Outdoor lighting project help

[BrighTor]

Hi All,

I am not sure if this is the correct subforum for my question. I've been around here for a little while, but haven't really branched out into 'playing' with LEDs. I've swapped a Cree into an old Luxeon flashlight and built an ROP, but that's about the extent of my experience.

A year and a half or so back, I bought 20 1-watt luxeon domes to fool around with. Other than showing one to my class and using it for teaching about open and closed circuits, I haven't done anything with them.

Now, I'd like to use them as under-eaves lighting to attach (under the eaves of my house) and have them shining down at the ground. The landscape lighting isn't all that great for more than just showing where the driveway and edges of the house are. It's kind of dark in my neighborhood and I like the idea of a little extra light in the early to middle evening.

Here's what I'd like to do: wire the luxeons into a 12 volt car or boat-style battery, and hook the battery up to a solar battery maintainer. I have no idea if that would work though, or what would be involved. I don't think I can hook a 1-watt luxeon directly to a 12 volt battery...it just seems like a bad idea. (Have I mentioned I have almost no electrical know-how?) I'd put the lights on a timer and have them come on at dusk and stay on for about 4 - 6 hours. My thinking is that the luxeons aren't going to draw a huge amount of energy from the battery, and 12+ hours of Florida sunshine a day would top it back off.

Am I way off base here? Can you guys offer suggestions? I have moderate soldering skills, read well, and feel like I'm a pretty good learner...does someone have the time/patience to deal with me? Can you suggest a resource for me to check out to learn more about what I'm trying to do? If it's just totally out of the realm of practicality then I'll just look for something else to use them for.

Thanks for any help at all,
Rob

 

[LukeA]

I would just run them from a Xitanium or a MicroDriver from 110VAC.

Then there's a lower initial investment, and the amount of energy used by the LEDs is so little that you don't really have to worry about the cost of running them on the grid. The amount of energy used is small enough that I bet it'll be cheaper to run the AC driver for a large number of hours than to buy a deep-cycle battery and a 12V timer and solar cell.

 

[BrighTor]

Thank you, I'll look into that. Is there a shop that carries those sorts of components? I can always google it and see what turns up, I guess.

 

[LukeA]

LEDsupply.com

 

[SafetyBob]

Rob, go lurk in the Beyond Flashlights, Fixed light forum. You will find a wealth of ideas, suggestions and projects that we have already done.

Now for your idea. Perfect. All you need is some small parts to make it a reality. Depending on how many LEDs you want to light, lets say 12, you could use 2 PowerPucks (one for each 6 led string) and hook that up to your battery or you might be able to do 12 leds using one BuckPuck.

Just look at the application notes that are present on the ledsupply web site.

Control. I would recommend you use a 120volt timer of some sort to turn the lights on and off with. I believe at home depot you can find for 30 bucks or so a regular wall switch sized timer that you can program in your location so that it comes on exactly when it should for your location. Coworker got one and loves it for his outside lighting. Then just use a simple 120VAC coil relay to turn you lights on an off with. Simple.

I believe you should just be able to get away with connecting your solar charger to the battery and thats it. Make sure that your solar battery maintainer can adjust itself if the battery is charged and it's still sunny. A good quality one should......make sure and ask!!

Make sure and give us some pictures when you are done......

Bob E.

 

[BrighTor]

Thanks Bob! I hadn't noticed that subforum. Well, I probably had but didn't realize what it was talking about.

Thanks for the suggestions as well! Because of my inexperience, AC makes me a bit more nervous than DC which is why I was wanting to try a big battery.