site, position, prevailing weather conditions, worst case scenarios such as poor winters (when very little power may be collected form a PV cell), etc.

Just plug your electric car in for a few cents or pence each day and start saving!

We are all unhappy about the endless cycle of spending good money every week at the Petrol or Gas station right? Actually, No we are NOT stuck Spoon feeding the big oil companies our hard earnt income every single week!

Oh yeah, just go build an electric car… You’re probably already thinking that this is out of the question right? Possibly you have never even serviced your car let alone considered converting an electric car… Well, the truth is that virtually anyone can tackle a project like this by following a thorough and truly well made guide. Yes, it’s true you would almost certainly be able to convert a regular gasoline powered car to running on electricity just by following a really well made recipe or road map. A steps made by someone who has already successfully converted regular cars into ‘EV’s’ to run on batteries.

Stop using that over priced, air polluting garbage you find yourself having to put into your car every week and think about the simplicity of just hooking up your vehicle to charge at your own home… sounds good don’t it? You really could do a conversion, even if you truly are a novice with little or no knowledge of the workings of automotive engines.

Vehicle owners who have done this are so excited about it they just want to spread the word. Why is this? The reason is because it works, simple as that! The parts and information now available to people like you and I is fantastic!
I think we all know why there is a fair amount of negativity about electric car out there, after all if we all what is nobody wanted that oil anymore!

It’s your life, your time to make a break and do something which will really make you feel very happy.

What is involved then; there must be a massive amount of parts and gizmos involved to do something like this? Not really, take a look below to see the main components. Of course there is more to it and other modifications which will be employed to complete the conversion but all is explained in the instantly downloadable program which I am recommending to you. See the main parts here:

1: An special AC Electric Motor. Your regular petrol / gasoline motor unit is removed (and usually sold on if still good) and is replaced with: A small electric motor – this replaces the complete oil laden motor train.

2: A set of high-tec batteries is installed. This provides the power source which your vehicle will power you on a daily basis.

3: A speed control. This is like an overgrown version of a domestic lighting dimmer switch and provides the vehicles speed control via your regular accelerator pedal.

4: A battery charger. Just like a standard battery charger only bigger! Plug in your homes ac supply to replenish the power you use.

You will learn not only how to do the entire conversion step by step to enable you to build a fabulous electric car of your own but also details of how to source all the parts at really low, bargain prices – this priceless information will really bring a smile to your face. There is an massive amount of money and time saving advice and recommendations to allow you to get your project off the ground and running saving you endless hours of head scratching. Without the proper information, building / making an electric car converting an electric car could be a waste you a lot of money and time nightmare so go get your no risk e-book right now and make your EV dream come true.

Not the greenest of projects by an absolute mile but you have to give this fellow 10/10 for truly amazing accomplishment - I would love to have him on my team!

I am happy to report that installing a simple little supplementary 12V wind or solar PV powered 12V DC lighting system in your home, workshop or outbuildings is a whole lot easier and with very much fewer ingredients.

Below is a short sequence of pictures which illustrates the methods used to dispatch these creatures…

P Buglass says: Since we officially opened the YAS Observatory at our “secret location”, we had plans to provide electric lighting, both white and red.  The provision of suitable lighting was made more awkward by the fact that there is no mains electricity available at our site, therefore any power we use would have to be either brought with us, or generated at the site…

Our previous observatory took the first approach and we used a 12V car battery which had to be periodically taken away to be recharged.  This was far from ideal and we never knew quite when the battery would run out leaving us in the dark, literally.

For the new observatory we decided on a different approach and settled on a design which incorporated a solar voltaic panel and a number of deep cycle 12V batteries.  The power system was installed last Summer and has been tweaked over the Winter and is now able to provide all the lighting needs of the observatory.

The set-up consists of a 43W solar panel which uses a 4 Amp charge controller to change a pair of 12V 115AHr deep cycle batteries, wired in parallel to provide 230AHr of capacity.  A more expensive mono-crystalline solar panel was selected due to its smaller size/power ratio as it had to fit inside our cabin windows. 

View of the 43w PV panel as seen from the inside

Two 12v 110Ah Lead Acid 'Gel' batteries in parallel complete the battery store

The regulator ensures a stable charge rate to the battery set

Our original plan was to mount the solar panel on the roof of our portacabin, but we were concerned about security and didn’t want to make it too visible.  Some maths was performed to look at the angle of the Sun in Winter and Summer, and we decided to mount our panel vertically in one of the cabin’s south facing windows.  The maths showed that in Winter when the Sun was low, we would actually generate more power than if the panel had been roof mounted at 18 degrees (an angle we had decided was the maximum we could use and still keep the panel invisible).  Therefore we decided to go for window mounting to maximise our Winter power, (the time of year we need it the most).  In Summer time, the Sun is much higher, and therefore the vertical panel is much less efficient, but the overall power generated due to the longer days makes up for this.

Under bright sunlight the panel can put almost 3Ahr into the battery bank, but a realistic figure is closer to 2Ahr in Winter time.  Even with a conservative estimate of only 1 hour per day of bright sunlight during the winter months, we can still expect to put over 12Ahr into the batteries during the week, which will allow us to use our lights for 6 to 8 hours at a weekend without depleting the batteries on a week by week basis.  In Spring and Autumn the figures are more like 30Ahr a week into the batteries, which is more than enough for a few nights of observing at the weekends.  In the Summer time we will have power to spare so we will be holding lots of summer BBQs and other evening activities . . . . Bingo anyone?

As with any 12V power system, protective fuses and thick cables are essential.  Power loss in a cable is proportional to the square of the current, so with a low voltage system more current is required for a given power, thus increasing the wiring losses significantly.  Power loss = I²R, where I is the current drawn, and R the resistance of the wires, so reducing wiring resistance by using thick cables reduces power loss.  We used the thickest mains cable we could lay our hands on, and it seems to work well with minimal power loss indicated by the voltage level hardly dropping under load.  Where we have a long cable run down the inside of our 40 ft steel shipping container observatory area, we have used a double run of thick twin and earth cable, with all the separate conductors, wired together giving one cable for positive and the other for negative.  This may be overkill, but we can pull quite a few Amps through this wiring arrangement with minimal voltage drop at the far end.

The power feed out of the batteries is protected by a 30A in-line fuse (car spade type for easy replacement), and this will likely be up-rated to 40A, or more, in the future as additional power hungry equipment is installed in the observatory such as a mains AC voltage inverter to power laptops, etc. 

The white lights we use are low energy, compact fluorescents, rated at 7W and 11W, and take less than 1A from our system, but they are unique in that they are designed to operate directly off a 12V DC supply, so they contain an integrated 12V inverter to power them.  They look just like other low energy light bulbs you would find in your house, and give a similar light level you would expect from your bulbs at home.  The use of ES (screw) fittings is desirable, as these are easier to ensure the correct polarity is maintained, however the bulbs can be bought in either ES or Bayonet fittings.

Low energy 12V CFL lighting

The warm room cabin has been provided with a single 11W bulb, with a switch beside the cabin door, which provides adequate light for most activities such as reading, committee meetings, etc.  A 7W bulb has been installed in a bulkhead fitting on the observing deck for setting up and clearing away purposes, again with it’s own adjacent switch.  Finally there is another 11W bulb and switch above the main door into the container, but again the use of this light will be limited to setting up and clearing away, as both this light and the observing deck light will normally be turned off during observing, when red lights will be used exclusively.

The red light in the observatory is provided by a number of small 12V festoon lights, which contain 8 red LEDS each.  One red light is located next to the container door with a master red light switch, and two more red lights illuminate the stairs up to the observing deck.  On the observing deck itself there are 2 additional red lights, but these can be switched on and off independently of the other red lights if needed, i.e. if CCD imaging was being undertaken and all lighting on the observing deck needed to be extinguished.

Now that the observatory lighting is fully operational, we are working on installing a table area for laptop PCs in the cabin, which will have a small mains power inverter, running off our 12V supply.  This will enable observers to use and recharge their laptops as needed.  We will also be able to tap off  12V feeds to the telescope pillar, and the 12” other Newtonian telescope drive system, in the latter case again utilising a small mains inverter.

If the additional power demands of the laptop station and telescope drives prove to be taking more out of the batteries than we can put back during the week, we have the option of installing a second 43W solar panel in another south facing window, thus doubling our power generation capacity.

It has been a very rewarding exercise to equip the YAS observatory with a “renewable” energy lighting and power system, and it has demonstrated that something similar could be done on a domestic scale to provide limited household lighting and power too.  Holding committee meetings in the observatory with a bright light available at the flick of a switch, without having to fire up the petrol generator, is a great convenience, and one which shouldn’t be underestimated.

The costs of the major system components were £249 for the solar panel, about £50 for each battery, and approximately £10 per 12V low energy bulb.  The wiring and other ancillary switches, etc, have come mainly from our “bits and bobs” boxes.  Thanks should go out to all those who have helped me put the power system together and get it wired up and working.

I feel it is very appropriate and fitting, for us to be utilising power derived directly from our nearest star, the Sun, to help us in our night time observations of other stars and celestial objects.  Long live “Star Power”!

P Buglass, York Astronomical Society,  April 2009. http://www.yorkastro.org.uk/

We would like to say Thank You to P Buglass for telling us about his solar PV project and hope that he continues to enjoy the benefits of the ‘Off Grid’ 12v solar PV power system. Long may your 12v cfl lamps perform! Ken. OnSolar.co.uk 

Did you know that 12v DC CFL lighting can be used as a viable light source in the Home? …or just about anywhere for that matter.

If you are keen on ‘Green Power’, it is possible (for anyone with some fairly basic D.I.Y electrical skills and knowledge) to make and install a 12 volt DC supplemental power system for CFL and ‘new breed’ CCFL (cold cathode) lighting.  A simple 12V DC lighting system can provide a trouble free lighting source for your home and / or other DC powered projects for many, many years. One of the easist ways to tap into some free energy for your 12v lighting is to install Solar Photovoltaic Cells or ‘PV’ cells. It is thought that an average PV panel will last around 20-30 years!  Your ‘PV / 12v lighting system’ can grow and be expanded and added to as and when your funds and / or time allow.

12V DC 3W, 7W CCFL lamps

There are a variety of reasons why a typical residential property owner may want to install a ’small scale’ PV or Wind powered home electrical system… Common reasons are normally a desire to reduce ones electrical bills or to have a back-up system to cover ones home in the event the regular power supply fails.  Other reasons may include a desire to help reduce one’s greenhouse gas emissions and or the impact of energy use on the environment.  Of course, there are many users who install a small scale 12v DC Solar PV system for a remote location such as with farming for use in barns or outbuildings.  New ‘low energy’ 12v CFL and CC CFL (cold cathode) compact fluorescent lamps can provide very powerful lighting for all manner of projects.  This factor is making the viability of small scale PV installations more attractive. Where once, regular 12v automotive (incandescent) lamps would have had to be used (either consuming too much power or giving poor light), new high-tec compact fluorescent and cold cathode lamps can now give the same or better lighting results and economy as equivalent low energy 240v ac cousins.

Use the Sun's Free power to charge your 12v tools and equipment

One can use their solar generated power supply to charge all manner of 12v equipment. Take a look at some of the regular items we use in the image (right). You can also see the 30A BP charge regulator (which is showing a charge rate of 4.2 amps on an average (UK) October afternoon. List includes: 4 mobile phones, 2 powerful professional HID torches (one 10W and one 25W), a quality electric razor, a set of long range 2 way radio’s, charging for 7.5v NiCad packs (radio controlled cars, etc), and charging for a Sony PSP! This one thing will save good money each and every year! No energy wasting  ’Wall Warts’ in use here.

Large outdoor lighting unit with three 12v 3W CCFL compact fluorescent lamps

I can report that even a simple 12v DC system powered either by a small wind turbine or PV panels can provide a very real and useful power source for the home, workshop or virtually any area that requires ‘no strings attached’ power.

We know this because we have used and are still very much using a simple 250W PV system based on 3 BP 85w panels. This brilliant little system has been running without fault or failure for around 4 years and can meet most of our requirement almost year round. Not bad for a rather gloomy (at times) UK.  Circuits in common use include various outdoor security lights (running dusk till dawn, see image of large outdoor triple lamp unit), covering 4 main areas of illumination.  Low wattage CFL 12v fluorescent lamps as well as single chip LED lamps are used. The entire premises are wired using radial circuits, individually protected via suitably rated ‘CB’s. Each circuit terminates with a three pin (round pin) modern switched socket.

Dedicated 'Round Pin' socket for DC use

Power at each location is supplied using regular ‘ring main’ twin and earth cabling 2.5mm. Loading not to exceed 8 amps in each case.  These circuits can be used for virtually anything from lighting such as ’standard lamps’, side lamps and table lamps, LCD TV systems, amplification / music systems, for powering / charging a selection of sundry items such as mobile telephone’s, toys, power tools, torches / searchlights, shavers, etc, etc.

5 X 400ah hour Lead Acid Battery sets make a 2000 amp hour power store. Each 12v set consists of six 2v cells.

The system voltage is 12v and is able to distribute power over cable runs exceeding 50ft without appreciable losses using 2.5mm (twin & earth) cable as outlined above. Outdoor cables are of course ‘armour grade’ waterproof / weather proof and the whole system is earthed with it’s own copper ground rod (including the roof mounted PV panels).

During the dullest, darkest months of the year, (Nov to Feb) a 30amp battery charger is used every couple of weeks to supplement the potential shortfall from the PV system. The amount of hours this is employed depends on loadings and available sunlight during this period.