LED Lighting setup for Barn and Stables

rigpea

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 22, 2018
Messages
1
Hi all!
Apologies if this topic has been covered before, I had a search around but was unable to find anything!

Anyway, I am lucky enough to soon be renting a small yard with my friend, which consists of 4 stables and a barn. Whilst it has water, it does not have electricity, so I am looking in to ways to light the stables and barn, and possibly a bit outside.
My Dad has been kind enough to offer his 12v 22ah Yuasa UPS Battery (I've probably butchered that!) as a power source, and has suggested 12v LEDs would suit my needs, and directed me here to ask the experts! :twothumbs

Whilst I'm perfectly handy with the power tools and the actual putting stuff up part, I'm looking for some help finding out exactly what components I would required, and exactly what LED bulbs/strips/etc would be able to light up the barn (approx 18ft long x 15ft wide, and proportionately tall), and I'm assuming if it's capable of lighting the barn, it'll easily light the smaller, shorter stables? :thinking:

So I guess what I'm asking is as follows:

What would I need to run LED lighting off of a battery?
What LEDs would be capable of lighting up a large area well?

All explained in as simple terms as possible, as it's been a few years since I last did circuitry/electrics in Highschool :laughing:
 

archimedes

Flashaholic
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
15,780
Location
CONUS, top left
Hello and welcome to CPF

I think you will get more interest and advice from the Fixed Lighting subforum ... so I have moved this thread there for you

Please be aware that this subforum does typically see less traffic, and thus responses may take a bit longer in general

Your patience is appreciated, but the occasional bump (no more than daily please) is ok, if you get no responses for some time

Cheers !
 

frank70

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
69
How bright a light do you think you need in each building and how long each night will you need the light? Assuming you could make do with 1000 lumens in each building (about the amount of light emitted by an old-fashioned 75-Watt incandescent bulb), and assuming you find a LED lighting solution that can deliver 100 lumens/Watt, each building will use 10 Watts of power (50 Watts for all 5) meaning your battery (264 Watt-hours) will be able to run that setup for about 5 hours (2 nights at 2-1/2 hours per night) before it needs to be re-charged. 1000 lumens directed downward should be adequate to see (but still fairly dim) in spaces that large. If you need more brightness (e.g. 1600 or 2000 lumens), figure your battery will go dead proportionately sooner. Also, you can switch on the lights only in the building(s) you will use on any given night, and turn off each switch when you leave to conserve power. Good luck with your project.
 

frank70

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
69
Looks like a nice enough bulb (~100lm/W, and I like the 3000K), but the OP is looking for a 12V battery powered solution. Perhaps a better bet would be a small gasoline generator and 5 of these (125W would be a really small generator).
 
Last edited:

Ken_McE

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Messages
1,687
What would I need to run LED lighting off of a battery?

frank70 has done a nice job of laying out how much power you have available, roughly what it can do, and how you might divide it up. I can address the basic physical setup:

I suggest that you put up a shelf just inside whatever door you use to enter the barn. When you walk in you put the freshly recharged battery on the shelf and fasten the wiring to it with a pair of alligator clips. LEDs are of course polarized and won't run if the current is backwards, so your clips would be marked red and black to tell you which terminal they connect to.

The clips would connect a heavier gauge wire that runs past all the rooms where you will have loads. This wire is always live when the battery is connected. There would be a master fuse right there by the shelf in case there were ever a short. You would size it to be a little stronger than the maximum load that is possible if you run every light all at the same time.

At each room you would branch off with a pair of wires that run first to a switch and then to your load. The individual branches might be a smaller wire that is sized to the maximum possible load for that room, or you could just use the heavier wire all around for simplicity's sake.

I customarily put the switch on the positive side, but you don't have to. I do it out of habit and it helps me keep track if I come back to change it later after I have forgotten the details. You could have a smaller fuse somewhere near the switch, sized for just that branches load, and it may just blow that branch, not all the lights, if there should be a short.

You should keep all your wires up by the ceiling as much as possible, to protect them from people walking by carrying things. You should also mount them where the livestock can't reach them, because when animals get bored they like to chew on things. A horse can destroy an hours worth of work in sixty second, and not even be breathing hard afterwards.

If you can find some metal boxes, you might put each place where two wires connect into a box. This is not strictly necessary with low voltage, but will protect the joints when someone decides to use your overhead wire for a clothes line, and will reassure the owner when they stop by to see what's going on in their building. Running the various wires carefully and neatly will also keep the landlord happier. A staple gun and some cable staples ought to do.

Regarding all the various fuses? 12 volts can make a fair amount of heat if you just run it through a wire - it would be essentially a home made resistance heater. You don't really want to test how much heat it could make in somebodies else's wooden building that is filled with straw.
 
Last edited:
Top