Looking for advice on outdoor lighting setup using batteries/generator.

Energize · 24 Oct 2012 at 01:05

I need to setup some lighting for a stable block in the middle of a field, obviously there is no electricity supply here so I need to use a portable power supply.

Can anyone recommend lights/power supplies for this job? Ideally I would like the inside of the stable lit, and outdoor lighting too to cover the area outside the stable. Also power sockets to power radios and other small portable devices would be desirable.

I can't decide whether a generator, UPS or car battery with an inverter and step-up transformer etc. would be best for convenience.

Any advice from experienced people would be appreciated.

bitslice · 24 Oct 2012 at 01:22

Energize · 24 Oct 2012 at 01:26

Why would lighting require a 500W.h battery? A light bulb lights the stable adequately and uses 11W of power. Even my mobile phone lights it well.

bitslice · 24 Oct 2012 at 02:04

nelviss · 24 Oct 2012 at 02:56

the palce the gf used to use had around 6 200-250 halogens lighting the two yards and a 11-18w tube in each stable (battery powered as you could use them with out the gennie on) that was enuff light to finish on a winters evening or start on a very early morn. think he was only using a 2kw gennie.

godinman · 24 Oct 2012 at 06:32

Energize said:
Why would lighting require a 500W.h battery? A light bulb lights the stable adequately and uses 11W of power. Even my mobile phone lights it well.

That blue electronics shop that sells Maps - a small solar panel, charger, leisure battery and an LED floodlight. Oh and a 240v inverter for none 12v stuff.

Energize · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:28

bitslice said:
My 800 lumen torch lights up my kitchen, I'd still rather have a 500w halogen for mucking out a stable at night.

It is just what is the best value, a 3kW gen costs about the same as a new 800W gen, so might as well get a big one and run lots of lights.

An invertor will require cabling to your car to recharge it, so it's pretty much a fixed item and it will need it's own 100ahr battery, unless you fancy walking home after it flattens the car's battery.

I've done building work at night and working under a couple of halogens is much nicer than a 100w lightbulb.

At the moment some of the other stables use a 45Ah car battery with an inverter to power fluorescent and led lights and just take it to the main building to charge the battery when it runs out after a week or so, I consider that lighting more than adequate and would not really want to spend loads of money on fuel to run halogen lights.

The equipment must be left on site, horses need to be walked to and from the stable, so I can't drive a car there when I need to switch the lights on.

bitslice · 24 Oct 2012 at 11:42

That's a whole bunch of constraints, expectations and existing solutions that were not mentioned in the original post, in light of this I'm wondering what the thread was supposed to achieve? :confused:

Ignore everything I said as it invalidates it all, copy what other people have done as it obviously works for them and you. If you know what you want why ask anyone else?

FWIW the stables near me have halogen lighting, hence the suggestion :/

Energize · 24 Oct 2012 at 12:10

bitslice said:
That's a whole bunch of constraints, expectations and existing solutions that were not mentioned in the original post, in light of this I'm wondering what the thread was supposed to achieve?

Ignore everything I said as it invalidates it all, copy what other people have done as it obviously works for them and you. If you know what you want why ask anyone else?

FWIW the stables near me have halogen lighting, hence the suggestion :/

Just because I don't want energy guzzling halogen lights which cost around 100x more to run, doesn't mean I'm ignoring advice. I don't know which lights to buy from where, or which power source is best.

godinman said:
That blue electronics shop that sells Maps - a small solar panel, charger, leisure battery and an LED floodlight. Oh and a 240v inverter for none 12v stuff.

Ive noticed that a few of the led floodlights run off 12v, maybe connecting them to a battery and using a ups just for portable devices would be the best solution? The good thing about a ups is that it can be taken inside the stable for using the trimmer or anywhere on the farm really.

MadMan-JaMeS · 24 Oct 2012 at 13:00

Buy a leisure battery, hook up an inverter and tubes lights to it, and whatever you believe is adequate for outside then wire in some sockets.

Buy a generator so if u need to use the sockets, you can run it and also a battery charger and the battery will charge when u run the generator, so no need to lug that battery backward and forward to charge it !

Energize · 24 Oct 2012 at 20:52

If I had a generator though what would be the point in buying a battery? How do I know what the maximum power the battery can supply is? I presume that a 3KWh lead acid battery can't actually output 250A without melting into nothingness.

Carrying a battery itself is not a particular issue, the horse can carry it anyway.